Wherefore art thou, Novak?

Very interesting article about what is missing from the Libby indictment -- any real mention at all about Robert Novak, who was the original breaker of the Plame story, and thus the original genesis of the investigation as to who broke the law by telling him Plame was an agent. There's a lot of blah, blah, blah about the crime itself: maybe a technical crime wasn't committed because the law itself is so narrow that most involved will be technically "innocent". But my main interest is on Novak's original source. Rove is pretty much understood to be Novak's second "confirming" source...who was the first "senior administration official"? Cheney? Rice? Tenet, maybe?

I could tangent off on a rant about how this case once again shows the weakness of any strong central government -- the institutional need for coverups and related lawbreaking by people who are attracted to absolute power.... I could further tangent off that into the continuing failure of neo-conservatism as a movement, something that started as soon as neo-cons disavowed the (theoretical) conservative bedrock of smaller government....

However, I think I'll save those rants for another day. The question of Novak's original source intrigues the mystery fan in me.