Internal Armitage.

“He was basically beside himself that he was the guy that f—ed up. My sense from Rich is that it was just chitchat.” A new book by Newsweek‘s Mike Isikoff and The Nation‘s David Corn outs former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, a moderate by Dubya administration standards, as the man who leaked Valerie Plame’s name to Bobs Novak and Woodward. (Woodward’s former boss, Ben Bradlee, telegraphed as much in March.) “Armitage, a well-known gossip who loves to dish and receive juicy tidbits about Washington characters, apparently hadn’t thought through the possible implications of telling Novak about Plame’s identity. ‘I’m afraid I may be the guy that caused this whole thing,’ he later told Carl Ford Jr., State’s intelligence chief.“

Bradlee Leaks the Leaker?

“That Armitage is the likely source is a fair assumption.” Former Post editor Ben Bradlee, who claims to know the identity of Bob Woodward’s source on the Plame leak, seemed to suggest to Vanity Fair that it was Richard Armitage. When asked about his comments yesterday, Bradlee backtracked: “‘I don’t think I said it,’ Bradlee said. ‘I know who his source is, and I don’t want to get into it. . . . I have not told a soul who it is.’“