Oh yeah - Bush “threw him away” only after a long period in which it had become clear that Tenet had screwed up beyond even Rove’s ability to spin out of it. Even then Bush gave him the (thereby-debased) Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts.
How did Rove know?
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/gannon.htm
In July of 2003, syndicated columnist, Robert Novak wrote a piece entitled “Mission to Niger” in which he discussed retired diplomat Joseph C. Wilson’s investigation into possible Iraqi purchases of uranium from Niger. In the article, Novak disclosed that he was told by two administration officials that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, suggested sending him to Niger to investigate claims outlined in an Italian report regarding the attempted uranium purchases by Iraq.
Novak also identified Plame as a “[CIA] operative on weapons of mass destruction,” although in a follow-up column, Novak said that according to unofficial sources, Plame was an analyst and not involved in covert operations. Novak also stressed that her name and occupation were already well known.
“Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge,” said Novak in his follow-up column. “Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson’s ‘Who’s Who in America’ entry.”
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/010989.php#010989
Andrea Mitchell was asked, on MSNBC, whether it was generally known to news people, before the hullabaloo, that Ms. Plame worked for the CIA. She answered, somewhat reluctantly, that it was.
I know these are from conservative sources, but they are accurate. It seems that her identity and work as a CIA agent was common knowledge around the beltway, even to reporters. It is not surprising that Rove knew this information.
He still had no right to reveal this information, though. I cannot comment further, however, as this is an ongoing investigation. 
How do you know that they are accurate?
More to the point, it doesn’t pass the sniff test. If it was commonly known, it wouldn’t have been necessary for Rove and a confederate to call at least six different reporters to shop the story around. What was that conversation?
Rove: “Hey you know Valerie Plame works undercover for the CIA?”
One of at least Six Reporters: “Yeah, everyone knows that.”
Rove: “Oh, okay. I was just saying.”
Also, Novaks statement: July 22, 2003 Newsday quotes Novak, on Plame’s name: “I didn’t dig it out. It was given to me. They thought it was significant. They gave me the name, and I used it.” (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame) isn’t really very consistent with a general knowledge argument.
But remember that Rove’s defense has been that he didn’t know her name and didn’t name her in the conversation. I suspect it went something more like this:
Rove: “Joe Wilson is an idiot. There’s so much yellow-cake uranium in Niger that it looks like The Little Old Bake Shop. Doesn’t he know there’s a war on? His wife must be giving him bad information.”
One of at least Six Reporters: “His wife? What’s she got to do with it…does she work for the CIA?”
Rove: Silence…
One of at least Six Reporters: “Mr. Rove, if Joe Wilson’s wife works for the CIA, I don’t want you to say anything, and that’ll confirm it…OK?”
Rove: Silence…
Rove: “So, anyway, do you think baseball will come back to Washington? I like a good baseball game.”
Is it? Maybe I missed that, but I don’t remember reading that anywhere.
If you GoogleNews “Rove” and “didn’t know her name,” you’ll find many items. One, from a Rueters article dated July 11th: “Rove has carefully chosen his words when questioned about the leak. “I didn’t know her name. I didn’t leak her name,” he told CNN last year.”
But Rove and Novak’s point was not to say that Plame was “giving him bad information.” It was to say that Wilson’s trip and report regarding Niger was directed by his wife, Plame, and was therefore not credible. (Frankly, I still don’t understand that argument.)
I suppose the argument was meant to imply that “it wasn’t a real investigation, just a vacation-boondogle arranged by his wife.”
One of the more outrageous efforts of the Republican spin machine has been to suggest that since he referred to Joseph Wilson’s wife, and not to Valerie Plame, he did not reveal the name of an undercover agent. I didn’t check Papermache Prince’s links, but you may see something along those lines there.
Obviously, this is entirely ridiculous, as saying “Joseph Wilson’s wife is a CIA agent” verus “Valerie Plame is a CIA agent” both reveal the identity of an undercover CIA agent equally criminally.
Sure, everyone goes to Niger for a good vacation!
The point is threefold:
- It sets up the idea that Wilson and Plame were in what amounted to a conspiracy to undermine the war on terror and the Bush administration.
- It attempts to emasculate Wilson; one’s wife getting one a job is still something that a lot of Republicans would consider embarrassing.
- It’s an argument, so it doesn’t really have to have a point. Just like the way aggression matters more than cards when you’re short-stacked in a poker tournament, the ferocity with which a line is pushed is more important than the logic or truthfulness of that line when reality isn’t on your side. This whole affair proves that there is no argument so ridiculous or so transparently false that the GOP leadership and punditry won’t throw their weight behind it.
It’s part of an overall strategy that Rove is famous for–counterarguments so ridiculous that you can’t defend against them without looking silly yourself. Examples include the whisper campaign against an Alabama Supreme Court judge known for his work with abused children suggesting that he was a pedophile, and of course his re-casting of John Kerry’s war record.
The links do show quotes from Rove saying he didn’t know her name.
Well, there is the tiniest sliver of an excuse in that she doesn’t go by Valerie Wilson. But that opens an even bigger problem on the whole “covert agent” thingy. If you know someone works at the CIA, and you don’t know her name, seems like you’d be even more cautious about treating her as a potential covert agent.
Not to mention the fact, curiously ignored in this whole individual-centered fracas, that by outing Plame, the entire front organization created by the CIA and used by Plame and others for cover — which had, perhaps ironically, a WMD investigation function — was instantly wrecked.
Just to dillute Psycho Pirate’s Kool-aid a little:
So? Rove said she was “fair game”. What else matters?
Ever the incurable optimist, I’m still Hoping Rove hangs and takes a few others down with him.
I think you are, uh, mistaken. Besides what others have noted, if this was so, why haven’t we heard this used by the Rove camp as a defense? I think it’s illegal to “out” someone even if they are your spouse; how come no one’s calling Wilson a “traitor?”
I mean, for outing his wife?)
A cite would be very interesting to see. Put up or well…you know…
I hope you mean that in a purely literal, nonmetaphorical sense. 
According to the news today, Rove told the grand jury that he found out she was a CIA agent from journalists whose names he can’t recall. He later confirmed it to Novak in a phone conversation Novak initiated, becoming the second of two senior administration sources credited in the column (saying “Oh, you know about it.”). The source of today’s news, who apparently believes Rove’s version of events, is anonymous.
If that’s how it went down, it’s not Rove who revealed her identity. That’d be the unnamed first source who told Novak about it. I don’t know if Rove would still be guilty of something in those circumstances.
Come to think of it, confirming her identity might still count as breaking the relevant law.
She does go by Valerie Wilson. Over the last few days the New York Times has referred to her as “Ms. Wilson” and explained that Plame is her maiden name and not the one she prefers to be called.