As part of my new practice of reminding journalists that even my dog–McCaffrey the MilleniaLab–knows more than them about the Valerie Plame leak, here he is, ready to walk a journalist or two around the block.

For example, McCaffrey knows that Marc Grossman did not write the famous INR memo. Rather, someone in INR did. According to the memo’s cover sheet, Neil Silver drafted the memo and Beth Frisa
cleared it. But the NYT’s Neil Lewis has either forgotten the difference between the words "for" and "by," or he doesn’t know much about this case.

In the accounts by the lawyer and associates, Mr. Armitage disclosedcasually to Mr. Novak that Ms. Wilson worked for the C.I.A. at the endof an interview in his State Department office. Mr. Armitage knew that,the accounts continue, because he had seen a written memorandum byUnder Secretary of State Marc Grossman. [my emphasis]

Similarly, McCaffrey knows that the INR memo, dated June 10, was not written in response to a Libby inquiry, which was in turn a response to Pincus’ article, dated June 12. Rather, McCaffrey would point out, Libby’s inquiry came in response to Pincus’ reporting on the article (and two earlier articles), as the dates would suggest, rather than the article itself. Lewis, however, fails to make the distinction that would explain away his chronological magic.