Steve Gilbert has put together the time line that makes it look most likely that Joe Wilson did so, and when and why.

In a nutshell, up until no WMD were discovered in Iraq, Wilson didn’t say anything about the “sixteen words.” But once he saw the political opportunity, and had joined the Kerry campaign, he decided to try to pretend that he’d told the administration otherwise beforehand. And he used his wife’s connection to the CIA to enhance his credibility with his fellow Democrats. Particularly damning is the fact that Armitage spilled the beans to Woodward before Wilson’s op-ed piece (and thus before the White House would have had any reason to “punish” him). He most likely got the information from Democrats or other reporters, or from Wilson himself.

[Update in the evening]

Looking at the responses from commenters who often disagree with me, but are sane (and occasionally, but not usually, correct when they do) and the usual nutballs, I think that Steve Gilbert’s post might prove to be this year’s “Rathergate,” once it starts to bounce around the blogosphere. This seems to me like irrefutable evidence that the entire leftist myth about Plamegate (that the media has always eaten up like ice cream in a Houston August) is, and always was, completely bogus.