Joseph Wilson Hits Back at 'Chronic Liar' Novak for Latest Statement on Plame Case

By: E&P Staff Appearing at the Society of Professional Journalists convention in Washington, DC. this weekend, Robert Novak said that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson knew that Novak was going to out his CIA agent wife Valerie Plame in a column and "was not terribly exercised by it."

The account appeared in the newspaper The Hill, which included no response from Wilson. Today, Greg Sargent, who works for the popular site Talking Points Memo (while maintaining his own The Horse's Mouth blog), called Wilson who said Novak was a "chronic liar," adding that if the columnist isn't going to confession, "he's going straight to Hell."

Novak had claimed that Wilson, instead of worrying about his wife's status, was primarily focused on not being named in the column solely as an opponent of the Iraq war.

"He's lying," Wilson told Sargent.

Here is the rest of Sargent's account.
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In fact, Wilson claims, the two men were talking because he had called Novak explicitly to complain that the columnist had been naming his wife in private conversations throughout Washington. He hadn't even called to talk about what Novak was writing, he claims.

"When I talked to him it was not about what he was writing," Wilson tells me. "The purpose of my phone call to him was to tell him that it was not appropriate for him to be telling strangers in Washington that my wife works for the CIA."

Wilson also countered that Novak's claim that he hadn't forcefully objected to the naming of his wife was a severe distortion, based on the fact that Wilson couldn't say anything direct about it to Novak without confirming it.

"After I told him this, he asked if I would confirm whether my wife did work for the CIA," Wilson says. "I said, `I am not going to say anything about my wife. You need to talk to the CIA about it.'"

"How could I confirm or deny this without acknowledging something?" continued Wilson, who's frequently duked it out publicly with Novak over Plamegate. "I hope Novak is going to confession because otherwise he's going straight to Hell. Because he's a chronic liar."