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So Richard Armitage has admitted he was the first source of the leak of Valerie Plame's identity.

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage acknowledged Thursday that he was a columnist's primary source in the disclosure that retired U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. The revelation touched off a wide-ranging special counsel's investigation and led to the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

Armitage said in an interview that the disclosure was inadvertent and that he had cooperated fully with Justice Department special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in the months since[...]

The administration's defenders have claimed that Armitage's acknowledgement of his role, which has been speculated about for months, takes much of the sting out of those allegations.

But interviews and documents also portray the White House - in the persons of Bush aide Karl Rove, Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and others - as furiously trying to get information about Wilson and Plame, then discussing it with reporters.

Fitzgerald, whose probe hasn't concluded, indicted Libby last October on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements. Libby is contesting the charges, and Armitage said he would testify at the trial if called.

A few points to remember here...

Plame's identity was given to multiple reporters by multiple sources in a very short period of time. Matt Cooper, for example, learned of her from Karl Rove. Scooter Libby passed her information along to Judith Miller.

From the moment Armitage realized he was the source of the leak, he has voluntarily cooperated with Fitzgerald. Libby and Rove, on the other hand, did everything in their power to block his investigation.

And then, this:

Armitage learned that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA from a memo that the State Department's intelligence bureau had produced in response to queries on the matter from the White House, relayed via then-Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.

The memo, also read by White House officials aboard Air Force One while Bush was en route to Africa, identified her as Valerie Wilson, not Plame, her maiden name.

Novak's column cited her as Valerie Plame, not Wilson. Armitage only used the name Wilson. Thus, Novak's second source must have been the one to ID her as Plame.

In short, this revelation does nothing whatsoever to exonerate Libby. Remember, he is charged with obstruction of justice and perjury, the very same charges that were under a previous president deemed a threat to civilization as we know it.

Finally, remember that the current President promised to both conduct and cooperate a full investigation. He promises to the American public to find out the truth. And despite the fact that Armitage owned up to his mistake, Bush not only said and did nothing, he allowed Libby and Rove to continue to engage in precisely the same behavior that he had once condemned.

Armitage said he first contacted the Justice Department on Oct. 1, 2003, the day after the department launched a criminal investigation into the leaking of Plame's name. Knowingly disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA officer is a felon

One last thing... barring a presidential pardon, the case will continue to move forward. After all, when Libby was indicted, Armitage had been fully cooperating with Fitzgerald for quite some time. Fitzgerald already knew all of this, and he brought the indictments anyway.