I thought Chimpy was whispering sweet nothings in Karl’s ear, but maybe he was asking about Bulldog.

Salon‘s Joe Conason is reporting (sub/ad view req’d) that the swirling Plamegate drama has not only swept up Karl Rove, but our friend Bulldog, the White House prostitute-cum-cub reporter “Jeff Gannon”.

Another intriguing possibility in the leaks case brings back the baroque personality of right-wing pressroom denizen Jeff Gannon, born James Guckert.

The New York Times reported Friday that in addition to possible charges directly involving the revelation of Valerie Wilson’s identity and related perjury or conspiracy charges, Fitzgerald is exploring other possible crimes. Specifically, according to the Times, the special counsel is seeking to determine whether anyone transmitted classified material or information to persons who were not cleared to receive it — which could be a felony under the 1917 Espionage Act.

One such classified item might be the still-classified State Department document, written by an official of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, concerning the CIA’s decision to send former ambassador Joseph Wilson to look into allegations that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger. Someone leaked that INR document — which inaccurately indicated that Wilson’s assignment was the result of lobbying within CIA by his wife, Valerie — to right-wing media outlets, notably including Gannon’s former employers at Talon News. On Oct. 28, 2003, Gannon posted an interview with Joseph Wilson on the Talon Web site, in which he posed the following question: “An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?”

Gannon later hinted, rather coyly, that he had learned about the INR memo from an article in the Wall Street Journal. He also told reporters last February that FBI agents working for Fitzgerald had questioned him about where he got the memo. At the very least, that can be interpreted as confirming today’s Times report about the direction of the case.

I remember speculating about Gannon and his extraordinary level of access, when the whole mess was blowing up in the blogosphere:

Will we ever know the extent of JG’s sexual activities and relationships with the White House and in the DC power elite? Who knows. What I do know is that Guckert’s high profile of late is a wise move if he doesn’t want to be, let’s say, taken out of the picture. Better to take the fall and be discredited and humiliated, I suppose, than to rat out folks that won’t wish you well.

Hat tip, AmericaBlog.

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See the National Journal story: Rove Assured Bush He Was Not Leaker