Lawrence O'Donnell stated last night that the high-level Whitehouse leak that outed WMD specialist and undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame was directly from Repub political guru Karl Rove.

"What we're going to go to now in the next stage, when Matt Cooper's e-mails, within Time Magazine, are handed over to the grand jury, the ultimate revelation, probably within the week of who his source is.

"And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of...for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury."

This morning O'Donnell posted this at Arianna Huffington's blog:

I revealed in yesterday's taping of the McLaughlin Group that Time magazine's emails will reveal that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source. I have known this for months but didn't want to say it at a time that would risk me getting dragged into the grand jury.

McLaughlin is seen in some markets on Friday night, so some websites have picked it up, including Drudge, but I don't expect it to have much impact because McLaughlin is not considered a news show and it will be pre-empted in the big markets on Sunday because of tennis.

Since I revealed the big scoop, I have had it reconfirmed by yet another highly authoritative source. Too many people know this. It should break wide open this week. I know Newsweek is working on an 'It's Rove!' story and will probably break it tomorrow.

This makes sense. On a 2003 broadcast of "Hardball" with Chris Matthews, Matthews claimed that Rove had told him Plame was "fair game" since she was outed by Robert Novak's article days earlier. This opened up a response of character attacks that distracted the public eye from the important issues that were reveled in Wilson's article that questioned major portions in the case for war with Saddam Husein. But if this is true question is now, 'who told Rove?' He is not in a position to be informed of actions within the CIA. I think it's Lewis Libby.

Again, if this is true, this will be the best 4th of July ever!

"[W]e need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country. Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors."