' "Outing" Valerie Plame - where's the outrage? Imagine if the Clinton Administration had "outed" a covert CIA agent for political revenge. Interesting that no one has been charged with that simple matter.'

Do you even consider the possibility that she was mistakenly outed by the people that complained about her being outed. Novak has been calling everyone who spins things an "operative" for decades- he used it in a slang sense [though probably he now has stopped this habit].

operative:
adj 1: being in force or having or exerting force; "operative
regulations"; "the major tendencies operative in the
American political system" [ant: inoperative]
2: of or relating to a surgical operation; "operative surgery"
3: relating to or requiring or amenable to treatment by surgery
especially as opposed to medicine; "a surgical appendix";
"a surgical procedure"; "operative dentistry" [syn: surgical]
[ant: medical]
4: effective; producing a desired effect; "the operative word"
[syn: key]
5: (of e.g. a machine) performing or capable of performing; "in
running (or working) order"; "a functional set of brakes"
[syn: running, functional, working]
n 1: a person secretly employed in espionage for a government
[syn: secret agent, intelligence officer, intelligence
agent]
2: someone who can be employed as a detective to collect
information [syn: private detective, PI, private eye,
private investigator, shamus, sherlock]
http://dict.die.net/operative/

Therefore Novak was using definition 4- an person that effective at spin or someone who is effective in working for political group. It's a slang usage in same way the doctor may refer to a operative surgery [def 2]- Dr Jones: "I got an operative to do before I go to lunch"

Here another definition:
op·er·a·tive ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pr--tv, --rtv, pr-)
adj.
Being in effect; having force; operating: “Two major tendencies are operative in the American political system” (Heinz Eulau).
Functioning effectively; efficient.
Engaged in or concerned with physical or mechanical activity.
Of, relating to, or resulting from a surgical operation.
Significant; most important; key: The operative word is “low-fat.”

n.
A skilled worker, especially in industry.

A secret agent; a spy.
A private investigator.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=operative

Novak would using operative in sense of the noun: "A skilled worker, especially in industry".
With the "work" or "industry" being spokesperson or Journalist or whatever. If Novak had deliberately wanted to label Plame as a spy, he probably would have used the term "spook"- another word he commonly uses.