WASHINGTON (AP) - The serious news of the day - from Saddam Hussein’s spider hole to Medicare to gay marriage - served as fodder for song, dance and silly dress-up Saturday night in the Gridiron dinner, a 119-year tradition of Washington journalism.

In the most unusual turn of this year’s satirical script, syndicated columnist Robert Novak - who sparked a federal investigation by printing the name of an undercover CIA officer - was taking the stage as that CIA officer’s disgruntled husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Dressed as Wilson in top hat and cutaway coat, Novak sings of himself: “Novak had a secret source … so he outed a girl spy the way princes of darkness do. … Now John Ashcroft asks Bob who and how, could be headed to the old hoosegow.”

A federal grand jury is probing whether someone in the Bush administration leaked the CIA officer’s identity, possibly a felony. Novak hasn’t commented on the investigation - until the Gridiron, in song.

What a fucker … I wonder if he sang these lyrics (to Under the Bridge):

Sometimes I piss off really powerful people
Sometimes I just have to tell the truth
But I never suspected that the motherfuckers
Would go after my wife, reveal her name so she’d die