Washington's journalistic Prince of Darkness has died. My friend Tim Carney, who worked with Novak for years, has posted a remembrance:
That Novak would hire a leg-man to go around Washington sniffing out news reflected the virtue at the heart of his work: His columns, while they resided on the op-ed pages, were built upon previously unreported facts that revealed and explained the machinations of government, the men and women in power, and the politics behind it all. His job demanded he get a constant flow of new information, but curiosity and a thirst for knowledge were natural traits for him.
Bob Novak was, above all, a reporter. Watching him work was a delightful education in reporting.
Michael Moynihan wrote about the Scooter Libby trial here. James Antle wrote about conservatives against empire here.
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Rich|8.18.09 @ 12:17PM|#
RIP.
Now can we hear the rest of the Valerie Plame story? ;-)
|8.18.09 @ 12:32PM|#
Fuck him.
JB|8.18.09 @ 12:41PM|#
I love that Liberals squawked when he reported that Wilson got the job because his wifey Plame got it for him.
It was definitely relevant news that the CIA operates by sending spouses on such important work. It was further proof of the CIA's incompetence (not detecting 9/11, not detecting Pakistan's nukes, etc.).
|8.18.09 @ 12:54PM|#
Yeah JB. The same liberals who spent the entire decades of the 70s and 80s screaming about the evil CIA spent the 00s bemoaning the unpatriotic outing of a Virginia soccer mom.
|8.18.09 @ 12:56PM|#
He was by far my favorite on Crossfire, which we used to watch in my high school politics and history classes. RIP.
|8.18.09 @ 12:56PM|#
There was only one good thing to come out of the Plame affair; The Joe Wilson Implosion will make a great name for a band someday.
|8.18.09 @ 12:56PM|#
And pedestrians everywhere sigh in relief.
KT|8.18.09 @ 1:12PM|#
Blech. I am sorry he has passed but we really could do with a lot fewer people like him in Washington.
|8.18.09 @ 1:16PM|#
Are we going to be subjected to a Tim Russert-esque media circle jerk again?
|8.18.09 @ 1:19PM|#
Epi, nope. Russert was a "good man." Novak? not so much.
*|8.18.09 @ 1:22PM|#
Russert was a "
goodman." Novak?notso much.|8.18.09 @ 1:23PM|#
By that I mean that whatever his reputation was before the Plame/Wilson deal, it was trashed afterwards. He was painted as a Bush Cheney operative willing to do anything for the administration.
|8.18.09 @ 1:24PM|#
Why? You think that facts like those about Joe Wilson should stay known to everyone who attends the DC cocktail party scene but not be reported to hoi polloi?
We really could do with a lot more people like Bob Novak in DC.
|8.18.09 @ 1:25PM|#
"Are we going to be subjected to a Tim Russert-esque media circle jerk again?"
Why, yes, now that you mention it, we are.
|8.18.09 @ 1:26PM|#
Which is stupid, since he opposed the war, and noisily so.
He did the same thing he always did, report facts and refuse to give up his sources. Bob Novak was the first to report many facts, but he made very, very few mistakes. (In the sense of publishing something false.)
|8.18.09 @ 1:27PM|#
"We really could do with a lot more people like Bob Novak in DC."
Dead people? That's just fucked up.
|8.18.09 @ 1:32PM|#
Novak is not my favorite person. But to claim that he was some kind of Bush Cheney shill is pretty stupid.
|8.18.09 @ 1:43PM|#
That wasn't what I was thinking, but now that you mention it...
KT|8.18.09 @ 1:49PM|#
Why? You think that facts like those about Joe Wilson should stay known to everyone who attends the DC cocktail party scene but not be reported to hoi polloi?
I'm not really sure what you're getting at here.
But no, I think that he was one of many in the city who help to form "Washington consensus" (or however you'd like to call it) on various issues that is pretty much always wrong about everything.
|8.18.09 @ 2:05PM|#
"That wasn't what I was thinking, but now that you mention it..."
Oh, I was thinking of it that way too. ;-)
highnumber|8.18.09 @ 2:32PM|#
I think the Novak haters are misguided. He was not so much a partisan as a sports reporter crossed with a gossip columnist who covered politics. Not the same style but not that different a role as what Dave Weigel had while he was here. It might not be what you're into, but to each his own.
RIP and condolences to his family.
|8.18.09 @ 2:40PM|#
I'm with highnumber. He was like an ESPN guy covering a team in the Northeast.
Condolences to his family.
|8.18.09 @ 2:42PM|#
All I was suggesting was that while he may have been a stellar journalist prior to and since the Plame outing, that particular moment in his life is the shadow the left will use to besmirch his reputation and his legacy.
highnumber|8.18.09 @ 2:46PM|#
ProGLib,
Erin Andrews crossed with Perez Hilton?
|8.18.09 @ 2:48PM|#
Erin Andrews crossed with the drunk Joe Namath?
highnumber|8.18.09 @ 3:01PM|#
He DID cross with her, didn't he?
|8.18.09 @ 3:05PM|#
Novak actually died sometime in late 2005. They've been doing the "Weekend at Bernie's" with him for the past few years till they could locate the falcon.
|8.18.09 @ 3:08PM|#
That was Suzy Kolber.
|8.18.09 @ 3:14PM|#
One of my strongest memories of Novak was watching him on some CNN roundtable show during the day after the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky was pulled down saying "This is the happiest day of my life." If nothing else, he was sincere in his hatred of totalitarianism.
Jim Treacher|8.18.09 @ 3:18PM|#
As for the CIA personnel who've been outed since Plame: You do not serve our purposes. Too bad.
Anomalous|8.18.09 @ 3:19PM|#
I remember when Barry Goldwater died Novak trashed him, saying he wasn't a real conservative.
highnumber|8.18.09 @ 3:47PM|#
Is that really trashing him?
|8.18.09 @ 3:54PM|#
Since he obviously wasn't a liberal, sounds like high praise to me.
|8.18.09 @ 4:04PM|#
Wow, Debbie Schlussel is really shitting on his grave. Apparently she is trying to beat out Malkin and Coulter for the "Nuttiest Right-wing Cunt" Award.
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/7138/noted-anti-semitedead-conservatives-pat-buchanan-lament-friend-of-hamas-robert-novak/