Robert Novak

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Robert David Sanders Novak (born February 26, 1931) is a conservative American political commentator and journalist. Over his career, Bob Novak has become well-known as a columnist (writing Inside Report since 1963) and as a television personality (appearing on many shows for CNN, most notably on three former programs, The Capital Gang, Crossfire, and Evans, Novak, Hunt, and Shields). His memoirs, entitled Prince of Darkness: Fifty Years Reporting in Washington, were published in July 2007 by Crown Forum, a division of Random House. "Prince of Darkness" was a nickname given to Novak by his friend, the reporter John Lindsay, "because [Lindsay] thought for a young man I took a very dim view of the prospects for our civilization," Novak said in an interview.^[1]

Contents 1 Early years 2 Personal life 3 Political and religious views 3.1 CIA leak scandal 3.2 Killian documents 3.3 Swift Boat Veterans 3.4 Israeli-Palestinian conflict 3.5 Amnesty, Abortion and Acid 3.6 Clinton-Obama column 4 2005 Inside Politics incident and departure from CNN 5 See also 6 References 7 External links 8 Notes

[edit] Early years

Novak was born into a Jewish family in Joliet, Illinois. His journalism career began when he wrote for the Joliet Herald-News, his hometown newspaper.

After high school, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1948-1952. However, after four years, he was one course short of graduating, and he left the university to become a full-time journalist. (Novak did not receive an actual college degree until some forty years later, when the University awarded him sufficient credits from his work in journalism to qualify for a degree, and he finally became an Illinois alumnus.) While attending U of I, he became a brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He continued gaining journalism experience at The Daily Illini (the DI is the University's student newspaper), where he was a leading sportswriter. However, his disappointment at not being named Sports Editor his senior year caused him the quit the DI and go to work for The Champaign-Urbana Courier, also as a sportswriter.

During the Korean War, Novak served in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of lieutenant. After the war, he joined the Associated Press and became a political correspondent in Indianapolis. In 1957, Novak was transferred to Washington, D.C. where he reported on Congress; he left the AP to join the D.C. bureau of The Wall Street Journal in 1958, covering the Senate, and in 1961 becoming their chief congressional correspondent.

In 1963, he teamed up with Rowland Evans to create the "Evans-Novak Political Report" until Evans died of cancer in 2001. Novak's column is syndicated by the Chicago Sun-Times. His columns often contain original reporting in addition to analysis and opinion.

Novak is one of many reporters mentioned in Timothy Crouse's seminal non-fiction book about reporters covering the 1972 U.S. presidential campaign, The Boys on the Bus.

[edit] Personal life

Novak's wife Geraldine was a secretary for President Lyndon Johnson. They have a son Alex, who works as an editor at Regnery Publishing^[1].

[edit] Political and religious views

Novak is a registered Democrat despite his right-leaning views. He held more centrist views in his early career; indeed, he supported the Democratic presidential candidacies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, of whom he was a friend.^[2]

Today, Novak tends toward low-tax small-government conservative views, but his disagreements with mainstream Republicans and neoconservatives — specifically his opposition to the Iraq War — have earned him the label of being a "paleoconservative."

In July 2007 Novak expressed support for Ron Paul's bid for the presidency.^[3]

Born Jewish, Novak converted to Catholicism in 1996, after meeting Peter Vaghi, whom he had known before Fr. Vaghi switched from politics to the priesthood.

[edit] CIA leak scandal

Main articles: CIA leak scandal and CIA leak scandal timeline

In 2003, he identified Valerie Plame as a CIA "operative" in his column. Novak reported the information was provided to him by two "senior administration officials." These were eventually revealed to be Richard Armitage, with Novak assuming Karl Rove's comments as confirmation.^[4] During 2005, there were questions in the press regarding the apparent absence of focus on Novak by the special prosecutor Fitzgerald and the grand jury, specifically questions suggesting he may have already testified about his sources despite insisting publicly that he would not do so. On July 12, 2006, Novak published a column at Human Events stating:

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has informed my attorneys that, after two and one-half years, his investigation of the CIA leak case concerning matters directly relating to me has been concluded. That frees me to reveal my role in the federal inquiry that, at the request of Fitzgerald, I have kept secret. I have cooperated in the investigation while trying to protect journalistic privileges under the First Amendment and shield sources who have not revealed themselves. I have been subpoenaed by and testified to a federal grand jury. Published reports that I took the Fifth Amendment, made a plea bargain with the prosecutors or was a prosecutorial target were all untrue.^[5]

When Richard Armitage admitted to being a source, Novak wrote an op-ed column describing Armitage's self-disclosure as "deceptive."^[6]

[edit] Killian documents

Main articles: Killian documents, George W. Bush military service controversy

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Critics complain that Novak has been inconsistent as he insists it would violate journalistic ethics to reveal the source of the Plame leak, but later called on CBS to reveal the source of the memos that were part of the larger news story dealing with the president's alleged evasion of National Guard service. Other journalists have insisted that the CBS sources lost their right to confidentiality when the memos were proven to be forgeries.

[edit] Swift Boat Veterans

In August 2004, after other journalists had reported on it, Novak admitted that his son, Alex Novak, is the Director of Marketing for the Swift Boat Veterans' publisher, Regnery Publishing. At the time he said that he didn't "think it relevant." Two months later Salon.com reported that Regnery's owner is also the publisher of Novak's own US$297 (annual rate) newsletter and that Novak is on the board of a foundation whose chief holdings are the stock of Regnery's parent company.^[7]

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The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. This section has been tagged since November 2007.

[edit] Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Novak has been accused of anti-Israel bias by some far right pro Israel organizations.^[8]. In his syndicated column, Novak has blamed Israel for the plight and mass exodus of Palestinian Christians. He has also met with Hamas Education Minister Naser al-Shaer. Based on this meeting, Novak claimed that Hamas supports a two-state solution. Novak praised former president Jimmy Carter in asserting that there is "apartheid" in Israel.^[9] Conversely he added in justification of massive 'retaliatory' strikes that actions of the Palestinian Authority "tend to support Israel's claim that the PLO has become permeated by thugs and adventurers".^[10]

[edit] Amnesty, Abortion and Acid

On April 25, 1972, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary and Novak phoned Democratic politicians around the country, who agreed with his assessment that blue-collar workers voting for McGovern did not understand what he really stood for.^[11] On April 27, 1972 Novak reported in a column that an unnamed Democratic senator had talked to him about McGovern.^[12] "The people don’t know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion and legalization of pot," the Senator said.^[12] "Once middle America - Catholic middle America, in particular - finds this out, he’s dead."^[12] The label stuck and McGovern became known as the candidate of "amnesty, abortion and acid."^[11][13]

Novak was accused of manufacturing the quote.^[12] To rebut the criticism, Novak took the senator to lunch after the campaign and asked whether he could identify him as the source.^[12] The senator said he would not allow his identity to be revealed.^[12] "Oh, he had to run for re-election", said Novak.^[11] The McGovernites would kill him if they knew he had said that." Novak added.^[11]

On July 15, 2007, Novak disclosed on Meet the Press that the unnamed senator was Thomas Eagleton.^[11] Political analyst Bob Shrum says that Eagleton would never have been selected as McGovern's running mate if it had been known at the time that Eagleton was the source of the quote.^[11] "Boy, do I wish he would have let you publish his name. Then he never would have been picked as vice president," said Shrum.^[11] "Because the two things, the two things that happened to George McGovern—two of the things that happened to him—were the label you put on him, number one, and number two, the Eagleton disaster. We had a messy convention, but he could have, I think in the end, carried eight or 10 states, remained politically viable. And Eagleton was one of the great train wrecks of all time."^[11]

Eagleton died March 4, 2007, "relieving me of the need to conceal his identity," Novak wrote.^[12] Some of Eagleton’s former aides are livid angry Eagleton never authorized his name to be attached to a quote that makes Eagleton look duplicitous.^[12] Asked about the story, Novak acknowledged that disclosing Eagleton’s identity was "a judgment on my part."^[12] If there’s any disagreement, Eagleton could settle it with him in heaven "or wherever we end up," Novak added.^[12]

[edit] Clinton-Obama column

In November 2007, Novak claimed "Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it." Obama responded by stating, "She of all people, having complained so often about 'the politics of personal destruction,' should move quickly to either stand by or renounce these tactics." Clinton's campaign replied, "A Republican-leaning journalist runs a blind item designed to set Democrats against one another. Experienced Democrats see this for what it is. Others get distracted and thrown off their games. We have no idea what Mr. Novak's item is about and reject it totally."^[14]

[edit] 2005 Inside Politics incident and departure from CNN

On August 4, 2005, Novak walked off the set during a live broadcast of the CNN show Inside Politics, on which he appeared along with Democratic strategist and analyst James Carville (whom Novak had debated with for years on Crossfire), and moderator Ed Henry.

During a discussion of Republican Representative Katherine Harris's just-announced 2006 campaign for the U.S. Senate and her claim that newspapers tried to tarnish her image by manipulating photos of her, Novak claimed he had experienced the same thing leading to a skeptical response from Carville.

Novak responded by saying, "Don't be too sure she's going to lose... all the establishment's against her and I've seen these Republican – anti-establishment candidates who do pretty well." Novak mentioned Ronald Reagan and Tom Coburn before seeing Carville preparing to talk. Novak cut into his comments and said "Just let me finish what I'm going to say, James. Please, I know you hate to hear me, but you have..." Carville cut in and said that Novak "got to show these right-wingers that he's got backbone, you know. It's why The Wall Street Journal editorial page is watching you. Show 'em you're tough."

Novak responded "Well, I think that's bullshit. And I hate that." Novak then removed his microphone and walked off the set. After the segment ended, host Ed Henry apologized to viewers for Novak's leaving the set "a little early". "I had told him in advance that we were going to ask him about the CIA leak case. He was not here for me to be able to ask him about that. Hopefully, we'll be able to ask him about that in the future."

They were never able to ask Novak about the CIA leak case. This was the last time he would be seen on CNN. In response to the incident, CNN indefinitely suspended Novak calling the outburst "inexcusable and unacceptable," and apologized to its viewers. August 4th proved to be the last time Novak would appear on CNN, which was seen as monumental because Novak was the last surviving person to have appeared on the network's first weekend back in 1980.

Novak later denied that the CIA leak case was the reason for his walkout. However, Novak had avoided comment on the Plame affair in previous interviews by claiming that his lawyers had advised him not to speak. Reporters interviewing Novak were warned that any attempt to raise his role in the Plame affair would cause the interview to be immediately terminated. ^[15] On August 1st however, Novak wrote a column on the affair in his Chicago Sun-Times column (“Ex-CIA official’s remark is wrong”). The fact that Novak had addressed the affair in print meant that CNN could not allow his previous "legal advice" excuse to stand without comment.

On December 16, 2005, FOX News spokesman Brian Lewis confirmed that Novak had signed a contract to do unspecified work for the network. Novak stated that he still would have left CNN even if he had not been kicked off in the August incident and, despite arguments stating otherwise, did not go to FOX NEWS due to the fact that the network was more friendly to his point of view. "In 25 years I was never censored by CNN and I said some fairly outrageous things and some very conservative things. I don't want to give the impression that they were muzzling me and I had to go to a place that wouldn't muzzle me," Novak said.

On December 23, 2005 Novak retired from CNN after 25 years, stating that his relationship with the network lasted "longer than most marriages." Novak also said he had "no complaints" about CNN.

Novak is third in the most amount of appearances on NBC's Meet the Press behind (in order) David Broder of the Washington Post and the late May Craig of the Portland Times Herald. He was invited on the Meet the Press 50th anniversary show although he had not been on the show in some years due to being on CNN. He currently writes a column for the Chicago Sun-Times.^[16]

[edit] See also

• Joseph C. Wilson

[edit] References

• Joe Conason, New York Observer, August 6, 2001, "Was Hanssen a Spy for the Right Wing, Too?"

[edit] External links

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• Novak's column in the Chicago Sun Times
• The Evans-Novak Political Report at Human Events
• "Mission to Niger," the article, first published in the Chicago Sun Times that publicly identified covert agent Valerie Plame of the Central Intelligence Agency.
• CNN Crossfire Transcripts

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• David Margolick, "What About Novak", Vanity Fair, April 2005.
• Jacoby, Mary. "The Operative", Salon.com, Oct. 1, 2004
• Sullivan, Amy. "Bob in Paradise: How Novak created his own ethics-free zone" Washington Monthly, December 2004
• Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: Robert Novak
• Video of Novak commenting on the book America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order
• Russell Baker's review of Novak's The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years of Reporting in Washington The New York Review of Books

[edit] Notes

• ^  Bauder, David, "CNN suspends Novak after he walks off set." Associated Press. August 5, 2005.
• Steinberg, Jacques. "Novak walks off live CNN program." New York Times. August 5, 2005.
• "Robert Novak apologizes for outburst." CNN. August 6, 2005.
• A full transcript of the broadcast can be viewed here
• A video of the incident can be seen here.
• The Democratic National Committee issued a press release, viewable here.