robert-novakNovak was a brilliant “journalist”

Former “Crossfire” co-host and conservative columnist/commentator Robert Novak died yesterday of brain cancer.  He was 78.  (If you never watch cable news, it’s possible you’re unfamiliar with Novak’s oft-agitated and pessimistic style, so here’s a particularly charming clip from 2005.)  The Hollywood Reporter says:

He was diagnosed with a brain tumor in July 2008, less than a week after he struck a pedestrian in downtown Washington with his Corvette and drove away.

In recent years, Novak ended up actually being a part of a big Washington story, in ways he likely never intended, becoming a central figure in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case. Novak was the first to publish the name of CIA employee, and he came under withering criticism and abuse from many for that column…

Novak had been dubbed the “prince of darkness” by a journalist friend early in his career, and he embraced the moniker. He wrote in that 2007 memoir that he became proud of the label derived from his “unsmiling pessimism about the prospects for America and Western civilization.” [...]

Novak wrote in his book about often giving politicians the choice of being a source or a target, a strategy that often produced scoops for his column.

Charming fellow.  He will be missed.  By someone.  His wife.  Probably.

(Much warmer and fairer remembrances of Novak at The Plank and the Washington Post.)