Posted on 08/18/2009 8:56:51 AM PDT by Pyro7480
...Bob was Illinois and early in life was most at home in sports bars and, throughout his years in Washington, at unfashionable University of Maryland basketball games....
By day, however, Novak worked political sources like no other reporter. That is why so many people would be astonished when his political sources would become known. It was stunning when Novak revealed that the Democratic senator who dismissed the McGovern for President campaign as being about little more than “amnesty, abortion and acid” was none other than Thomas Eagleton, who McGovern would later (albeit briefly) choose as his vice presidential nominee. Who would have imagined that Novak’s source for the Valerie Plame CIA column was Richard Armitage, Colin Powell’s No.2 and certainly no friend of the Bush White House.
The fact is that Novak, as he would disclose in his autobiography, actually admired very few politicians. He wrote that he found the first politicians he covered less impressive than the athletic coaches he had covered as a young reporter -- “an impression of the political class that did not change appreciably in a half-century of sustained contact.”
But then, many big-time politicians didn’t like Novak. Pat Buchanan relates a priceless story of being with Richard Nixon in the mid-’60s in a high-school gym in Indiana. Nixon peeked through the stage curtain, finding Novak in the first row of the press section. “Look at him,” Nixon commanded. “That’s Bob Novak. That’s the enemy.”
One of the few exceptions would be New York Congressman Jack Kemp, a close relationship that would grow from Novak’s magnificent obsession about supply-side economics that one day would have profound influence on the American economy. They genuinely liked each other....
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
Prayers for his family. Sad news.
RIP, Mr. Novak.
Oh, man. Sad news, indeed. This is the first I heard of this.
RIP.
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak, one of the nation’s most influential journalists, who relished his “Prince of Darkness” public persona, died at home here early Tuesday morning after a battle with brain cancer.
“He was someone who loved being a journalist, love journalism and loved his country and loved his family, Novak’s wife, Geraldine, told the Sun-Times on Tuesday....
Robert David Sanders Novak, 78, was born and raised in Joliet and his first newspaper jobs were with the Joliet Herald-News and, while a student at the University of Illinois, the Champaign-Urbana Courier. Novak maintained a lifelong tie to the University of Illinois with the school creating the Robert D. Novak chair of Western Civilization and Culture in 200X.
Mrs. Novak said that her husband passed away at 4:30 a.m., returning home after being hospitalized between July 10 and July 24. Novak’s malignant brain tumor was discovered July 27, 2008.
So sad.
Yet Ted, the swimmer, Kennedy still hangs on.
God works in mysterious ways.
An old school jouranlist. The type so sadly missing these days. And now, even more sadly.
R.I.P. Mr. Novak ... prayers are with you.
I have missed him over the past few years. He is one of the original conservatives from the Buckley/Goldwater days.
RIP.
He had a colorful history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Novak
I think about Major garrett..and how he is the only one that truly pursued FisheyGate and SpamGate.
Where are the journalists? They should all be ashamed.
Sad indeed. Prayers for family and friends.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Rest in Peace Bob.
I am going to miss that guy.
Prayers for his family. Rest In Peace.
RIP, Mr. Novak.
Prayers for the family.
What you said.
We will miss you, Mr. Novak.
RIP Mr. Novak. You leave behind a sadly diminished body of journalism.
Great photo. Thanks
A loss for the good guys. May Perpetual Light shine on you, Mr. Novak.
Appropriate prayer for him, as he converted to Catholicism a few years ago:
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR(voice-over): It was one day some years ago that this man, known to many as the Prince of Darkness, walked into one of the oldest churches in Washington and saw the light.
Robert David Novak, veteran journalist, fiery conservative, born a Jew, converted Catholic. On many days here is where you’ll find him, in the pews of St. Patrick’s Church, today reflecting on the pope.
NOVAK: I’m a poor mortal and I know certainly probably not nearly as good a Christian as most of the people who are sitting in the church and certainly not better.
WOODRUFF: At home, Bob and I sift through old photographs.
(on camera): I see a smiling Bob Novak in this picture.
NOVAK: Yes. I was a little different then.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): As the hard-bitten, often acerbic columnist traces his spiritual growth. He was raised by loving Jewish parents in a modest home in Joliet, Illinois.
NOVAK: The family was not very observant. My father had never been Bar Mitzvahed and his father was not a very good Jew but I was Bar Mitzvahed.
WOODRUFF: Novak calls the event his last association with Judaism. He says he never really connected with the faith.
So, the years passed and the little boy grew up, left for college, moved to Washington, became a fixture on the political scene, got married, had children and grandchildren, a full life, yet something was lacking.
NOVAK: I was kind of feeling a spiritual need all those years. My wife Geraldine and I went to an Episcopalian Church for a while. Oh, it just seemed very political to me that a guy so liberal was talking about opposing the war in Vietnam and I didn’t want to hear that when I went to church. I wanted something spiritual.
WOODRUFF: Then in the early ‘90s, the Novak’s discovered St. Patrick’s Catholic parish. They started attending services every Sunday.
NOVAK: I liked them very much because they were about God and redemption and we’re all sinners but there is forgiveness and there was almost never anything political.
WOODRUFF: But conversion was something he never contemplated until the late ‘90s. He was in Syracuse giving a speech and he met a young woman and they got to talking about religion.
NOVAK: And she said “Are you going to convert?” And, I said “No, we have no such plans.” And, she said “Well, Mr. Novak” she said, “Life is temporary but faith is eternal.”
WOODRUFF: So one brief conversation with someone was enough to turn the key?
NOVAK: Well, it was the Holy Spirit talking to me. It was telling me that it was time to go. I had that feeling.
WOODRUFF: So, in May of 1998, Robert David Novak was baptized a Catholic here in St. Patrick’s.
NOVAK: My patron saint, St. Thomas More.
WOODRUFF: Bob Novak tries to be a good Catholic, attends mass regularly, abides by church traditions, all the while maintaining his characteristic bombast.
NOVAK: The Democrats are entitled to be just as vile as they want.
WOODRUFF: But he says he honestly believes that his faith has made him a better man.
NOVAK: People laugh at that because they know some of my faults but I don’t think they realize how bad a person I was before I became a Christian and a Catholic.
WOODRUFF: And so it was that the Prince of Darkness embraced the Prince of Peace.
Good man. RIP.
He was an old fashioned REPORTER as well as a commentator.
Rest in God’s peace, Mr. Novak.
Huge loss. We have such a dearth of good journalists today. FWIW, he converted to Catholicism in 2003.
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/4730.html
Nice photo. Forgot that he resembled Alan Funt.
His interview with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN was excellent.
some of the best “inside baseball” political journalism ever. He’ll be missed
CPAC won’t be the same without the Donaldson/Novak debate.
Lovely post -- thanks!
RIP, Bob. If getting into heaven were based on works, your ticket would be all those times when you were the lone conservative in your three piece suit fighting valiantly against the likes of Margaret Carlson, Al Hunt, Bill Press and Michael Kinsley.
One of the giants. RIP.
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