Posted on 08/18/2009 9:06:24 AM PDT by freespirited
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.
Novak’s remarkable and long-running career made him a powerful presence in newspaper columns, newsletters, books and on television.
On May 15, 1963, Novak teamed up with the late Rowland Evans Jr. to create the “Inside Report” political column, which became the must-read syndicated column. Evans tapped Novak, then a 31-year old correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, to help with the workload of a six-day-a-week column.
Evans and Novak were the od d couple: Evans a Philadelphia blue blood and Yale graduate; Novak from Joliet, Ill. who attended the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana campus.
Novak handled the column solo after Evans retired in 1993. The Chicago Sun-Times has been Novak’s home paper since 1966.
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.
RIP, Bob Novak.
Oh! What sad news!
RIP MR. Novak
Will he get 85 hours of TV time like Walter did? Probably not.
buuuummmmmp !!
I met Bob at the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference in Des Moines back in 1987 when I was working for the Haig campaign. Very much the curmudgeon, but a reporter from the old school. He’d forgotten more than most modern journalists will ever know. He will be missed.
If anything, Novak should be remembered for his service in the Army during the Korean War (don’t know if he was deployed overseas during his time between 1952-1954, but still honorable all the same).
A man who wasn't afraid to speak his mind.
Of Joe Wilson, he stated: "What an a$$hole! That wasn't a conclusion I reached after three years, that was a conclusion I reached after three minutes."
RIP
I liked him, he made me laugh.
RIP Prince of Darkness. He must have been a good man because the left hated him.
May the soul of this faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace! Amen
He saw that Iraq wasn't going to be the cakewalk that the administration said it was going to be early on, so he opposed it. That doesn't make him a Buchananite or a paleocon.
Like I said at the time:
Novak, in contrast to Frum and many of the others in this controversy, is an adult with decades of experience of actual political life. Whatever one thinks of his positions, they ought to be taken seriously, not tossed into a pot with a variety of dreamers and dogmatists.
Jewish, but a converted Catholic...not really that long ago. I figured it must have been love, or McLaughlin’s Jesuit stint made him so. Something happened between the two of them though, and when he left John’s program, you never heard Novak mentioned again.
I think it was McLaughlin who named him “The Prince of Darkness.”
That episode will sadly always be raised when
his name is mentioned, even though he had a
uniquely fine reputation for decades before.
Folks conveniently leave out the fact that drama
and fiction king, US Atty Patrick Fitzgerald, urged
Novak’s silence on the subject. So did Novak’s
attorney, so a whole panoply of speculation grew
around him and his connection in that vacuum, when
the authentic filthy, cowardly scum of the incident,
Colin Powell and Richard Armitage, escaped unscathed.
We won’t forget you two bass tards.
God rest your soul, Mr. Novak. You were true to
your convictions and fearless in the face of power.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q: Let’s talk about the Valerie Plame affair, which caused you so much grief. If you had it to do over again, would you reveal who she was?
A: If you read my book, you find a certain ambivalence there. Journalistically, I thought it was an important story because it explained why the CIA would send Joe Wilson — a former Clinton White House aide with no track record in intelligence and no experience in Niger — on a fact-finding mission to Africa.
From a personal point of view, I said in the book I probably should have ignored what I’d been told about
Mrs. Wilson.
Now I’m much less ambivalent. I’d go full speed ahead because of the hateful and beastly way in which my left-wing critics in the press and Congress tried to make a political affair out of it and tried to ruin me.
My response now is this: The hell with you. They didn’t ruin me. I have my faith, my family, and a good life. A lot of people love me — or like me. So they failed. I would do the same thing over again because I don’t think I hurt Valerie Plame whatsoever.
Q: You saw up close what it’s like to be the subject of so many news stories. Has this changed the way you view the journalistic profession?
A: I thought the journalistic community was terrible to me — even members of the Gridiron Club, which is supposed to be a band of brothers and sisters. I thought one of the worst columns written on the Plame affair was by William Safire. He wrote a stupid column saying I should reveal the name of my source. He wanted to get his colleague at The New York Times, Judy Miller, off the hook with the prosecutors.
He didn’t know, as I knew, that my source, Richard Armitage, had long before identified himself to the FBI and the Justice Department. But my attorneys advised me to keep silent about the whole affair.
http://townhall.com/columnists/RobertNovak/2008/11/20/pray_for_me?page=full&comments=true
Rest of the article is very enlightening and informative.
The number 2010 in Roman Numerals is MMX.
(M = 1000, X =10 so 1000 + 1000 + 10 = 2010.)
Job well done!
agreed
Washington could sorely use a tough, hard nosed reporter like Mr. Novak right now. He will be missed.
His presence will also be missed on television as well, where he fought the good fight for conservatism. I really enjoyed his take no prisoners style on shows such as Crossfire and The Capital Gang.
RIP Prayers up
Thank you Mr. Novak for a lifetime of service dubunking the insanity of the left and for providing some sanity and respectability for the flagrantly partisan liberal media.
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