How Novak created his own ethics-free zone. Washington Monthly

[coda]

The Washington Monthly December

Bob in Paradise
How Novak created his own ethics-free zone.

By Amy Sullivan
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Robert Novak was in high dudgeon. He and his colleagues on CNN's “The Capital Gang” were squabbling over whether CBS should have run a story on President George W. Bush's National Guard service, a story which relied on documents whose authenticity had come into question. Novak—the show's resident curmudgeon, outfitted with a three-piece suit and permanently arched eyebrow—delivered his verdict. “I'd like CBS, at this point, to say where they got those documents from,” he growled. “I think they should say where they got these documents because I thought it was a very poor job of reporting by CBS.”
Resident liberal Al Hunt jumped in to clarify. “Robert Novak,” he asked, “you're saying CBS should reveal its source?” When Novak replied that he was, Hunt pressed him further. “You think reporters ought to reveal sources?” In a flash, Novak realized he had made a mistake; he began to backtrack. “No, no, wait a minute,” he said. “I'm just saying in that case.” So in some cases, Hunt continued, reporters should reveal their sources—but not in all cases? “That's right,” said Novak.



What Novak's fellow panelists on “The Capital Gang” knew that day, but most of the show's viewers probably didn't, was that much of Washington has spent the better part of a year waiting for Novak to reveal a source of his own. During the summer of 2003, someone in the Bush White House decided to extract a pound of flesh from former Amb. Joseph Wilson, a critic of the administration's rationale for the Iraq war, by revealing to members of the press that Wilson's wife was an undercover CIA agent. And though the leak was peddled to several journalists, only one was willing to actually print it: Robert Novak.


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In September, Novak wrote about remarks made at an off-the-record dinner party by the CIA's top specialist on the Middle East, Paul Pillar. The CIA officer was one of the authors of a recent National Intelligence Estimate and he claimed at the dinner that the CIA had warned the White House in January 2003 that war with Iraq could unleash a violent insurgency in the country. Novak wasn't at the dinner, which was conducted under established background rules—the substance of Pillar's remarks could be reported, but not his identity or his audience. But someone there told Novak about it. So Novak, apparently feeling bound by no rules, outed Pillar by identifying him as the speaker. It's a trick he uses often—others attend off-the-record meetings or briefings, tell him about it, and he reports not just what was said, but fingers those who spoke as well.



Less than a week before the 2004 election, Novak resuscitated one of his favorite charges—that Democrats steal elections. He hit the note regularly after Mary Landrieu narrowly defeated Woody Jenkins to win Louisiana's open Senate seat in 1996, even though a congressional investigation dismissed similar charges. And he has repeatedly claimed that “the Indians” stole South Dakota's 2002 Senate election “by stuffing ballot boxes.” Novak made the comment again on “The Capital Gang” in October, months after South Dakota's Republican governor had called his charges “ignorant” and the state Republican party chair deemed his statements “appalling” and “insane.” It's a case, his friend and colleague Mark Shields observed to me, of Novak “toeing the party line even when it ceases to be the party line.”



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http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0412.sullivan.html

[Mari333]

1. what a douchebag..................n/t

[Demeter]

2. Will Novak Ever Come Clean?

As one Polack to another, I ask Robert Novak to inform the public and the law officials who broke the state secrecy and destroyed a vital national security system.