Creator's Sydicates Pay Tribute -- Robert Novak -- RIP

Columnist Robert Novak passed away today, ending an era of political journalism that spanned five decades. Novak rose from a $42.50 a week staff reporter at the Joliet, Illinois Herald News in 1948 to become one of the most influential political reporters of his time, a constant presence in print and television journalism. He was 78 years old.

Novak was the confidant of presidents and politicians of all stripes. (One of his favorite stories was of the wedding reception thrown for him and his new bride Geraldine by her old boss: then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson.)

Most recently, Novak was at the center of the political firestorm resulting from his disclosure, in a July 2003 column, of the CIA employment of Valerie Plame, the wife of former Amb. Joe Wilson, who was deeply embroiled in an apparently contrived controversy surrounding the pre-2003 Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Bob, as he always had before, kept his source’s confidence regardless of the pressure put upon him.

A long life of informing dopes like me. RIP Novak.

Creators Syndicate's columnists pay tribute to Robert Novak:

PAT BUCHANAN: Bob Novak was the finest reporter-columnist of his generation. Often, I have said that, were I an editor of a newspaper and could carry but one column, it would be Novak's. He was a reporter's reporter whose column invariably carried information no one else had gotten. He was passionate about his craft, about his convictions and, following his conversion to Catholicism, about his Church. While I have known Bob for more than 40 years, ever since our days together on "The McLaughlin Group" and CNN's "Crossfire" -- both of which began in 1982 -- and later, "Capitol Gang," we have been good friends. And a more reliable friend in time of need one could not find. About Novak there was nothing artificial or synthetic. His death leaves a hole in our lives and our hearts. My wife Shelley and I will miss our dinners at Bethany and Fenwick Island with Bob and Geraldine. May he rest in peace.

MARK SHIELDS: As a political reporter, Bob Novak had few equals and no superiors. He was tireless, he was fearless, and he had sources that nobody else did. Bob Novak loved his country, he loved his family, and he loved what he did. He was first and foremost a reporter. He hated to lose and was fiercely competitive, whether it was politics, sports or an argument. But what probably is most misunderstood about Bob Novak was that beneath that gruff, sometimes menacing exterior, there was a generous and open heart. If you were Bob Novak's friend, you were always Bob Novak's friend — even long after you had lost your power or your position or your status in Washington. He never decided his guest lists based on who was on the weekend's network talk shows. He embodied and personified loyalty.

WALTER WILLIAMS: I can't think of a more honorable and decent person than Bob Novak.

BILL O'REILLY: Robert Novak was called The Prince of Darkness because he told the truth, and honesty can sometimes be bleak. His legacy will be of a hard-hitting, honest reporter who served his country well.

MICHELLE MALKIN: Robert Novak has had a huge influence on my career. During a college conservative journalists’ confab, he urged us to seek metro newspaper jobs, pay our dues, and try to stay out of Washington for as long as possible. I took the advice to heart and left D.C. after a year as an intern at NBC to take my first newspaper job at the L.A. Daily News and then the Seattle Times. “Pundits” and “strategists” come and go, but Novak’s longevity is a tribute to — and result of — his newspaperman sensibilities and investigative chops.

R. EMMETT TYRRELL JR.: It took five cancers throughout his adult life to kill Bob Novak. He was one of the toughest men I have ever known. He was also one of the most intelligent, energetic, cheerful and kindest. Ignore that sobriquet, "Prince of Darkness." He was an eminently decent man, and as a member of the Board of Directors of The American Spectator during the days when the Clinton administration hauled us before a grand jury, he stood with us foursquare. Though a daily journalist, he was a man of great depths, widely read and deeply thoughtful beneath his gruff veneer. Late in life, he became a person of faith, converting to Catholicism because, as he said in his wonderfully informative memoir, he was jolted by the thought that "life is short but eternity is forever."

L. BRENT BOZELL: Bob Novak possessed all the qualities of an exemplary journalist. During his storied career, Bob produced some of the finest work of anyone in the business of gathering and reporting news. He was hardworking, accurate and independent.

Above all, Bob was tough and fair. Politicians and bureaucrats feared him for what his well placed sources revealed. Rival reporters envied him for the many exclusives he delivered over the years. We will always admire his lifelong devotion to journalism, which produced a standard that few reporters could hope to replicate.

Bob lent years of support to the Media Research Center and was also a personal friend. All of us at the MRC will miss Bob for his accuracy, integrity and his work ethic.

SUSAN ESTRICH: I discovered Bob Novak when I was in college. My political science teacher assigned us Rowland Evans and Robert Novak's classic tomes: "Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power" (1966) and "Nixon in the White House: The Frustration of Power" (1971).

It was like giving the Bible on baseball to a kid who'd watched the game all her life without ever really knowing what all those signals mean. This is how power works. This is how Washington operates. This is how you get someone to do something he doesn't want to do. This is what happens when people get in the room with the president.

Susan Estrich's complete column will be available Wednesday, August 19.

MICHAEL BARONE: Robert Novak, who died today, wrote thousands of news stories and columns in his 50-plus years as a Washington journalist. In each one, he said, he broke news. That is a staggering achievement. But journalism can be ephemeral and books, even in the digital age, live on. And here Novak also made a singular contribution.

His best known book to today’s readers is his 2007 autobiography The Prince of Darkness, which I had the honor to review in the Weekly Standard. It’s a superb and unflinchingly self-revealing piece of work. ...

Bob Novak, as he reveals in The Prince of Darkness, was a very smart man, a conservative by conviction and a pessimist by temperament. Like so many of his generation, coming of age in the conformist America of the 1950s, he wanted to be thought of as a regular guy—a sports fan, a heavy drinker and smoker (until he quit both), a caustic realist. But he was also an idealist with a fine appreciation for the few people he encountered who he thought were really smart.

Read Michael Barone's full commentary.

COL. OLIVER NORTH: Journalism lost a giant this week when my friend Robert Novak was called home to be with our Lord. I first met "the Prince of Darkness" while I was serving on Ronald Reagan's National Security Council staff.

Rather than accepting and repeating the second-hand misinformation about the Nicaraguan resistance that appeared in most of the mainstream media, Novak wanted to meet and talk to the freedom fighters in Nicaragua. He mentioned this to someone at the White House, and I was told "go down Pennsylvania Avenue and have a private, off-the-record meeting with Bob Novak." I did as ordered, put him in touch with the resistance political and military leaders, and the rest is history. Within days, Bob Novak was in Central America, risking his life, accompanying those who were fighting for their liberty against the Soviet-supported, communist Sandinista government.

Read the complete commentary from Oliver North.

AUSTIN BAY: Mr. Novak was inspiring. Blessed with superior communications skills, both in print and on video, Robert Novak's commentaries were always considered opinion laced with analysis and solid reporting. He will be missed.

JACKIE GINGRICH CUSHMAN: Robert D. Novak was fearless in his writings and television appearances. His approach of providing investigative reporting in addition to opining on political topics resulted in captivating and often controversial columns. The “Prince of Darkness” cast a long shadow while following his “journalistic philosophy — to tell the world things people do not want me to reveal, to advocate limited government, economic freedom, and a strong, prudent America — and to have fun doing it.”

LINDA CHAVEZ: Robert Novak may have reveled in his designation as the "Prince of Darkness," yet he was anything but. He was unfailingly generous on a personal level, even kind. I got to know Bob in the early '80s, first as a subject of his reporting. In my early years in public life in the Reagan administration and as a Senate candidate, Bob wrote several columns in which I figured. I always found them to be meticulously researched, fair and well-crafted. Unlike so many in the opinion world today, Bob grounded his columns in reporting. He searched out the facts before he ventured an opinion. He was one-of-a-kind and will be sorely missed, but his legacy will continue to inspire all of us in the commentary business.

PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY: Bob Novak was an honest reporter who consistently exposed the truth about politics, policy, and political personnel. He will be sorely missed.

TONY BLANKLEY: Bob’s sheer journalistic integrity was a thing to behold. When I served as Speaker Newt Gingrich’s press secretary, we never got a single break from Bob — nor a single inaccurate word of reporting or analysis. How much Washington reporting today could use Bob Novak’s impeccable integrity and diligent reporting. What a loss to the public debate.

ROGER SIMON: When I first went on the presidential campaign trail as a young reporter from Chicago, Bob Novak was one of the only people who would talk to me. In those days, if you weren't from Washington, you didn't cover national politics -- and it could be very lonely on the bus. But Novak sat down next to me one day and said he knew what I was going through and that I shouldn't worry, that I would be fine. He told me how on his first campaign he was away from home for several months and worried about how he was going to pay his electric and water and phone bill from the road. I told him that was my precise worry, but I had been too embarrassed to ask anybody else on the bus what to do. "It's nothing to worry about!" Novak said. "When I got home, my electricity and phone and water had all been turned off!" Then he laughed uproariously. Beneath what some considered a daunting exterior, he actually could be a very warm and funny guy.

DEBRA SAUNDERS: Robert Novak set the standard for combining relentless reportage with informed opinion. He was a journalist first and foremost. He had the pulse of Washington, and that made him a must-read writer.

LAWRENCE KUDLOW: Now we say goodbye to Robert Novak, who passed away early Tuesday morning at the age of 78. Yet another conservative icon has left us. He was a good friend and an amazing reporter. In fact, I believe he was the best reporter of his generation, which spans all the way back to the Dwight D. Eisenhower years.

Bob had a lot of opinions -- conservative opinions; Reaganesque opinions. But his pursuit of journalistic detail, facts, scoops and stories that no one else got was remarkable. He was "old school" in this respect, which is why he was so esteemed by political allies and critics alike.

PARDON ME?

Two pardons I am hoping for:

1. William “Scooter” Libby;
2. and, Ramos and Compean!

I think those two pardons will be coming down the pipeline any day now (hopefully/prayerfully). If you are not aware of the Ramos-Compean situation, here is my two second synopsis: there may have been some cover-up going on there... they did not follow the “book” like they should have. For this, I think they have done enough time. Having a convicted drug runner and illegal alien come testify against you in a court of law as a respectable witness was punishment enough in my mind’s eye.

Scooter was written about (and argued about) quite a bit by my dapper but liberal friend and myself. If you need to get caught up on that whole debacle read my archives on Libby. I doubt the list will be as in-depth and full of criminals like that of Clintons, but I am hoping for a stark difference between the two that will be noticeable.

Armitage and Leaks

Plame Finally Quits the Game

Is the media FINALLY catching on? I have written on this as well as imported articles monstrously on this issue… and once again I am vindicated by the “horses mouth.” Watch Kimba’s of the world and weep!

Make sure you follow the tag below.

Plame Case Dismissed!!!

Yup...


I beat Drudge!

Judge a conservative… the press is going to go ape-*$%!

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/07/19/breaking-plame-out/

Joe Wilson Lied According to a Bipartisan Committee

Did Cheney Lie? Did Libby Lie? No, Wilson Did!

Some seem to forget, conveniently, that the only person that lied in the Wilson case was, well, Wilson. Libby “lied” about when he found out Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA. She wasn’t “covert,” nor did he leak the name to the press. Libby simply forgot when he first found out about her CIA job and testimony showed that he talked about that fact before he said he talked about that fact. That’s the facts.

Yet after two years of investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald charged no one with a crime for leaking Ms. Plame's name. In fact, he learned early on that Mr. Novak's primary source was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage, an unlikely tool of the White House. The trial has provided convincing evidence that there was no conspiracy to punish Mr. Wilson by leaking Ms. Plame's identity -- and no evidence that she was, in fact, covert….

Washington Post, Wednesday, March 7, 2007; Page A16

I could defend Libby further here, but I have already done that (just click the Libby “tag” below). This is not the purview of this post. This post is to clearly show that Joe Wilson lied. I do need to -- however -- settle one other area here before we go any further, that is the “Yellowcake” ruse the Left often use.

You may want to watch an NPR liberal, a NYT's lefty, one neo-con, and one Reaganite go at it on this very topic:

FactCheck.org says this: Both the Butler report and the Senate Intelligence Committee report make clear that Bush's 16 words weren't based on the fake documents. The British didn't even see them until after issuing the reports -- based on other sources -- that Bush quoted in his 16 words.

Bush’s “sixteen word” statement in his State of the Union speech has been shown to be correct. People keep speaking about forged documents, however no one in the Bush administration or in print uses these forged documents as their source to say Iraq was looking to purchase yellowcake uranium. Sheeeesh! The British have consistently stood by that conclusion. In September 2003, an independent British parliamentary committee looked into the matter and determined that the claim made by British intelligence was "reasonable" (the media forgot to cover that one too). Indeed, Britain's spies stand by their claim to this day. Interestingly, French intelligence also reported an Iraqi attempt to procure uranium from Niger.

Yes, there were fake documents relating to Niger-Iraq sales. But no, those forgeries were not the evidence that convinced British intelligence that Saddam may have been shopping for "yellowcake" uranium. But that's not all. The Butler report, yet another British government inquiry, also concluded that British intelligence was correct to say that Saddam sought uranium from Niger. The Financial Times has reported that illicit sales of uranium from Niger were indeed being negotiated with Iraq, as well as with four other states.

According to the FT: "European intelligence officers have now revealed that three years before the fake documents became public, human and electronic intelligence sources from a number of countries picked up repeated discussion of an illicit trade in uranium from Niger. One of the customers discussed by the traders was Iraq."

There's still more: As Susan Schmidt reported in the Washington Post: "Contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence." She goes on to report that the bi-partisan Senate Intelligence “panel found that the CIA has not fully investigated possible efforts by Iraq to buy uranium in Niger to this day, citing reports from a foreign service and the U.S. Navy about uranium from Niger destined for Iraq and stored in a warehouse in Benin.”

Score ONE for radioactive material, ZERO for the Liberal bloggers out there who cannot see past there MoveOn.org/Keith Olbermann/Nancy Pelosi brown stained noses.

Now watch two NPR Liberals (side note, you will never see a conservative NPR rep... great use of tax-payer money!), a Neo-Con, and a Reaganite discuss who the leak was:

Okay, on we trudge.

After a whirl of TV and radio appearances during which he received high-fives and hearty hugs from producers and hosts (I was in some green rooms with him so this is eyewitness reporting), and a wet-kiss profile in Vanity Fair, he gave birth to a quickie book sporting his dapper self on the cover, and verbosely entitled The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir.

The book jacket talks of his "fearless insight" (whatever that's supposed to mean) and "disarming candor" (which does not extend to telling readers for whom he has been working since retiring early from the Foreign Service).

The biographical blurb describes him as a "political centrist" who received a prize for "Truth-Telling," though a careful reader might notice that the award came in part from a group associated with The Nation magazine — which only Michael Moore would consider a centrist publication.

Unfortunately for Wilson, the bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report concluded that it is he who was telling lies.

Wilson claimed quite clearly in the press and in his book that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, was not the one who came up with the brilliant idea that the agency send him to Niger to investigate whether Saddam Hussein had been attempting to acquire uranium.

"Valerie had nothing to do with the matter," Wilson says in his book. "She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip." In fact, the Senate panel found, she was the one who got him that assignment. The panel even found a memo by her.

Here is the full Washington Post article

Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mission
Report Disputes Wilson's Claims on Trip, Wife's Role

By Susan Schmidt

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 10, 2004; Page A09

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.

Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

Yesterday's report said that whether Iraq sought to buy lightly enriched "yellowcake" uranium from Niger is one of the few bits of prewar intelligence that remains an open question. Much of the rest of the intelligence suggesting a buildup of weapons of mass destruction was unfounded, the report said.

The report turns a harsh spotlight on what Wilson has said about his role in gathering prewar intelligence, most pointedly by asserting that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, recommended him.

Plame's role could be significant in an ongoing investigation into whether a crime was committed when her name and employment were disclosed to reporters last summer.

Administration officials told columnist Robert D. Novak then that Wilson, a partisan critic of Bush's foreign policy, was sent to Niger at the suggestion of Plame, who worked in the nonproliferation unit at CIA. The disclosure of Plame's identity, which was classified, led to an investigation into who leaked her name.

The report may bolster the rationale that administration officials provided the information not to intentionally expose an undercover CIA employee, but to call into question Wilson's bona fides as an investigator into trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. To charge anyone with a crime, prosecutors need evidence that exposure of a covert officer was intentional.

The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband "has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." The next day, the operations official cabled an overseas officer seeking concurrence with the idea of sending Wilson, the report said.

Wilson has asserted that his wife was not involved in the decision to send him to Niger.

"Valerie had nothing to do with the matter," Wilson wrote in a memoir published this year. "She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip."

Wilson stood by his assertion in an interview yesterday, saying Plame was not the person who made the decision to send him. Of her memo, he said: "I don't see it as a recommendation to send me."

The report said Plame told committee staffers that she relayed the CIA's request to her husband, saying, "there's this crazy report" about a purported deal for Niger to sell uranium to Iraq. The committee found Wilson had made an earlier trip to Niger in 1999 for the CIA, also at his wife's suggestion.

The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."

"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.

Wilson's reports to the CIA added to the evidence that Iraq may have tried to buy uranium in Niger, although officials at the State Department remained highly skeptical, the report said.

Wilson said that a former prime minister of Niger, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, was unaware of any sales contract with Iraq, but said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him, insisting that he meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq -- which Mayaki interpreted to mean they wanted to discuss yellowcake sales. A report CIA officials drafted after debriefing Wilson said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to UN sanctions on Iraq."

According to the former Niger mining minister, Wilson told his CIA contacts, Iraq tried to buy 400 tons of uranium in 1998.

Still, it was the CIA that bore the brunt of the criticism of the Niger intelligence. The panel found that the CIA has not fully investigated possible efforts by Iraq to buy uranium in Niger to this day, citing reports from a foreign service and the U.S. Navy about uranium from Niger destined for Iraq and stored in a warehouse in Benin.

The agency did not examine forged documents that have been widely cited as a reason to dismiss the purported effort by Iraq until months after it obtained them. The panel said it still has "not published an assessment to clarify or correct its position on whether or not Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Africa."

So does Wilson lose his “truth telling” awards? No. Again, in case anyone missed it: Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

FactCheck.org had this to say about Wilson’s report: The Intelligence Committee report said that "for most analysts" Wilson's trip to Niger "lent more credibility to the original Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports on the uranium deal."

What you have – in fact – is a Looney Left who affords murderers and terrorists the benefit of the doubt over a President they cannot stand. They choose Saddam over Bush, they support Afghanistan over America (yes, Democrats are starting to say get us out of Afghanistan as well). It was the same during the Reagan years as well. Reagan and the U.S. were the bad guys for putting ICBM’s along the borders of Western/Eastern Europe. The horrible things that were said about Reagan and the United States by Democrats and the left leaning media are well documented. The same would be true but for the increased platitudes.