August 24, 2009 12:12 AM UTC

A tribute to Bob Novak

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• by: sxp151

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

People on the blog seem to find it hard to believe, but I always admired Novak, along with conservatives like Pat Buchanan and John McLaughlin. There were a few things they all had in common: grating nasal voices, views that were conservative yet iconoclastic, and the ability to demolish their opponents without worrying about their reputation or popularity.

I grew up in a very conservative small town, where I was about the furthest thing humanity has yet devised from popular. My parents were Democrats and relatively poor, in a neighborhood that seemed completely dominated by rich Republicans. I wasn’t going to impress anyone with my athletic or musical ability, but watching people like Novak on TV (far more than getting As in school or doing well on SATs) convinced me you could win just by being smarter and letting them know it.

Of course, being smart wasn’t enough. When I was growing up in the late 80s, liberals were represented by utter wimps. Nobody knew about Noam Chomsky in rural Pennsylvania, so all we had was CNN with Michael Kinsley and (ugh) Bill Press. At least Kinsley had a schtick to him, but Press was Alan Colmes before we knew what Alan Colmes was. “Let me explain,” they’d say. “But isn’t it the case…? Don’t you just have to agree with me?” (This was before people like Carville and Begala figured out how to play the game, but of course they were never reporters.)

Back then, only the conservatives made politics seem cool. Novak would look down into his lap, say something so condescending you couldn’t believe he got away with it, and then when pressed lay it all out. I never thought anybody got the best of him watching the show. Of course, now you can see Hannity and Colmes (or Caplis and Silverman) pulling the same sort of schtick, but Novak didn’t need to find the weakest-sounding liberal as a counterpoint. He was just good.

Novak fucked up, sure. He was occasionally a tool, and his outing of Valerie Plame (in recent years, his most notorious fuckup, but far from his only one) should have embarrassed him. And probably it did, but he wasn’t one to crawl on his knees to placate someone else. “Yeah I did it, and I’d do it again.” But whether I agreed with him or not on anything, he was a guy who commanded respect. His flip-out on the CNN set was the exception, and it’s a shame if that sort of thing is how he was remembered.

I wouldn’t be involved in politics at all today without him. And though I eventually ended up on the left, the people I emulate are still people like Novak. Of course we on the left finally have people like him: look at Keith Olbermann (who like Novak started as a sports reporter) or Matt Taibbi (one of the least “civil” but most knowledgable reporters anywhere). And before there was Novak, there were people like Gore Vidal or I.F. Stone on the left. But in the late 80s, that was the only game in town.

Novak titled his autobiography “The Prince of Darkness.” He certainly wanted to be liked, but didn’t need to be. After revealing posthumously that Thomas Eagleton was the source of the “amnesty, abortion and legalization of pot” assessment of George McGovern, Novak said, “Tom was a good Catholic, and I’m a Catholic convert, and I hope before too long we meet in heaven and we can argue it out whether I did the right thing.” Wikipedia and other sources have added “or wherever we end up” to that quote, which I imagine Novak would have found funny. I’d like to think that I write like him, if he were on the left and taught math and was a big wuss who posted anonymously.

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