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On Demand

Robert Novak, Prince of Darkness

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Robert Novak has been covering politics in Washington, DC for fifty years now. His career was in jeopardy when he revealed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003; more recently, he told the New York Times Magazine that he thinks Scooter Libby should be pardoned for his role in the leak. His new memoir is Prince of Darkness.

Prince of Darkness is available for purchase at amazon.com

Weigh in: Do you agree with Robert Novak that Scooter Libby should be pardoned?


Comments

  • [1] Rick from Astoria, Qns, NYC July 17, 2007 - 01:24PM

    It's difficult to imagine Robert Novak did not understand the damage his outing of Valerie Plame posed to her career, or that he was unaware of the physical dangers a covert CIA operative might face if his or her cover was blown.

    It's also hard to imagine Novak had any illusions about the political motives behind his and other reporters being told about Mrs. Plame, and yet he wrote the report that revealed Mrs. Plame's actual status as an agent to the world, initiating one of the most controversial affairs in modern political history.

    Some people claim the outing of Valerie Plame was an act of treason. Doesn't his participation in the outing of an agent operating in behalf of the United States betray the very conservative values Novak has represented and spoken for throughout his career as a political commentator.


  • [2] Dan from NJ July 17, 2007 - 01:47PM

    Let us leave this petty, vindictive, fraction of a man to slip into well deserved ignominy and insignificance without further ado.


  • [3] Peter Allen from New York July 17, 2007 - 01:51PM

    Of all the liars, snakes and dirtbags in Washington, I can't beleive that you would waste precious air time with Bob Novak. This man has already recieved more publicity than he deserves!


  • [4] Russell July 17, 2007 - 01:55PM

    Curious what characteristics Mr. Novak believes make a good journalist?


  • [5] emma mae from 34th street July 17, 2007 - 02:04PM

    pls tell Mr. Novak that the term "welsh" as he used it derives from the outdated characterization of the Welsh people as 'shifty' at best and criminal at worst. (Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief...?) I won't claim that my feelings are hurt, but i do think it's rude.


  • [6] Danny from New York July 17, 2007 - 03:24PM

    It made my skin crawl listening to Mr. Novak. What an awful person. Leonard you are better person than I to sit through a face to face conversation with him.

    Peace


  • [7] a from NYC July 17, 2007 - 04:07PM

    sigh

    why oh why oh why must this horrible excuse for a human being continually be paid attention to by the media? Let's leave him to the dungheap of history where he belongs.

    and why do we keep calling him a "journalist"? Aren't journalists supposed to be unbiased? Or at least present an unbiased view? (i.e. reporting...anyone remember what that is?)

    and why isn't this man in jail? If this scumbag were a left-winger and he outed a CIA agent he'd be sitting there right now after a torrent of partisan pundits calling for his head on a platter among the screams of "traitor"...yet this idiot walks away scott-free and gets to continue to be interviewed.


  • [8] Bob July 17, 2007 - 06:25PM

    I thought the interview was informative and interesting. Mr Novak is a witness to 50 years of American history. Just because he didn't confirm the lies being told by the left wing and democrat presidential candidates about the Plame fiasco, personal attacks are not warranted. Please save your rage for the people who are leaking gov. secrets and by such are endangering our security!


  • [9] Perry Davis from Princeton, NJ July 17, 2007 - 06:50PM

    In answer to Leonard Lopate's question, about Robert Novak's assertion that Scooter Libby should be pardoned, i think the commutation should be annuled (if that were possible) and Libby should not be pardoned.

    Robert Novak's slur of Al Gore because Al Gore ALLEGEDLY didn't come on one Novak's programs seven years ago was over the top and typical of Mr. Novak.


  • [10] bob d from San Jose, CA July 22, 2007 - 10:35AM

    No,

    I do not think Libby should have been freed. If Bush merely believed that 30 months is too long to serve for exposing a CIA agent, then he would have shortened it. If, on the other hand, he feared Libby would "sing" before he went in the slam, then letting him go free would eliminate that threat to the White House. And the $250K fine is a joke to the fat cats who bankroll this slime.


  • [11] tkach from ABQ July 30, 2007 - 01:58PM

    I do not believe that people can still be as uninformed as those who are posting on this column. Number one, I have never been a follower of Novak, but I do know that when he reported the facts on Plume, she was in no danger. CIA agent big deal. She had not been out of the country in years and never anticipated to be out of the country. What Americans need to do is look into the facts and not worry about what people are reporting. It almost makes some Americans understand why we are behind China, "we are stupid and believe everything we read." How sad that Americans have fallen into the trap of following every word writers print and never do their own research. TOO BAD, SO SAD


  • [12] Genevieve Vaughn from Waldwick, NJ August 19, 2009 - 01:52PM

    Thee-Thou and Ye-You

    Old familiar singular: thou (nom.), thy/thine, (poss.) and thee (obj.)

    Old formal and plural: ye (nom.), your/yours (poss.), and you (obj.)

    You can hear this difference in Shakespeare if you listen for it. Sometimes a high rank person will call the lower-rank person thee, while the lower-rank person calls the superior-rank person you.

    The familiar/singular/intimate persists in Yorkshire, as tha-thy-(not sure of objective) -- you see it in Bronte novels and others set in Yorkshire, in modern Yorkshire also, and in the immortal ditty On Ilka Moor, where a verse says, "Tha's going to catch thy death of cold..."

    Early affected thee (dropping thou) as a statement that they did not care for distinctions of rank, and used thee where you would have been socially appropriate.


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