No more ‘left-wing nutbags’
Bob Novak
In the book, Novak looks back on 50 years of reporting in Washington, including his role in the Valerie Plame affair, which put him in the public spotlight (Novak revealed in a 2003 column that Plame was a CIA operative).
Novak acknowledged to Yeas & Nays that the negative publicity he received thanks to the case was
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frustrating, and he bristles at the idea that it could taint the twilight of his career.
“Yeah, it is annoying,” Novak said. “But you take it how it comes. … You can’t be sensitive in this business.”
Novak’s seen a lot of the fallout in the form of harassment.
“I get a lot of crank comments on the street,” he said. “People call me a traitor. … People make bad remarks to me in restaurants.” Although he says he’s tempted to bark back at “some of these left-wing nutbags,” he does his best to hold back. “I try not to read e-mails and things sent me that I don’t want to see.”
And don’t expect Novak to strike up a friendship with either Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (“I have absolutely nothing to say to him”) or comedian Jon Stewart, who has skewered Novak for years (“I couldn’t pick him out of a police lineup because I don’t watch him. … I have no interest in him”).
Novak did, however, have kind words for the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes, whom he called one of his favorite up-and-coming writers (Hayes just finished “Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President”). And he singled out Bob Shrum (“a very skilled adversary”) and Mark Shields (“the toughest guy I’ve been up against in a lot of things because he uses sarcasm and humor”) as his most notable debate adversaries over the years.
Last, Novak remarked on how Washington’s social scene has changed over the years: “It’s a lot more like New York than it used to be; it used to be a lot more like a dilapidated old Southern town. … It wasn’t a very slick place. It’s got fancier restaurants, kind of a slicker environment. … Of course, the big difference is that it’s just swashing around with a lot more money than it used to be.”
That social scene was on full display at his own VIP-studded party. Guests included Vice President Dick Cheney (one observer remarked on seeing “the Prince of Darkness standing next to Darth Vader”), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, John Bolton, Armstrong Williams, even Novak’s old adversary on CNN, Bill Press.
