Political Columnist Robert Novak Dead

Political columnist Robert Novak, perhaps best known for his conservative role on cable news giant CNN political news program "Crossfire", died Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at his home in Washington, DC. He is survived by his wife Geraldine Novak, son Alex, and daughter Zelda.

Besides "Crossfire", Robert Novak appeared as a panelist on other political shows such as "The McLaughlin Group", "The Capital Gang", "Inside Politics", "Meet The Press", and "Evans, Novak, Hunt, And Shields" with longtime friends Rowland Evans, Al Hunt, and Mark Shields. He was considered to be a pioneer of political talk on national television.

Even though Novak presented a conservative view on these shows, he was actually registered as a Democrat voter who supported presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Bob's family proved to be politically diverse as well. His wife was a secretary for President Johnson while his daughter worked for Republican Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign and for Dan Quayle while he was vice president for the elder George H. Bush.

I'm sure many remember political columnist Robert Novak when he was in the news for writing a piece in the Chicago Sun-Times in 2003 that disclosed Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA operative. Wilson's husband Joseph had days earlier intimated that the Bush administration had overestimated Iraq's nuclear weapon capabilities in order to justify the war.This revelation led to an investigation by a federal prosecutor that resulted in the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was former Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, for lying to a federal grand jury. Since he cooperated with the special prosecutor, Novak was never charged in the case.

At the time, it was believed that Mr. Novak may have tried to punish Mr. Wilson for his remarks questioning actions of the Bush administration, but Robert was already on record as an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq.

Robert Novak always seemed to have the inside scoop no matter what political party held the presidency. He relied on information from Carl Rove during the George W. Bush presidency and Dick Morris while Bill Clinton was in office. He gave the political pundits the choice to either be the source or the target of the story. Most readily agreed to be the source.

Novak relished the moniker "Prince Of Darkness" that was bestowed upon him years earlier by a fellow journalist because of his less than rosy outlook on American and Western civilization. He liked it so much that he included it in the title of his memoir, "The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting In Washington".

Robert Novak was born the son of Jewish parents. Another irony to his life is that he decided to convert to Catholicism about ten years ago after attending catholic mass on a regular basis for many years. He believed his catholic faith helped him to deal with having brain cancer.

Mr. Novak had been battling brain cancer for which he was diagnosed in July, 2008 and finally succumbed to this deadly disease. The cancerous tumor was discovered while visiting his daughter at Cape Cod in Massachusetts. This was not the first bout he had with cancer. He previously underwent surgery in 2003 to remove a cancerous growth on his kidney.

Robert Novak was born and raised in Joliet, Illinois. His journalism career actually began while he was still in high school - he wrote for the Joliet Herald-News. Mr. Novak attended the University of Illinois. Believe it or not, he left the university one course short of graduation.

During the Korean Conflict, he served as a Lieutenant in the US Army. Afterward, he worked for the Associated Press in their Washington bureau, followed by a stint with the Wall Street Journal as a congressional correspondent in Washington.

In 1963, Mr. Novak teamed with Rowland Evans to write a syndicated political column called the "Inside Report". For decades, Bob wrote political articles for the Chicago Sun-Times as well. He was such a hard worker that he continued writing the "Inside Report" column after Evans retired in 1993.

I, for one, will be sure to miss Bob Novak. Even if you did not agree with his political views, I'm sure you can agree that he was a principled man with considerable integrity who generally cared about his country. I do believe that is what democracy is all about.

Its hard to believe. Political columnist Robert Novak dead at age 78.