Novak's "Ethics-Free Zone"

[BurtWorm]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0412.sullivan.html

Bob in Paradise
How Novak created his own ethics-free zone.

By Amy Sullivan


Robert Novak was in high dudgeon. He and his colleagues on CNN's “The Capital Gang” were squabbling over whether CBS should have run a story on President George W. Bush's National Guard service, a story which relied on documents whose authenticity had come into question. Novak—the show's resident curmudgeon, outfitted with a three-piece suit and permanently arched eyebrow—delivered his verdict. “I'd like CBS, at this point, to say where they got those documents from,” he growled. “I think they should say where they got these documents because I thought it was a very poor job of reporting by CBS.”
Resident liberal Al Hunt jumped in to clarify. “Robert Novak,” he asked, “you're saying CBS should reveal its source?” When Novak replied that he was, Hunt pressed him further. “You think reporters ought to reveal sources?” In a flash, Novak realized he had made a mistake; he began to backtrack. “No, no, wait a minute,” he said. “I'm just saying in that case.” So in some cases, Hunt continued, reporters should reveal their sources—but not in all cases? “That's right,” said Novak.



What Novak's fellow panelists on “The Capital Gang” knew that day, but most of the show's viewers probably didn't, was that much of Washington has spent the better part of a year waiting for Novak to reveal a source of his own. During the summer of 2003, someone in the Bush White House decided to extract a pound of flesh from former Amb. Joseph Wilson, a critic of the administration's rationale for the Iraq war, by revealing to members of the press that Wilson's wife was an undercover CIA agent. And though the leak was peddled to several journalists, only one was willing to actually print it: Robert Novak.

By exposing the name of Wilson's wife—Valerie Plame—Novak not only put an end to her undercover work on weapons-of-mass-destruction issues, possibly putting at risk the lives of any foreign sources who may have cooperated with her. He also may have abetted a federal crime: It's a felony for a government official to knowingly disclose the name of any undercover agency operative, an act serious enough that the Bush administration eventually agreed to name an independent prosecutor (the only one appointed during Bush's first term) to find out who was responsible. That prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has since subpoenaed other journalists who received the leaked information. Two of them—Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine—ran the information only after Novak first publicized Plame's name; both refused to disclose their sources, were held in contempt of court, and face prison time if their appeals don't succeed.

And what about Novak? That's hard to say, because while Miller and Cooper (who is also a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly) have publicly disclosed the essence of their interactions with Fitzgerald, Novak has remained mum. The columnist has made hundreds of appearances on television since he printed Plame's name, but Al Hunt's tweak on “The Capital Gang” was the closest any of Novak's colleagues have ever come to asking him about the case on the air. Even Hunt's challenge was more of a reportorial reflex than anything else. He told me recently that he has “conspicuously avoided the topic” because Novak is “a close friend…it's uncomfortable.”

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[BurtWorm]

1. Disgusting Tucker Carlson quote reveals the sink hole of DC insiderism

"You can't not talk to Bob Novak. It's the law.”

See below for an explanation:

“Look, I'm not David Broder,” Novak tells me. “I'm not one of the real good guys. They try to make things nicer. That's not my deal.” What is his deal is something else entirely. Unlike many of his colleagues on the op-ed pages, Novak does not trade in witty prose or expansive theories, but instead offers a glimpse of Washington's innermost power dens. Novak provides the snack food—provocative bits of information from insiders that fill his columns and commentary. He takes particular glee in inciting—or at least enabling—inter- and intra-party warfare. When a Republican treasury secretary loses favor with conservatives in the party, we learn via Novak that the cabinet position may soon be open. With the war in Iraq not going as expected, Novak is the one who tells us that some power players in the administration want to pull out early in a Bush second term. And he does it by getting everybody—absolutely everybody—to talk. “It's kind of like Woodward,” says his “Crossfire” colleague, Tucker Carlson. “It's in the job description. You can't not talk to Bob Novak. It's the law.”