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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Robert Novak RIP

Robert Novak RIP

by DougJ|  August 18, 200912:32 pm| 121 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics

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Novak did a lot of sleazy stuff, but the Evans-Novak report was excellent and he could be thoughtful on some issues. I liked his columns better than the average WaPo column.

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Previous Post: « The Dave Neiwert Decade
Next Post: The Worst Person In Politics? »

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    ChrisB

    August 18, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    You damn him with faint praise.

    I would leave out the praise.

  2. 2.

    low-tech cyclist

    August 18, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    I liked his columns better than the average WaPo column.

    Faint praise indeed!

  3. 3.

    chopper

    August 18, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    he sure could run over an elderly man with his corvette tho.

  4. 4.

    Michael

    August 18, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    I’m in a good mood today, and this (combined with the notion of Don Wildmon being on death’s doorstep) must be the reason.

  5. 5.

    cbear

    August 18, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    Piss on him.

  6. 6.

    Hunter Gathers

    August 18, 2009 at 12:39 pm

    “I liked his columns better than the average WaPo column”

    That’s like comparing McDonalds to Burger King. They both suck ass, but McDonald’s has better fries.

  7. 7.

    eric

    August 18, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    Obama’s plan to eliminate influential conservative pundits is marching forward. This guy really is the Manchurian Candidate.

  8. 8.

    cbear

    August 18, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    Novak’s timely demise reminds me of the quote by Voltaire, when asked on his deathbed to renounce Satan:
    “This is no time for making new enemies.”

  9. 9.

    Paul L.

    August 18, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    Stay classy progressives.
    Remember Ted Kennedy has brain cancer and you have been demanding that wingnuts should show him more deference because of it.

  10. 10.

    The Other Steve

    August 18, 2009 at 12:44 pm

    OMG! Obama just killed Robert Novak!

  11. 11.

    The Other Steve

    August 18, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    This is clearly the work of the death panels.

  12. 12.

    Keith G

    August 18, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    He didn’t report ( or write columns) on the problems of America, in his own way he contributed to them. I hope he will be able to chat with his fellow traveler Lee Attwater.

  13. 13.

    Singularity

    August 18, 2009 at 12:47 pm

    And yet wingnuts have refused to do so. Quelle surprise. Fuck off troll. And fuck Bob Novak. That guy did everything he could to ruin my country during his career. For him it was always party first. Where does the line start to piss on his grave?

  14. 14.

    BombIranForChrist

    August 18, 2009 at 12:48 pm

    I don’t know a thing about him personally and the positive relationships he had with friends, family, etc., but on a professional level, he was a power player who used his influence to corrupt our political process. America is a worse place because of him.

  15. 15.

    Flugelhorn

    August 18, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    Seriously. It would seem the turds have gathered to kick the dead.

    When conservatives do this (and I do not) you folks cannot shutup about it, but you do it? Its cool.

    You go progressives! Live up to the name!

  16. 16.

    Flugelhorn

    August 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    Seriously. It would seem the turds have gathered to kick the dead.

    When conservatives do this (and I do not) you folks cannot shutup about it, but you do it? Its cool.

    You go progressives! Live up to the name!

  17. 17.

    cmorenc

    August 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    I used to think Novak was the epitome of a slimy right-wing weasel embedded within the mainstream media. Unfortunately, the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh make Novak look innocuous by comparison, sort of like a crankier version of David Broder.

  18. 18.

    cbear

    August 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    @chopper: Excellent!

  19. 19.

    ThresherK

    August 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    Let’s start the clock on the “not speak ill of the dead” period; the sooner it starts the sooner it’s over.

    I’ve posted here that I’m one of those people who thinks famous people often pass on in threes (last time for Budd Schulberg?). So, who is next?

  20. 20.

    catclub

    August 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    @PaulL
    Stay classy like Debbie Schlussel’s remarks about Walter Cronkite?

    They ARE staying classy by comparison.

    ‘show more deference’ is the wingnut translation of a request to ‘cut out
    the most outrageous lies’.

  21. 21.

    freelancer

    August 18, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    @Paul L.:

    Remember Ted Kennedy has brain cancer and you have been demanding that wingnuts should show him more deference because of it.

    Proof please, from this site, or you’re full of it.
    No one I know of has ever said that You must respect my heroes, and I must respect yours.

  22. 22.

    Cydney

    August 18, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    They better put a stake in his heart and bury his ass in holy ground just to make sure. You know Dracula always comes back…

  23. 23.

    Common Sense

    August 18, 2009 at 12:54 pm

    There are definitely differing levels of minor league wingnut radio hosts. Both Glenn Beck and Limbaugh had substitute hosts today. Heard about 30 minutes of Beck’s substitute (a completely generic and rather pedestrian wingnut from Houston by the name of Joe Pags). This was followed by just 15 minutes of Mark Steyn on Limbaugh. Poor Pags needs to step up his game if he wants to play with the big boys. In just one segment, Steyn disclosed that the reason Tucker Carlson failed on his “Dancing With the Stars” stint was that Tucker was too moderate (he is apparently a wishy washy pseudo conservative — who knew?) He wouldn’t stand up and was scared to take a chance and just dance the way neo cons dance. Carlson wanted to please the hosts and therefore failed miserably. Steyn strongly advises that the Hammer let it all hang out when he goes on. The judges will respect him more or something. From there it was a seamless segueway into “Death Panels with the Stars,” where “Kathleen Sibelius, Rahm’s Emanuel’s brother, and ACORN thugs” sit on a panel judging contestants, then vote on who receives a hip transplant after the show. Next we found out that the protesters at health care townhalls were (and I am not making this up) largely Obama supporters who have flipped due to his well concealed statist tendencies. After all, the protesters are old folks and old people support Democrats, right? My head was spinning by the end, but I think Steyn really has what it takes to play with the big boys. It takes talent to combine every conspiracy theory around, and even invent new ones, in the time it takes for me to get a cup of coffee. Plus the bad Australian accent makes him sound so cultured and stuff. he must know what he’s talking about.

  24. 24.

    Simon R

    August 18, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    Apparently a cancerous tumour had taken over his brain. That explains a lot.

  25. 25.

    Common Sense

    August 18, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    Oh and Steyn also disclosed that Novak was a RINO as well. Relatively solid on fiscal issues, but ol’ Bob apparently had a tendency to stray off the reservation when it came to foreign policy. We all saw Novak protesting alongside Sheehan, after all.

  26. 26.

    bjacques

    August 18, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    God grant he lie still.

  27. 27.

    Hunter Gathers

    August 18, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    @Flugelhorn: Perhaps we should ask Valerie Plame what she thinks of Novak. Not like he outed her as a CIA agent or anything.

  28. 28.

    Hunter Gathers

    August 18, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    @Flugelhorn: Perhaps we should ask Valerie Plame what she thinks of Novak. It’s not like he outed her as a CIA agent or anything.

  29. 29.

    shirt

    August 18, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    @Flugelhorn: I promise not to carry any guns to his funeral.

  30. 30.

    arguingwithsignposts

    August 18, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    I saw Novak once at a live taping of “Crossfire.” He was less pissy than Paul Begala with those who disagreed with him. That’s the best I can say. Truth be known, Clarence Thomas and George Will are nice people in real life on a social basis too. That doesn’t make their political philosophy the equivalent of democratic arsenic.

  31. 31.

    The Moar You Know

    August 18, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    Robert Novak did everything in his power during his entire life to make America a shittier and meaner place.

    I’m sorry his family lost their father, spouse, etc. As for the rest of us, I’m glad he’s gone to a place where he can’t hurt people or this nation anymore.

  32. 32.

    wasabi gasp

    August 18, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    @bjacques: Beelzebub prays for a miracle.

  33. 33.

    Ash Can

    August 18, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    @Paul L.: Ted Kennedy spent much of his life working on and passing laws that benefit average, working class Americans. Seriously, what good has Robert Novak done in his life, for you, for working class Americans, or for anyone?

    I’m not saying the guy should have been perfect, or should have been a great philanthropist. And DougJ says he was a good writer. That’s nice. But he was no Ted Kennedy, so there’s no reason to expect him to be eulogized on par.

  34. 34.

    Anton Sirius

    August 18, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    @Singularity:

    That guy did everything he could to ruin my country during his career. For him it was always party first. Where does the line start to piss on his grave?

    You have no clue what you’re talking about. The Novak you know from CNN isn’t isn’t the sum total of his career.

  35. 35.

    The Moar You Know

    August 18, 2009 at 1:04 pm

    combined with the notion of Don Wildmon being on death’s doorstep

    @Michael: Link please. Wildmon is a world-class piece of shit and I will happydance when he dies.

  36. 36.

    Zifnab

    August 18, 2009 at 1:04 pm

    @Paul L.:

    Remember Ted Kennedy has brain cancer and you have been demanding that wingnuts should show him more deference because of it.

    Demanding. Not expecting.
    We all know when Ted Kennedy finally passes, there’s going to be a fucking wingnut parade down whatever street FOX News has blocked off.

    Lest anyone forget the absolute trash job done on Kurt Vonnegut.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SiVasR2Gzo

    And Vonnegut was a god damn national treasure. At the end of the day, Novak was just another wingnut pundit.

  37. 37.

    4tehlulz

    August 18, 2009 at 1:05 pm

    CIA DID IT

  38. 38.

    inkadu

    August 18, 2009 at 1:06 pm

    At times like this, it is always good to review the most important accomplishments of a man’s life. I will always fondly remember Novak for protecting America by outing CIA agents in order to exact vengeance on the behest of those lying us into a costly war. Sure, he was not responsible for discovering who the agent was, was not responsible for lying, was not responsible for the war; but he took a small part in the events of history, and what more can any of ask?

  39. 39.

    neil

    August 18, 2009 at 1:06 pm

    Good. Now he’s no longer using up perfectly good oxygen.

  40. 40.

    JGabriel

    August 18, 2009 at 1:08 pm

    Paul L.:

    Remember Ted Kennedy has brain cancer and you have been demanding that wingnuts should show him more deference because of it.

    We have? I don’t know why we would do anything so futile. Conservatives will still be making Chappaquiddick jokes at Kennedy’s funeral.

    .

  41. 41.

    The Other Steve

    August 18, 2009 at 1:08 pm

    @Paul L.: Who cares? I don’t much like Ted Kennedy either.

  42. 42.

    scav

    August 18, 2009 at 1:09 pm

    I am so totally stealing this. We are speaking good of the dead. These are all variants of it’s good that he’s dead. For John McCain. Also.

  43. 43.

    someguy

    August 18, 2009 at 1:10 pm

    Flugelhorn – is that Swiss for Ass Whistle?

    Really, it’s been a pretty good week for us. Rose Friedman kicked the bucket too. The only bummer is that Sarah Palin and 120 million-odd wingers still walk among us. Just goes to show you that the health hazards of pork rinds, cheap beer and keeping guns in the house are overstated. Hey, maybe there’s some aerobic benefit to having a couple hours of delusional, insane rage every day…

    If you can’t celebrate the death of truly evil people, you should at least not interfere with everybody else’s joy.

  44. 44.

    Colette

    August 18, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    Hell and this earth are both enriched by his death.

  45. 45.

    Singularity

    August 18, 2009 at 1:12 pm

    Oh, excuse me. He just spent the latter part of his career doing everything he could to ruin my country. I guess it was Rollie Evans keeping him under control, like Cus D’Amato with Mike Tyson.

    He had no aversion to lying to defend the indefensible. I understand that a lot of people who knew him personally thought he was just great. I just know he provided intellectual cover to the kind of assholes who are showing up to political events toting guns these days. The net result of his career is a country that is less tolerant and less safe. I stand by my comments.

  46. 46.

    inkadu

    August 18, 2009 at 1:12 pm

    @Zifnab: Yes, but Vonnegut is smiling down at us from Heaven now, so whatever Fox said does not matter.

    All the funerals I have been to so far have been events of high drama. My favorite funeral was for a friend who had ambiguous relationships with women. His three pseudo-girlfriends were fighting over whom he loved best, and one even had a phantom pregnancy that week. It was a better testament to his life than any speech could have been.

  47. 47.

    IndieTarheel

    August 18, 2009 at 1:12 pm

    @Common Sense:

    Steyn strongly advises that the Hammer let it all hang out when he goes on.

    Not that I needed a reason not to watch, but that’ll do.

  48. 48.

    Leelee for Obama

    August 18, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    Yes, but Vonnegut is smiling down at us from Heaven now

    If true, no one is more surprised than Kurt! God I miss him!

  49. 49.

    CaseyL

    August 18, 2009 at 1:19 pm

    I make no apologies or “nil nisi bonum” noises.

    The RW is a metastatic cancer, killing this country faster and faster; and the wingers, party apparatchiks and media enablers, who dedicated their lives, time and talent to making this country a smaller, meaner, dumber place, are dying too slowly. Though if Wildmon is also checking out, that will make this a pretty good day.

  50. 50.

    cbear

    August 18, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    I hope somebody has the presence of mind to drop a bag of marshmallows in ol’ Bob’s coffin at the wake. He’s probably gonna need them where he’s going.

  51. 51.

    John S.

    August 18, 2009 at 1:24 pm

    Stay classy progressives.

    Stay a giant fucking asshole, Paul L.

    At list guys like Novak (and one day Kennedy) illicit some sort of response from people when they die. When your time comes, I doubt very many will give a rat’s ass.

  52. 52.

    Tax Analyst

    August 18, 2009 at 1:25 pm

    Novak’s passing is surely a sad thing for his family, but it’s just another annoying, dead bug on the windshield to the rest of this world.

    That’s how I’ll remember him.

    Sometimes I’m so sentimental about this stuff.

  53. 53.

    inkadu

    August 18, 2009 at 1:25 pm

    @Leelee for Obama: “Now at a memorial service for Isaac Asimov a few years ago on the West Coast I spoke, and I said, ‘Isaac is in heaven now,’ to a crowd of humanists. It was quite awhile before order could be restored. Humanists were rolling in the aisles. Should I, God forbid, pass on some time, I hope that some of you will say that Kurt is up in heaven now.”

    -Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

  54. 54.

    MattMinus

    August 18, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    Was it a stake through the heart or exposure to sunlight that did him in?

  55. 55.

    Zifnab

    August 18, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    @Leelee for Obama: :-p If Vonnegut made it to Heaven, I’d have given it a week before either or he or God would have to go.

  56. 56.

    inkadu

    August 18, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    WordPress format fail.

  57. 57.

    Singularity

    August 18, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    And let’s take a look at Novak’s own policy when it comes to the dead. In 1972, Novak helped to derail George McGovern’s presidential campaign by quoting an unnamed Senator as saying that McGovern was “…for amnesty, abortion, and the legalization of pot.” He wsa accused of manufacturing the quote, and claimed that he had asked the Senator for permission to name him. In 2007, he named Thomas Eagleton, McGovern’s running mate, as the source of the quote. Eagleton had just died, so he wasn’t in a position to deny Novak’s attribution. Novak’s response when questioned about the ethics of naming the Senator? “If there’s any disagreement, Novak said, Eagleton could settle it with him in heaven ‘or wherever we end up.'””, according to the Kansas City Star.

    So, respect for the dead? Novak can settle it with me wherever we end up.

  58. 58.

    DougJ

    August 18, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    It would seem the turds have gathered to kick the dead.

    What I wrote was pretty positive.

  59. 59.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    August 18, 2009 at 1:35 pm

    @inkadu:
    Man, I never get invited to the really good funerals. Bummer.

  60. 60.

    Dyzo Bandit

    August 18, 2009 at 1:37 pm

    Wildmon is apparently in intensive care due to meningitis.

    http://www.tips-q.com/1259849-don-wildmon-hospitalized-meningitis

  61. 61.

    cbear

    August 18, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    “It would seem the turds have gathered to kick the dead.”

    I get the part about dead turds, but the rest of the sentence makes no sense

  62. 62.

    Ed Drone

    August 18, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    My late mother-in-law knew the asshole personally, and could not stand him in any way, shape or form. And since she died in 1994, there’s no way it was his “late career” she found so repugnant. So he was a shit-heel early and a shit-heel late, and I would go piss on his grave except I promised myself that once I left the army, I would never stand in a long line again.

    Ed

  63. 63.

    Joey Maloney a/k/a The Bard Of Balloon Juice

    August 18, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    Apparently a cancerous tumour had taken over his brain. That explains a lot.

    It finished off his soul years ago and then moved on.

  64. 64.

    Michael

    August 18, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    All the funerals I have been to so far have been events of high drama. My favorite funeral was for a friend who had ambiguous relationships with women. His three pseudo-girlfriends were fighting over whom he loved best, and one even had a phantom pregnancy that week. It was a better testament to his life than any speech could have been.

    That’s the awesomest of awesome funerals. One only hopes that the drama unfolded before the largest portion of the visiting crowd.

  65. 65.

    Leelee for Obama

    August 18, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    @inkadu: I loved that story. Every now and then, when I’m really down in the dumps, I think of it and just giggle like a fool. He made life bearable, as John Stewart said during their interview.

  66. 66.

    freelancer

    August 18, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    @someguy:

    Really, it’s been a pretty good week for us. Rose Friedman kicked the bucket too.

    I just started listening to Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine. It’s an amazing piece of journalism, but depressing as hell. The country, and really the world at large is an oligarchical plutocracy. I mean, yeah, I picked up on this a while ago, I just didn’t know the evidence was so numerous or the actions of certain types of capitalists was so damned brazen.

    It’s pushing me from a dispassionate skeptic of Corporate worldviews to a rabid anti-free market, anti-capitalist lefty.

    Just for the loss of life and miserable conditions that they inflicted on Chile alone, the Friedmans deserve to burn in hell. Not to mention Central and South America, Iraq, and most recently Iceland.

  67. 67.

    atheist

    August 18, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    I bet he’s not really dead.

  68. 68.

    MNPundit

    August 18, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    I didn’t know vampires could die without a wooden stake to the heart.

  69. 69.

    Ken

    August 18, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    @Paul L.: Nice try, Paul. TK should be treated with deference because of his legislative actions. Novak has no redeeming qualities at all.

  70. 70.

    jenniebee

    August 18, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    I’m trying, really trying, to not be awash in schadenfreude at this news, but if it turns out that Novak’s death was hastened in any way by the release of “Date My Avatar” then I think I’m going to go into the absurdity-appreciator’s version of a diabetic coma.

  71. 71.

    EconWatcher

    August 18, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    I think it’s a decent convention, worth upholding, that we focus on the positive in talking about the recently deceased. In that vein, it should be remembered that Bob Novak opposed the Iraq War, and was accused by David Frum in the National Review of hating American because of it.

  72. 72.

    drillfork

    August 18, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    Somewhere in hell right now, Novak is confined to an endless flaming crosswalk, forced to dodge demons driving hybrids…

  73. 73.

    par4

    August 18, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    Tied to a post and shot for treason would have been a just end. Right along with Cheney,Libby et al.

  74. 74.

    flukebucket

    August 18, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    And so it goes…….

  75. 75.

    tripletee (formerly tBone)

    August 18, 2009 at 2:11 pm

    @Ed Drone:

    So he was a shit-heel early and a shit-heel late, and I would go piss on his grave except I promised myself that once I left the army, I would never stand in a long line again.

    This thread in general depresses me (I think it’s ghoulish and dehumanizing to be so gleeful about someone’s death, even Novak’s), but I have to admit the above made me laugh.

  76. 76.

    someguy

    August 18, 2009 at 2:19 pm

    I think it’s a decent convention, worth upholding, that we focus on the positive in talking about the recently deceased.

    You’re right. I’ve been too harsh on Novakula. Hmmm… what to say about him that’s good… Oh, I got it.

    – He was the finest example of an evil right winger the Village will likely ever produce.

    – He made the Earth a slightly better place just by dying.

    – At least he didn’t molest any kids… that we’re aware of.

    – Because Zombies are make-believe, we can all be happy knowing he’ll (probably) stay dead.

  77. 77.

    Tax Analyst

    August 18, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    @ #75 someguy said:

    “I think it’s a decent convention, worth upholding, that we focus on the positive in talking about the recently deceased.

    You’re right. I’ve been too harsh on Novakula. Hmmm… what to say about him that’s good… Oh, I got it.

    – He was the finest example of an evil right winger the Village will likely ever produce.
    – He made the Earth a slightly better place just by dying.
    – At least he didn’t molest any kids… that we’re aware of.
    – Because Zombies are make-believe, we can all be happy knowing he’ll (probably) stay dead.”

    That’s good. Six more items and you’ve got a “Top 10 Positive things to say about Robert Novak’s death”.

    Maybe the BJ group can render you some unsolicited assistance with that.

  78. 78.

    Morbo

    August 18, 2009 at 2:27 pm

    My, aren’t we all ghoulish this afternoon? Sad to see that he’ll never be forced to testify. I expect that FoxNews will give him the Tim Russert treatment, and probably other villager news outlets will give him more than enough deference.

  79. 79.

    Lee

    August 18, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    I would go piss on his grave except I promised myself that once I left the army, I would never stand in a long line again.

    I’m stealing this.

  80. 80.

    Trollhattan

    August 18, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    I’ll only note that cyclists in the greater D.C. area can now be a tiny bit less vigilant.

  81. 81.

    Warren Terra

    August 18, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    I hate hate hate the tradition that we should struggle to say something nice about the dead, just because they’re dead. Molly Ivins had iirc a great column about some recently deceased monster (Nixon, maybe?) saying that she had no intention of revising her judgement just because they’d shuffled off this mortal coil, because she despised hypocrisy.

  82. 82.

    wasabi gasp

    August 18, 2009 at 2:49 pm

    The Goog fails on a DED GUY IZ DED lolcat.

  83. 83.

    dom

    August 18, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    Ted Kennedy spent much of his life working on and passing laws that benefit average, working class Americans.

    /spits up afternoon cocktail

    Really? Unless of course, those average Americans have the last name of Kopechne and you were young and drunk, in which case you need to fend for yourself if Teddy drives you into a river while inebriated.

    And we need to ignore that his only reason for being in such a priveliged position in the first place is because of he was born with the right last name. A name which has attached to it a long history of corruption and debauchery, which are the trademarks of the Kennedy family dynasty—the most corrupt, political dynasty this country has ever witnessed.

    Good ol’ Teddy…

    Part of the problem in this country, on both sides of the political aisle, is this hagiography associated with certainpoliticians and/or political figures. Once we as citizens, stop putting any politician on a pedestal, and be doubly cynical, because of the inherently corrupt, bought-and-paid-for puppets that all of them are, then perhaps we can see real change in this country.

    The Kennedys are no exceptions to this. Enough already. This isn’t 1968.

  84. 84.

    EconWatcher

    August 18, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    Warren Terra, I hate to disagree with the late great Ms. Ivins on anything. But I don’t think it’s hypocrisy to try to focus on the positive when speaking of the recently departed (or at least remain temporarily silent about the negatives).

    Instead, it’s a recognition of our common plight: We’re all huddled at the edge of the same abyss. We should not push each other off. And we should never cheer when one of us falls over the edge. Showing some respect for the recently departed, even those whom we abhorred in life, just acknowledges the terrible mystery that we all face at the end.

  85. 85.

    inkadu

    August 18, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    @Michael: That’s the awesomest of awesome funerals. One only hopes that the drama unfolded before the largest portion of the visiting crowd.

    Yeah, I guess I was being a bit misleading; most of this unfolded in bars before and after the funeral. Drinking is a good way to salvage any event.

    Say, where does Mrs. Novak drink?

  86. 86.

    inkadu

    August 18, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    @dom: I will listen to what you have to say when the Novak family inspires a long-running Simpsons character.

  87. 87.

    Comrade Luke

    August 18, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    It’s been said that if you have nothing positive to say, don’t say anything at all.

    In this case 84 comments is probably 83 more than the topic deserves.

  88. 88.

    srv

    August 18, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    May the “Prince of Darkness” find the darkness he was always searching for.

  89. 89.

    Shygetz

    August 18, 2009 at 3:59 pm

    Robert Novak’s death has finally answered one question…what is the sound of millions of polite people saying nothing?

  90. 90.

    Makewi

    August 18, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    Someone from the other team died, time to cheer and act like idiots!

  91. 91.

    Mike in NC

    August 18, 2009 at 5:33 pm

    I would go piss on his grave except I promised myself that once I left the army, I would never stand in a long line again.

    Yeah, I made a promise like that, too, but dammit this is Bob Frickin’ Novak, the Prince of Darkness himself. May he rot in Hell.

  92. 92.

    General Winfield Stuck

    August 18, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    *

  93. 93.

    Joshua Norton

    August 18, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    A few selections from H.L. Mencken’s obit of William Jennings Bryant seem appropriate:

    “The Bryan I shall remember is the Bryan of his last weeks on earth — broken, furious, and infinitely pathetic. It was impossible to meet his hatred with hatred to match it. He was winning a battle that would make him forever infamous wherever enlightened men remembered it and him.”

    And, “But what of his life? Did he accomplish any useful thing? Was he, in his day, of any dignity as a man, and of any value to his fellow-men? I doubt it. Bryan, at his best, was simply a magnificent job-seeker. The issues that he bawled about usually meant nothing to him. He was ready to abandon them whenever he could make votes by doing so, and to take up new ones at a moment’s notice.”

    “In his last great battle there was only a baleful and ridiculous malignancy. If he was pathetic, he was also disgusting.”

    “Bryan was a vulgar and common man, a cad undiluted. He was ignorant, bigoted, self-seeking, blatant and dishonest. His career brought him into contact with the first men of his time; he preferred the company of rustic ignoramuses.”

    “He seemed only a poor clod like those around him, deluded by a childish theology, full of an almost pathological hatred of all learning, all human dignity, all beauty, all fine and noble things. He was a peasant come home to the dung-pile. Imagine a gentleman, and you have imagined everything that he was not.”

  94. 94.

    Demo Woman

    August 18, 2009 at 5:47 pm

    @Makewi: You’ll have to point to the the posts that cheered. Was there some criticism sure, but I didn’t “hear” the cheering.
    His column on Valerie Plame was indefensible. When you are asked not to release the name of an agent by the CIA, and then still do so, that’s indefensible.
    Am I cheering his death, of course not.

  95. 95.

    Snark Based Reality

    August 18, 2009 at 5:52 pm

    No one has linked the infamous Douchebag for Liberty clip? The start of it all?

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-29-2004/headlines—richard-clark

  96. 96.

    Makewi

    August 18, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    @Demo Woman:

    You’ve got to be kidding me. I am glad that you are not cheering his death, but pretending that isn’t happening in this thread isn’t really going to fly.

  97. 97.

    General Winfield Stuck

    August 18, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    @Makewi:

    I’m not cheering. I just don’t care. And every day when I see increasing numbers of wingnuts screaming and bringing firearms to dem town halls and presidential events of a dem presnit, I care even less over the existence of republicans.

    And when I hear people like Coburn, Armey and any number of GOP leaders condone and even encouraging these things, I care even less still.

    It seems more and more everyday, that the political right in this country is moving toward anarchy. Armey and Coburn claim it’s because the constitution is being trampled by socialists, I say bullshit. It is because conservative ideology has failed and failed miserably. And they have no more force of intellect with new ideas left, so increasingly it’s a message toward force of steel and violence to get the power they crave.

    So don’t come here and moralize about mean dems cheering over the death of one wingnut, when your side is speaking louder every day that if you don’t give us power, we might just kill you.

  98. 98.

    Bill Jones

    August 18, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    Agree

  99. 99.

    Corner Stone

    August 18, 2009 at 6:52 pm

    Come now people. It’s true Bob was a dirty scumbag for the right who spent his entire miserable life doing dirty scumbaggish things. But we truly won’t be able to pass final judgment on him, and really know what kind of man he was until we find out what was in the letter he wrote his grandchildren after Obama’s election.

  100. 100.

    Makewi

    August 18, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    Blah, blah, blah. I honestly don’t give a rats ass that you think you can justify bad behavior based on the supposed bad behavior of others.

  101. 101.

    General Winfield Stuck

    August 18, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    @Makewi:

    I didn’t justify anything. I SAID I DIDN’T CARE/

    Your the one who characterized it as cheering when the “other side” loses somebody. whichI took as being your side. The wingnut side.

  102. 102.

    geg6

    August 18, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    General Winfield Stuck @97: What you said. And I think I might have a bit of a crush on you just for saying it.

  103. 103.

    MMM

    August 18, 2009 at 7:19 pm

    I enjoyed watching him talk on roundtables when he would burst out laughing when he could not even believe the bs that was coming out of his mouth.

  104. 104.

    handy

    August 18, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    I think now is an appropriate time for some Decemberists.

  105. 105.

    AhabTRuler

    August 18, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    Evans-Novak report

    What? Errors& No Fact?

  106. 106.

    Catsy

    August 18, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    @EconWatcher:

    I think it’s a decent convention, worth upholding, that we focus on the positive in talking about the recently deceased.

    I think it’s a decent convention, when you’re having a conversation in person amongst others who personally knew the dead. There’s no point in rubbing your sister’s face in the face that her late husband beat the shit out of her. Believe me, she remembers, and bringing it up will just make her unhappy and you an asshole.

    But when you’re having a discussion amongst strangers about a public figure who wasn’t likely to be known personally to any of us, I couldn’t disagree more. This convention is one of the things that allows wingnuts to rewrite history into a hagiography of their dead heroes, as has been pretty successfully done with Saint Ronnie.

    We fret so much about the possibility that one of the deceased’s relatives might go on the internets and read something unkind about their late kin–and be traumatized by their inability to click somewhere else–that we make a point of whitewashing even the most repugnant individuals who dedicate their lives to legislating bigotry, or who poison our country in other similarly-damaging ways. When we spend the days and weeks after their death cherry-picking the nice things we can drum up to say about them, and the wingnuts spend that time doing the same thing in public as much as possible, guess what their enduring legacy ends up being?

    I’ve had quite enough of whitewashing the records of douchebags and monsters, and pretending that they were really nice guys at heart if you got to know them while legions of wingnuts rewrite history. You know what? Lots of shitty people who do horrible things are nice to their friends and families. Novak’s passing is unfortunate only to the extent that it saddens those who cared about him. The rest of the country is much better off with one less mendacious hack pissing in the press pool.

  107. 107.

    Makewi

    August 18, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    Seriously, you are too stupid to breathe. You need help. You wrote you didn’t care, and then proceeded to write the sins of greater wingnuttia as justification.

  108. 108.

    Fencedude

    August 18, 2009 at 7:39 pm

    @Makewi:

    Seriously, you are too stupid to breathe.

    Given your adventures around these parts the last few days I wouldn’t go slinging around stones like that.

    As to the subject at hand, I have nothing good to say, so I shall say nothing. But there was a really good Castlevania joke over on Sadly, No!

  109. 109.

    General Winfield Stuck

    August 18, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    @Makewi:

    Justification FOR NOT CARING numbnut. Not cheerleading, which is your term, and as Demo W. pointed out, is not the same as being critical of a jackass, dead or alive.

    You and your cognitive dissonance is wearing thin here pal. I suspect you are acting on assignment to disrupt this blog. Well, you can do that, as unlike most right wing blogs there is a very liberal comment policy and trolls are tolerated for the most part. But buck up, you keep coming with the stoopid and wrong, you will receive it in kind and then some.

    And the hackneyed “you need help” is so tired and lame. Please come up with something better. It’s embarrassing. We expect some originality and pinache from our trolls. Maybe Brick Oven Bill can give you a lesson or two.

  110. 110.

    oh really

    August 18, 2009 at 7:52 pm

    Robert Novak: Yet another victim of socialized medicine.

  111. 111.

    geg6

    August 18, 2009 at 8:13 pm

    General Winfield Stuck @109: Okay, make that a great big honkin’ crush. The plethora of recent trolls here really do make BOB seem like he has a certain roguish charm. Think maybe BOB’s been sending his Glenn Beck Fan Club buddies here to make him look good?

  112. 112.

    NobodySpecial

    August 18, 2009 at 9:05 pm

    The CIA is safer now.

  113. 113.

    Gwangung

    August 18, 2009 at 9:13 pm

    Nah, Makewi and her ilk have their uses. Every one should give ’em a “fuck off!”, once a thread, once a day, and it’ll be a nice cathartic effect….ya need to clean the inside of your head regularly…

  114. 114.

    Seanly

    August 18, 2009 at 9:26 pm

    @Paul L.:

    Fuck you. How’s that for classy? Robert Novak deserves all the damnation he gets it.

    @drillfork:

    ha ha ha. Epic win.

  115. 115.

    White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob)

    August 18, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    Assraped by Lucifer for all eternity? It’s a start…

  116. 116.

    amk

    August 18, 2009 at 11:43 pm

    May God (or will it be satan ?) piss on him. A corrupt beltway insider in the DC cesspool. Better dead than alive.

  117. 117.

    Chuck Butcher

    August 19, 2009 at 2:22 am

    Well now, I managed to turn off Hardball as they eulogized Ole Bob. He’s had his “say nice things” from those who know better and those who are of his ilk. I don’t know any of his people and they don’t know me or give a shit. When Bob was alive I didn’t give a damn if he kept misusing oxygen or not and I don’t care that he’s stopped. He’s maggot food now and can do no more harm, and too bad for him, he can’t atone for what he has done.

    Makewi (proud of piss??) seems to think somebody has forgotten Kennedy’s bridge and that we all should forget the Novack crap. He was one of the justifications for Beck and Limbaugh and Hannity, that is a sad legacy.

    Since I have no belief in afterlife Novak’s end is meaningless since he’s done nothing to improve public debate in life.

  118. 118.

    DBrown

    August 19, 2009 at 6:15 am

    Thank goodness – it is a great day when a trader like this shit eating scumbag has died. This pig caused the death of many critical people that Plame had recruited relative to nuclear black market sales of nuclear material and convert selling of nuclear weapon secrets. Like bush and cheney, when shit like this passes on as worm food, the world will be a cleaner and safer place when these types of low life bottom feeders have been processed into useful soil.Thank goodness – it is a great day when a trador like this scum bag has died. This pig caused the death of many critcial people that Plame had recruited relative to nuclear black market and convert selling of nuclear weapon secrets. Like bush and cheney finally are worm food, the world will be a cleaner and safer place when this type of shit has been proccessed into useful soil.

  119. 119.

    jh

    August 19, 2009 at 7:59 am

    Shall we not speak ill of the dead?

    But what if you were a major asshole?

    Robert Novak was a major asshole.

    I knew him personally and professionally.

    Professionally he alternated between the jobs of GOP hatchetman and a fictitious role as sage, skeptical yet principled conservative. I seriously doubt anyone with more than two functioning braincells was taken in by this act.

    Personally, he was a whiny, mean, racist (oh, the things conservatives will say when they think nobody is listening) shitbag.

    To his family: Sorry your daddy, uncle, husband croaked. That sucks. Nevertheless, he was a major asshole to almost everyone who wasn’t related to him in some way, AND a malevolent actor in our democracy. As a result of I doubt many of us will miss him.

  120. 120.

    Flugelhorn

    August 19, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    @someguy: Friggin’ Progressive equivalent of the Palistinian celebrating in the streets when 9/11 happened. No different.

  121. 121.

    al rotundo

    August 20, 2009 at 2:49 pm

    Burn, baby, burn!

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