Political Columnist Robert Novak Dies
Robert Novak, a conservative political columnist, died at his home in Washington, DC at the age of 78 on Tuesday morning. The nicknamed ‘Prince of Darkness’ and aggressive debater was battling brain cancer since July 2008 after being involved in a hit and run in the downtown area. Novak was also the co-host of ‘Crossfire’, which is aired on CNN, and the Chicago Sun-Times featured his columns for decades. Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Leader, said that he was someone who could turn a normal idea into the most talked about story from the White House to kitchen tables.
Novak started out as a sports stringer for the Joliet Herald-News during high school, and while he was at the University of Illinois he worked at the Champaign-Urbana Courier. Then after serving in the US Army during the Korean War, he worked for The Associated Press in Omaha, Nebraska, Indianapolis, and finally Washington. Soon Novak joined the Wall Street Journal, where he became the chief congressional correspondent, but after a while he teamed up with Rowland Evans Jr. to start a political column, which was published for 30 years until his brain cancer diagnosis.
Although Novak was known as a staunch conservative during his career, he disagreed with other conservatives on a number of issues - frequently criticizing the Iraq war and expressing his doubts over invading Afghanistan. In the last few years Novak became a part of a big story in Washington as a central figure in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case. He was the first writer to publish a CIA employee’s name and was verbally abused and criticized for that by many, which he described as a difficult and long time in his career.
Novak is survived by Geraldine, his wife who was President Lyndon Johnson’s secretary, as well as a son and daughter.