Robert Novak 1931-2009
Robert Novak, a syndicated columnist, journalist and conservative political commentator died at his home on Tuesday, August 18 at the age of 78. He announced that he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor with a ‘dire’ prognosis on August 4, 2008.
Novak appeared on CNN‘s Crossfire, was a frequent panelist on The Capital Gang and was a regular on the PBS show The McLaughlin Group. He was dubbed “The Prince of Darkness“ for his pessimism and used the nickname as the title of his 2007 memoirs.
He teamed with Rowland Evans four decades ago to create the Evans-Novak Political Report, a six-time a week newspaper column. He ended publication of the newsletter on February 4, 2009, when his condition worsened. The column was syndicated by the Chicago Sun-Times and had been published continuously since 1967.
Bob Novak was a registered Democrat despite his conservative political views. He held more centrist views in his early career when he supported John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
He became part of a scandal in 2003 when he published a column exposing the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, a CIA agent. Scooter Libby was later convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about leaking the information to Novak.
Novak was raised Jewish but converted to Roman Catholicism in 1998. His wife Geraldine Novak was a secretary for President Lyndon Johnson. Their daughter Zelda worked for Ronald Reagan‘s Presidential campaign. A son Alex Novak works as an editor at Regnery Publishing, reportedly the leading conservative publisher in America.
View a photo from his early days in the business and video coverage of his cancer announcement below.