Novak: Last of the Shoe-Leather Columnists

Hard work made him 'the ultimate insider journalist'

(NEWSER) - Bob Novak called himself a “rough and tumble” journalist, “but to his friends and colleagues, he could be a pussycat,” writes Eleanor Clift in Newsweek. Despite their widely divergent views, Novak—who died today at 78—helped Clift get a spot on the then-all-male McLaughlin Group. When the cameras went on, he’d “lunge forward” and “wag his finger in my face.” But offscreen, the two felt like “buddies.” More»

Columnist, known as 'Prince of Darkness,' was 78

(NEWSER) - Conservative Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak died this morning at 78, after a year-long battle with brain cancer, the Sun-Times reports. Known, to his delight, as the “Prince of Darkness,” Novak’s “Inside Report” column has been syndicated since 1963. He was at the center of the Valerie Plame scandal, identifying her as an “operative” in his column. More»

Leak account has Novak wondering who really wrote book

(NEWSER) - Scott McClellan's treatment of the Valerie Plame leak case has a key player wondering who really guided the former press secretary’s pen. "His robotic performances from the White House podium seemed only to disgorge what he had been told, and What Happened has the similar feel of someone else's hand," Robert Novak, to whom Plame's CIA role was leaked, writes in the Chicago Sun-Times. More»

Death sets off both tributes and good-riddance shots

(NEWSER) - Andrew Breitbart's death continues to set off a wide range of reactions. Some examples:

• 'Liberals celebrate': The Washington Examiner rounds up tweets from the left under that headline, including one from Slate's Matt Yglesias, who says the "world outlook is slightly improved" now.
• Tone it down: "The content of some of those tweets reveal something quite rotten," writes Andrew Sullivan at the Dish . "A man has died at a painfully early age. He has family and friends and colleagues. They are in grief. Yes, he was a public figure, who doled it out relentlessly. But his family is human. We can too easily forget they exist."

Pulitzer winner covered politics for the 'Post'

(NEWSER) - Longtime Washington Post political columnist David Broder is dead at age 81 from complications of diabetes. The Post offers a lengthy obit for him here and his final column here . Broder covered every presidential election since 1956 and won a Pulitzer in 1973 for his Watergate coverage. The newspaper's Ben Bradlee called him "the best political correspondent in America" because he knew the system "from the back room up" and not just at the highest levels in DC. More»