# Robert Novak, the world's most powerful man. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 8, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124 "2004-10-08T00:25:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/21 "2004-10-08T07:47:32Z")
Novak is a hypocrite. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Many observers noted Novak’s inconsistency as he refused to reveal the source of the Plame leak while he later called on CBS to reveal the source of the Killian memos. Novak had also previously violated the principal of protecting sources by revealing Robert Hansen as the confidential source for some of his articles. Ironically, Novak indicated at the time that he felt justified in doing so because Hansen was a traitor… he had been found guilty of revealing the identities of undercover CIA operatives. And the Daily Show awarded him the well deserved title “Douchebag for Liberty”. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/22 "2004-10-08T10:43:37Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > Er… I’ve forgotten exactly who I was planning to pit. :smack: Everything about it has a nasty dead-fish smell. Agreed. I can’t bear even to see Robert Novak now. He’s a symbol of every horrible ethic. When his mug appears on my TV, no matter what he’s saying or whom he’s talking to or what the story, I move on. He would have been a perfect twelfth century Pope. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/23 "2004-10-08T12:12:24Z")
> [@](#): > > He would have been a perfect twelfth century Pope. Innocent? Surely not! Pious? How about Boniface? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/24 "2004-10-08T12:28:56Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Well, if he isn’t a traitor according to the legal definition, he is still scum. I prefer to call him a traitor, even if it isn’t strictly correct. Hang on, gonna make a quick call to the Emperor Smith. Be right back. If you make that call, guess who _else_ is going to get a little visit from the Reigning Master? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![presidebt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c37758/32.png) [@presidebt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/presidebt)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/25 "2004-10-08T12:51:34Z")
What I want to know is why this is still in the hands of the Justice Department. This case probably involves a federal crime by a federal employee, and a serious breech of security, to use a favored phrase of the administration, “in a time of war.” There was a question about a few thousand dollars with regard to “Whitewater,” which then morphed into a kind of theater of the absurd over a blow-job, so why is this admin getting a free ride? Kenneth Starr spent billions of tax payer dollars investigating these issues for years. Now we have cause for a real independant investigation involving a crime that has direct consequences for the American people, and nothing. I don’t expect Ashcroft’s justice department to give this the treatment it deserves. This country has been flushed down the toilet in four short years. Someone might argue it was already in the bathroom, but that’s a long way from wallowing in the shit and getting flushed with it. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/26 "2004-10-08T14:04:48Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > Reporters are not part of our security apparat, and should not be. Sure, they should. None of us are above the law, including reporters. There are free speech exemptions that apply to them, but those exemptions should not, and in fact do not, AFAIK, extend to speech that directly endangers human lives, as the Plame leak did. Look up “rolling up a network” if you don’t believe me. Whaddya think happened to a lot of the U.S. spies that Aldrich Ames betrayed? Some of them were killed. Surely Plame’s contacts were endangered by Novak. The man belongs in a jail cell, and if the laws don’t permit him to be put in a jail cell, the laws are wrong. But I think there in fact ARE sanctions for colluding with treason. At the very least, he’s an accessory. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/27 "2004-10-08T14:20:30Z")
> [@Early Out](#): > > Just one of the costs of living in a free, open society. A cost worth paying, IMO. No, it’s not. And I don’t consider letting reporters commit treason as we narrowly define it to be necessary to have a free and open society. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/28 "2004-10-08T14:33:23Z")
I’m just not sure we want to have our journalists trying to second-guess the sensitivity of information they are provided by administration officials. Under Secretary of Whatever tells reporter about XYZ. Do we want the reporter to have to try to figure out whether revealing XYZ is a good thing or a bad thing? In general, I think we want the reporter to do his level best to determine whether the information is accurate or not, not to determine whether we should be told about it or not. Granted, this is a difficult case, because even a nitwit like Novak would know that outing Plame was indefensible. Thing is, hard cases make bad law. (Who said that?) ---
**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/29 "2004-10-08T14:34:16Z")
It is conceivable that the reason that they are not talking to Novak directly is that, as the individual who put his byline on the leak it is very difficult to compel him to reveal his story. The journalists who have been jailed/subpoena’d on the other hand, are not protecting a source but merely someone who (allegedly) committed or offered to commit a crime in their presence. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/30 "2004-10-08T15:05:39Z")
Regarding the treason thing: Journalists do have some rights and privileges we lesser mortals lack. But possessing some First Amendment rights _does not_ relieve a person of his responsibilities as a citizen. If Bob Novak feels compelled to publicly reveal the identity of a secret agent of our nation, that’s fine - but he damned well better fork over his citizenship card, cuz he’s pissed away the right to carry it. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/31 "2004-10-08T15:08:39Z")
> [@andros](#): > > But do you really want to use Ann FerGod’sSake Coulter as your compass? OK, I’ll (try to) behave. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/32 "2004-10-09T01:26:44Z")
> [@Gamaliel](#): > > And the Daily Show awarded him the well deserved title “Douchebag for Liberty”. That’s right. He is not a traitor, but he certainly is a douchebag. And there ain’t no law against bein’ full of pussy detergent. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/33 "2004-10-09T01:42:03Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > Sure, they should. None of us are above the law, including reporters. . The reporter did not break the law. A reporter is NOT under any obligation to keep state secrets. Quite the opposite. The man who\* leaked \* the info belongs in jail. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/34 "2004-10-09T03:01:52Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > That’s right. He is not a traitor, but he certainly is a douchebag. And there ain’t no law against bein’ full of pussy detergent. How the fuckety fuck fuck fuck do you figure a guy who knowingly outed a covert CIA op ISN’T a traitor? Jeebus, you’re like one of those guys who goes around saying, “Yeah, I let other guys fuck me up the ass – but I’m not GAY.” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124/35 "2004-10-09T03:14:19Z")
It’s very simple. Novak is not a traitor because he breached no duty owed to the government. Why is that diffivult to understand? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-novak-the-worlds-most-powerful-man/268124.md?page=1)