WLADYSLAW PLESZCZYNSKI: Washington's Prince
Novak, Robert D.
AM NOT A PERSON WHO IS EASY for a lot of people to like," Bob Novak writes early in this not-massiveenough memoir. But how can anyone ever dislike someone who never fails to make an...
...Novak knew better, of course...
...If not for this memoir, one would not have known that ThompsonwasasourceofhisduringWatergate-they'd first met at a Washington watering hole-or that the fiercely competitive Novak has been a longtime admirer of Will, and in 1972 had unsuccessfully recommended Will to succeed David Lawrence at the Publishers-Hall syndicate...
...You won't be able to put this book down...
...At least they had one...
...A profuse,500-wordletterofapologyfromNovakhelped save his neck...
...Andagentlemanreporterkeepsmosteverything tight to the vest (his first came with the three-piece suit he purchased in frigid Sioux Falls, South Dakota, B O O K SI NR E V I E W 5 8 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 WladyslawPleszczynskiisTheAmericanSpectator's editorialdirector.Washington's Prince I The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington By Robert D. Novak (CROWN FORUM, 662 PAGES, $29.95) Reviewed by Wladyslaw Pleszczynski B O O K SI NR E V I E W in 1960...
...Some would arrange drops...
...Our visitors didn't stagger in from their three-beer lunches until about 10-15 minutes later, oblivious to the insultthey'd caused...
...I lost track of the individuals Novak mentionsasimportantsources--attimeshecomesacrossas a director of central intelligence continually tapping into many networks of informants, knowing all the while that some might be more self-serving or devious than others...
...An instant hit, initially it ran six mornings a week (among book and other writing projects, and soon enough, television, thanks above all to the pioneering work of Ed Turner...
...One thing was immediately clear...
...ShetoldmethatIhadcausedherpersonalhumiliation," and said to him "our personal relationship is now at an end...
...Imagine her surprise when in her own newspaper on the morning of October 13, 1967, she read about Rusk's off-the-record remarks to "a select group of New York executives...
...You must think I'm Judas," Stockman said to Novak, in the last conversation they ever had...
...Fortunately, the storm clouds lifted, Novak gave an expert presentation (certainly better than Matthews's hammering away at "the gender gap"), answered questions, and soon was off to his next designation...
...That was no skin off Novak's nose--he hadmetherforthefirsttimeonlyseveralweeksearlier when,atLBJ'srequest,shehadcalledEvansandNovak intoaskthemtobenicertohim.Novakjustdidn'twant to see their professional relationship come to an end...
...The session was to have begun promptly at 1 P.M...
...The discussion was political, cordial if cool...
...I remember the first time I met him...
...INSIDER WASHINGTON REPORTING has not seen anything like it, providing new information in every offeringandrequiringitsauthorstobenolesspolitically savvy than its subjects and cultivating sources relentlessly...
...First thing that day, Novak received a frosty call from her...
...Onecansensethis washing of hands hurt Novak more than all the physical pain he's withstood in his long career--since 1981 alone he has survived spinal meningitis, two cancer operations,andtwobrokenhips.He'saverytoughguy, but even tough guys have real feelings...
...In one such instance, a good friend of his passedalong a long memorandum from an off-the-record lunch in New York with Washington Post-Newsweek executivesatwhichSecretaryofStateDeanRuskheatedly denounced "pseudo-intellectual" critics of the Vietnam War...
...This was a no-nonsense professional, someone who works very hard, can't afford to waste time, yet is also generous with it, as I've had occasion to observe many times since...
...The Washington Post was and remains theNovakcolumn'smostimportantoutlet...
...And once in a while one ofthemwouldgetNovakintotrouble...
...Not even close...
...Already by 1972 he'd beeninthenewspaperbusinessformorethan20years, includingasenioryearattheUniversityofIllinoisspent working for the Champaign-Urbana Courier (which almost cost him his senior year--but that's another story...
...It's been like that for five decades and counting...
...Consider a small recent dinner for Fred ThompsonattendedbyNovakandGeorgeWill,among others...
...Bob, it's not a newspaper column...
...It was too juicy not to use, even though Novak had to lie to protect his source--who happened to be a Washington Post reporter--and even though Katharine Graham, president of the Washington Post Company, had attended the lunch...
...It was early June 1983, in a conference room at the Army-NavyClubinWashington,wheremymagazine was hosting a dozen or so visiting British and European journalists and such eminences as Novak, Chris Matthews, and Robert Kaiser of the Washington Post hadkindlycomebytobriefthemon U.S...
...By then he had accepted Rowland Evans's offer to join him as his partner in a double-bylined syndicated column for the New York Herald-Tribune...
...O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 5 9In a memoir that has some wonderfully blunt things to say about numerous Washington personages, Novak never responds to Kinsley in kind...
...One problem: the visitors were nowhere to be found...
...Even today, almost 15 years after Evans's retirement, Novakfilesthreecolumnsaweek...
...I'm getting angry, I'm getting angry," Novak soon enough let on, drumming his fingers on the table in front of his chair and giving me a look that could kill...
...A temporary AP gig in Omaha led to full-time politicalreportinginLincolnandtheninIndianapolis,a transfertoWashingtonin1957andayearlateramoveto the Wall Street Journal, whose presence in Washington grew exponentially once it had Novak to cover the Senate and the 1960 presidential campaign...
...Other sources Novak liked he later learned were snakes--David Stockman, for instance, who it turned out was alternating Saturday breakfasts with Novak and William Greider, author of the notorious Atlantic article in which Stockman mocked the supply-side policies he was supposedly championing...
...politics...
...Underneath it all is a well-manneredgentleman...
...Bill Kristol, a source and friend for 17 years, Novak writes, never returned a call as promised after Novak's patriotism was questioned in National Review on the outbreak of the Iraq war, and when asked about Novak on C-SpanduringthePlamehysteria,replied,"Novakisa friend--[pause]--anacquaintance...
...But how can anyone ever dislike someone who never fails to make an impression, and always with an economy of words and never by shooting his mouth off...
...In 1961 Vermont Royster offered him a leading editorial positioninNewYorkthatin1963wouldgotoRobertBartley...
...Others would meet only in dank restaurants...
...Whenever I come across Michael Kinsley's famous slamatNovak,"Underneaththeass---is a nice guy, but underneath the nice guyisanotherass----,"Icringe,notjust for Kinsley's sake, who for all we know wasprojecting,butforNovak's,whohasprobablysuffered more abuse than any journalist in Washington history, the recent Plame nonsense being merely the latestexample.Typically,though,inamemoirthathas somewonderfullybluntthingstosayaboutnumerous Washington personages, Novak never responds to Kinsley in kind...
...Rejecting Will's sample columns, Novak's contact atthesyndicatetoldhim,"Thewordsaretoolong, thesentencesaretoolong,theparagraphsaretoolong, the whole damn columns are too long...
Vol. 40 • October 2007 • No. 8
