Right wing columnist Robert Novak belatedly dies at the age of 78

WWW--He was a demagogue, a player, a hater, and just one-of-many jackapes screeching in our collective-ear for the last 30+ years, ramming a failed and moronic rightist agenda down all of our throats. At the end of his very pathetic and partisan career as an ostensible journalist and political commentator for old and young fools alike, he outed an active CIA officer for political purposes, for the Bush II administration. That's not a columnist, a journalist, or even a talking head. That's a political mercenary who deserves no respect whatsoever, a hack like Tim Russert or former NYT journo, Judith Miller.

But you wouldn't know any of this listening to NPR today, those scions of ass-licking. I expected this since they're as predictable as a Rush Limbaugh monologue, but they were gunning for a new low today and their rush to the bottom was achieved. When NPR offers the same drivel as the rest of the mainstream media--which is generally free--why pay for it at all? Thankfully, few are, and jazz fans are going to have to deal--all 10,000 of them.

Whenever I feel the slightest twinge of guilt over never having contributed to public radio, it's days like this that remind me that it was always a good move. But NPR are hardly alone in this bizarre adulation of this not-a-man, this moron, this careerist slimeball. No, we shouldn't be mourning Robert Novak, we should be mourning the perfectly viable cancer cells that had to die with him, it's not fair. That he was intellectually bankrupt is a given. That he was annoying is a given. That he was a liar is a given. There's no reason to celebrate him anymore than it would have been when some clone-like apparatchiki died in the former Soviet Union. Good riddance.

Nixon's former counsel John Dean (no, not Howard Dean, former DNC chair) once told the late President Richard Nixon that, "There's a cancer on the presidency," referring to the Watergate burglars. He was far too optimistic--Nixon was that cancer. When thinking of the late conservative columnist it just brings-to-mind the obverse: "There's a Robert Novak on the cancer." Poor cancer. He wasn't a journalist, he was just some asshole powerful people gave a soapbox to, and for far too long. Thanks for reminding me that mortality's not so bad, Bob, thanks for the reminder (thanks God!). At least you die too.

And what should be his epitaph? We already know: Valerie Plame, and the fact that he did a hit-and-run on someone, went to the doctor, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. That seems to sum-up the reactionary right. Finally, I and millions of others don't have to tell this asshole to shut the fuck up.

Why did Tim Russert have a heart attack?

Our Generally Crappy Mainstream Media--It's funny, in Scott McClellan's "What Happened," he talks about how the Bush administration didn't--and we can assume still doesn't--trust the mainstream press. Well, neither does the public, Scotty. That's odd, but Scott writes a lot of contradictory things like that. Do I think he's lying? No, but he's obviously confused about what happened to him during his unfortunate association with George W. Bush and Co. (1999-2006). That's understandishable,™ and something to bloviate over.

Of all of the single news shows out there, Dick Cheney went to speak on Tim Russert's more than any other. He's mentioned three times in the index of "What Happened," while Michael Moore not only isn't listed, he doesn't get even a passing mention in the entire book. In fact, in the section where Bush first heard that the attacks of September 11th, 2001, we get no mention of "My Pet Goat," though McClellan does state that the president appeared stunned and in a trance. Fine. But this is a little puzzling, and if one looks to McClellan's past behavior, it's congruent with when he was press secretary and deputy press secretary: he's protecting George W. Bush.

So did Tim Russert, and the majority of the mass media we jokingly refer to as the "Fourth Estate," which we can assume means that it's always for sale to the highest bidder. Fortunately, the public is buying this property less-and-less. But Scott-Scott-Scott...he was sick on that Italian vacation, a place that's re-experiencing those heady-days when Il Duce was once popular and vendors could sell little images of him openly in the streets. It's Berlusconi time again, and they've found the Lupercale.

Tim apparently felt "sick," and we're now hearing that he had to put his father in an assisted living facility. I can empathize to an extent. However, unlike millions of Americans, he had the money to cover it--and handily--so we can discount this as a factor in his heart attack. If it was, he was a noodle, not a man, but that appears to be a foregone conclusion anyway. No, it was because he was fat, slovenly, and because the Plame investigation was being reopened. Russert had direct-involvement in the story (something I can relate to!), and had to be coerced by the courts to testify his crucial part of the story in the leaking of the identity of an active CIA officer by government officials within the White House.

This crime was committed to discredit government inspector Joe Wilson's contention that the story that Iraq was attempting to procure uranium-ore ("yellowcake") in Niger was patently false. This was in the immediate aftermath of the illegal invasion of Iraq, and threatened the very rationale for the war: WMDs. As we know, over 1,000 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles were found within the territory of Iraq shortly after our indefatigable troops watched the looting of the national treasures, along with tens-of-thousands of chemical and biological warheads.

Ironically, Wilson also happened to have been sent by the vice president's office to learn if the story was true, and also happened to be the husband of the "outed" CIA officer, but that wasn't a coincidence. That was the crime after the crime, after several-hundred other related crimes. The vice president's office was running the "discredit Joe Wilson" show, and Cheney's chief of staff (not his janitor) I. "Scooter" Libby was involved in the leaks. What's was Bush's nickname for Russert? McClellan's? He won't say, so it must be scatological...

To-the-point: it seems possible that fear of prosecution--at-minimum, a subpoenaing again--and the obvious threat to his career with the reopening of the Plame investigation by the House Judiciary Committee contributed to the death of Tim Russert. The story of his father doesn't wash. The average American would endure more stress over the medical costs than someone as well-heeled as Russert.

He was hardly suffering financially if he was vacationing with his family in Italy. Certainly, the heat of the Mediterranean could have contributed to his heart condition, and of course, too much eating. Autopsy, anyone? Why not? The press seems hard-pressed to bury the man, so what gives? Of all the allies of this administration outside of the GOP, the mainstream press has the most accommodating and loyal. They still are. Here rests the reasons for the never-ending tributes, and the spirit of sincere journalism--six feet under.

Was Tim Russert a Divinely Inspired Hack?

Our Generally Crappy Mainstream Media--Perhaps eclipsing the death of the last Pope, Rudolph Valentino, JFK, RFK, and Gerald Ford (still dead), we got an earful about the allegedly wonderful Meet the Press host over the last several days. The litany was endless over what a "great guy" Russert was, and just what an incredible journalist he'd been...except that he wasn't, and expect them to keep braying. And where's Russert's Oswald? It was his heart, it betrayed him after he betrayed all of us.

Granted, he cast a charming Irish spell on those of us who want to feel reassured by a journalist who doesn't ask the "hard" questions of public officials--something he rarely ever did, if ever. I never noticed any substantial questions. For those of us who don't want things to change for the better, and for those of us who are afraid of a truly dynamic democracy where there's supposed to be acrimony and disagreement, Tim Russert was Jesus.

There is one thing, and one thing only that the late Tim Russert should be remembered for: he and his counsel resisted testifying over his involvement in the Plame scandal, an incident that needs no explaining to anyone paying attention. Russert had crucial information on the outing of a CIA officer by members of the executive branch as part of a disinformation campaign surrounding the pretext for the war in Iraq, and he withheld it. So much for patriotism or principles, Russert was a crusader-in-disguise for creeping authoritarianism:

Russert was aware that a special prosecutor probing the leak of a CIA operative's name knew of his summer 2003 telephone conversation with Libby, and that Libby had released him from any promise of confidentiality. [Ed.-My emphasis.] But Russert, the Washington bureau chief for NBC News and host of "Meet the Press," and his attorneys argued in previously sealed court filings in June 2004 that he should not have to tell a grand jury about that conversation, because it would harm Russert's relationship with other sources. ("Russert Resisted Testifying On Leak," the Washington Post, 01.10.2006)

As this site has always contended, the livelihoods and careers of these so-called journalists are their main priority, and they believe in nothing. The "Fourth Estate" aren't concerned or worried about our rights, and therefore feel no connection to the social contract or the common good. What they care about is themselves only, but orders are orders. But man, the coverage of his death! Oh, the coverage! Wall-to-wall, just breathtaking.

CNN and other major television news outlets even told us that there was a rainbow shining during Russert's funeral, strangely begging the question that he--like El Presidente--was somehow touched by God (more like in the head).

Mark this, and mark it well: whenever this system props-up a supplicant like Tim Russert for public deification, something is amiss, and the lies are flying. Court jesters had more courage than this clown ever did. Mediacrit.com sums-it-up best:

Being favored by Dick Cheney’s handlers doesn’t sound like a case for the journalism hall of fame, though.

In the case of Russert, we should consider what small impact “public affairs” journalism like Meet the Press has in these days of The Daily Show, social networking on the Internet, and Obama’s nontraditional campaign. I think the New York Times’ Media Equation columnist David Carr got it right when he observed that the mourning seemed not only for Russert, but an attempt to celebrate and shore up the increasingly irrelevant establishment political journalism. ("Mourning in America," Mediacrit.com, 06.19.2008)

All hail the death of establishment journalism. No, there's no reason at all to think of Tim Russert as anything but an American version of a commentator for Pravda under the Soviet regime, or a voice-over from a creaky old Nazi propaganda film. He was a stooge, a lapdog, and a moral coward without a shred of credibility.

Not that that makes him any different from his peers who attended his funeral this week, endlessly expounding on his (and their) fictitious merits as a journalist. His passing really is only relevant in relation to the Plame scandal.

Like most working within the world of the mainstream news media, he was not a man, but he was a traitor to himself, his family, and his nation. He will not be missed by those of us with the ability to reason, and history will judge him harshly. We're all born, and we all die. Tim Russert was no exception to this rule, and therefore, not special. Mourn the people he could have saved, save it. See you in the Emerald City, the Populists are off to meet the Wizard!The only problem is, they're shelling the Emerald City.

"Russert Resisted Testifying On Leak," the Washington Post, 01.10.2006: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/09/AR2006010901745.html

Mediacrit knocks it out of the park, June 19th, 2008:

http://mediacrit.com/mourning-in-america