Robert Novak Diagnosed with a Brain Tumor

Filed in National by on July 28, 2008

This sheds a new light on the hit and run accident. And while I may not have agreed on a single issue with Robert Novak, I am always* saddened by news like this.

*except when Jerry Falwell died.

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A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

Comments (59)

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  1. delawaredem says:

    Robert Novak is still a human being with a family. As such, I pray he recovers so we can have many more years calling him the Prince of Darkness.

  2. jason330 says:

    I don’t know. My Christian charity is taxed when bad stuff happens to people like Lee Atwater, Tony Snow, and Robert Novak.

    Call it karma or God’s unwillingness to be mocked, but I think these people’s lives bring on health issues.

  3. delawaredem says:

    Nah. If their evil nature brings on health problems, thousands of right wingers would have died decades ago.

  4. mike w. says:

    I’m sorry to hear that. I wish him the best of luck. Hopefully it is operable as Ted Kennedy’s was.

  5. Joe M says:

    I’ve indulged in my fair share of assholery, but I hope that when my time comes, people can be a little bit gracious.

    My sympathies and hope for a speedy recovery.

  6. Von Cracker says:

    Care Factor? About a D-minus, the same as T. Snow.

    I do like the term “Assholery” though….

    I’m sure the Wilsons are ambivalent too!

  7. Joanne Christian says:

    Mike W.–You are sadly misinformed if you think Ted Kennedy’s was “operable”…..his is for “management”….AKA…buying a bit of time….

  8. When I did the Tony Snow “post” it took every ounce in my being to not slam the p.o.s. human being that I think he is, correction…was.

    And I feel the same way about this tool. The crap he writes, the lives he has ruined and the people he helped go to war; they all paint enough of a picture for me to know the guy and that I don’t like him.

    “oh, but he is such a nice guy though”

    f-that, whatever man…such hypocrisy.

    it’s like people saying Dick Cheney is a good family man…ya think? Ohhhhhh, he killed few hundred thousand people by waging war, got people to break the geneva conventions so he could torture under his “ticking time bomb” scenario but gee he is so sweet with his grandchildren that all is magically forgiven.

    A dick is a dick and just b/c someone is dying or is diagnosed with something fatal doesn’t give me a SECOND of pause to think that my thoughts of him dissappearing should be squashed with some remorse because it is actually happening.

    Whatever, I am not going to project my fear of dying onto some putz that is used and enjoys being used as a tool for an administration that has ruined my country.

  9. David says:

    Other than that you are for more civility in politics.

    My Prayers go out for Mr. Novak.

  10. Que Qhe says:

    Eek.

    Lots of people have a problem seperating a man’s politics from his inner core, and that’s a serious distinction that has to be made. Even if someone is a major wad, that in no way indicates whether or not someone will help an old lady cross the street.

    I know plenty of considerate, “compassionate” conservatives, and an equal amount of schmuck liberals. I don’t think someone’s position on everything from campaign finance to the war is a true test of someone’s inner character. A human being is a human being, and politics is politics. I don’t believe that most humans are going to have this sadistic mindset, hoping that more Americans or Iraquis die or the like. All humans have the same ends, the betterment of society as a whole, we should approach these ends via different means.

    Everyone that works from positive ends, from Novak to Snow to even McCain, should be honored. To spit on them is to spit on humanity.

  11. liz allen says:

    Sorry Deldem! Mike Protack is our “political prince of darkness”, Novak is just “darkness”.

  12. Joe M says:

    “Whatever, I am not going to project my fear of dying onto some putz that is used and enjoys being used as a tool for an administration that has ruined my country.”

    That’s an interesting point. It may be that I’m projecting my own fear of dying here.

    However, when Falwell died, I did dance….

  13. below the canal says:

    Que Qhe: good point, I totally agree. I’d like to think that part of my progressive identity is that I show more authentic compassion than we’ve seen many conservatives show over the past 8 years. Publically dancing on the graves (or grave diagnoses) of conservative icons only brings us down to the level of Ann Coulter, Mike Savage, et. al.

    …and from a more cynical perspective: Doing so opens progressives up to charges of hypocrisy and inhumanity. It can empower conservatives by arming them with the (authentic or contrived) moral outrage that seems to be the only thing motivating a big chuck of the American electorate these days.

  14. A human being is a human being, and politics is politics

    I get it, from 9-5 you can be a dick, but ding, ding, ding 5:01 comes around all is forgiven.

    I don’t buy it for a second.

  15. anyone can help an old lady across the street, but when you are a 1000 miles away and don’t see that “old lady” yet you fuck her over by screwing her Medicare, taking away her Social Security or jacking up her perscription costs it’s all ok because, golly gee, you helped her across the street and stopped to shake her hand at the Polish festival.

    people are so gullible. Gosh, Castle isn’t that bad, he smiled and said hi to me at Target on 202 the other day.

    I think I’ll vote for him now…gee willickers

  16. mike w. says:

    “anyone can help an old lady across the street, but when you are a 1000 miles away and don’t see that “old lady” yet you fuck her over by screwing her Medicare, taking away her Social Security or jacking up her perscription costs it’s all ok because, golly gee, you helped her across the street and stopped to shake her hand at the Polish festival.”

    You speak as if she has a “right” to any of those things in the 1st place. She doesn’t.

  17. Hube says:

    I get it, from 9-5 you can be a dick, but ding, ding, ding 5:01 comes around all is forgiven.

    This is probably why many will have the same “compassion” towards you when terminal illness comes your way, dimwitty, that you showed to Novak.

    You. Are. Scum.

  18. liberalgeek says:

    OK, let me ask this question, just to push this a little closer to agreement.

    Will we recognize the humanity of Charles Manson when he dies? Did we all shed a tear when Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in prison?

    The reason I ask this is that there is a continuum of evil, and we each have different metrics that get us to maximum evilness. We probably all have a point on that scale that makes us cheer at that person’s death.

    There are certainly people that can do jobs that require suspending one’s normal morality (soldiering comes to mind), but the person can, with varying degrees of success, turn off that attitude when they leave the job.

    Dunno. I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to most.

  19. below the canal says:

    “I’m a rageaholic, I just can’t live without rageahol!”

    -DTB i can’t agree with you more about screwing that old lady. I’m equally as mad. I’m just saying that our justifiable outrage needs to be channeled into the appropriate areas – i.e. destroying terrible policy intiatives and then destroying their sponsors at the ballot.

    Beating up on jowly conservative pundits who just got a death sentance ain’t gon get us there.

  20. Dorian Gray says:

    Prayers, hmm? I’ve decided to sacrifice a goat and have a séance. Again, everyone has a family – or at least did at one time – why am I suppose to care?

    The real QOD shouild be thus: Are we supposed to just have blind compassion for everyone because by reproductive luck they were born?

  21. Al Mascitti says:

    If DV puts goat on the menu, I will attend the next barbecue.

  22. mike w. says:

    Oh come on. If this were some liberal who’d died the tone of the comments here would be completely different.

  23. Dorian Gray says:

    Liberal, conservative whatever… I guess I just have a different outlook. Guess what… EVERYBODY DIES. Bid deal. If I didn’t like you when blood pumped through you… I don’t like you now. The fact that you aren’t breathing isn’t going to stop me…

  24. Dorian Gray says:

    By the way, I heard FDR was a huge asshole. So there.

  25. Truth Teller says:

    If you can’t say something nice about a person then say nothing at all, However, All I can say is that his brother was worst

  26. mike w. says:

    “By the way, I heard FDR was a huge asshole. So there.”

    I don’t know about asshole, but he’s in the running for worst president ever.

  27. Joe M says:

    “Oh come on. If this were some liberal who’d died the tone of the comments here would be completely different.”

    Probably correct, but not for the reason that you think. See, I’ll be upset when, for instance, Daniel Dennett or Eugenie Scott dies, but not so much when W or Cheney dies.

    Why?

    Because, in my view, the first two actually add in to what I think of as making the world a better place. The other two have been destructive to our country and the world at large.

    It’s not wrong to have more depth of compassion for people whose contributions to my life or to this world hold more value to me, for they are people who, in my mind, have done some good.

    Conversely, it is not unreasonable to have little compassion and even gratitude for the loss of someone who I think does ill for the world or affects my life and the lives of those that I care about in a negative way. The closest I can come is have some regret that they didn’t do better with their lives.

  28. awww hube, I think I may cry now…go make fun of a nj letter or read a comic book to make yourself feel better

  29. Al Mascitti says:

    “I don’t know about asshole, but [FDR is] in the running for worst president ever.”

    Not here on planet Earth. In your parallel dimension, maybe, the one where all the deadly maniacs are threatening you and your family. On this one he’s generally very well regarded — including by the Conservative Jesus, Ronald Reagan.

  30. delawaredem says:

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Who led us through the Great Depression and World War II? I know you conservatives will hate him until the end of your own lives due to his helping poor people and creating the middle class, but creating a social safety net does not make him the worst President, it makes him our best President.

  31. jason330 says:

    Mike W has no credibility whatsoever. I might never reply to another Mike W comment after that one.

  32. I’d agree. Mike W. just laid the cards all out on the table with that comment. Like I said on my blog, my grandmother is a hard-core Republican, but she’ll shove a high heel up your ass in an instant if you criticize FDR.

  33. Von Cracker says:

    Buuuuttttt FDR was the HARBINGER of SOCIALISM!!!!

    …and teddy was the same for imperialism….

  34. Von Cracker says:

    I hope he was just trying to mess with us and that’s not his true belief….

  35. mike w. says:

    You do realize that both Mussolini and Hilter praised and admired FDR’s new deal programs, and that FDR had mutual praise for the socialist policies of those leaders in the years before WWII?

    Ever take a look at Communist era art / sculpture and compare it to American New Deal era art. The themes and similarities are uncanny. I’m not saying every aspect of the New Deal was wrong (though most of it was) but it most certainly was the closest thing to socialism we’ve ever had.

    Similarly, I hold LBJ in low esteem for his “great society” social programs, but I commend him for his support of Civil Rights initiatives.

    Oh, and WWII ended The Great Depression, not FDR’s New Deal policies.

  36. mike w. says:

    Teddy made quite a few serious foreign policy blunders, I’ll certainly agree with that.

  37. Von Cracker says:

    WWII ended The Great Depression

    duh.

    what kept it going afterward, more war?

  38. Von Cracker says:

    Teddy had big brass ones.

    Not appropriate behavior nowadays, though.

  39. Mike,

    I’d say both WWII and the New Deal shared in the success of finishing off the Great Depression. WWII got the economy going because it pumped billions into the industrial sector whereas the New Deal, literally, got millions back to work.

    You’re really reaching for straws with your anti-Democrat BS. I’ve bashed a lot of Dems in my day (ask Jason and crew), but FDR is one Democrat who had his shit straight and got the country back on track. If only George Bush had half the brains and tenacity of FDR.

  40. delawaredem says:

    If W had half the brains or tenacity of FDR, he would be Ronald Reagan.

  41. Steve Newton says:

    What I always think about when I hear people making FDR or TR arguments is this challenge:

    Since you weren’t around to witness any of this, that makes you dependent on historians.

    So when you make a statement, for kicks and grins, tell me which historians you read that influenced your belief. That way we’ll have some certainty that conservatives aren’t just quoting Jonah Goldberg and liberals aren’t just parroting George Lakoff.

    The assessment I prefer to follow for FDR handling the Great Depression, for example, is the interpretation of historian Barry Karl in his The Uneasy State rather than that of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., which was filled with a little too much hero-worshipping for my taste.

    Maybe it sounds academic and pretentious, but before we start throwing around “what ended the Great Depression” or “the ills created by the Great Society,” I’d really like to know what kind of authority that people can quote.

  42. delawaredem says:

    Mike’s comments labeling FDR as in the running for the title of worst President ever now reveals his reluctance earlier today in calling W the worst President ever. Indeed, I wonder if Mike actually does think W will be considered a good or great President some day. Certainly, Mike is biased for and against certain Presidents based on his ideological positions.

    Hold on there, you say. Isn’t my thinking W is the worst and FDR is the best based on my own ideological positions? No. Because I also think Reagan was an overall good President despite my disagreements with his domestic and some of his foreign policies. And I think Jimmy Carter was one of our worst Presidents, despite my affinity for the man and his post-Presidency.

    Indeed, Richard Nixon has risen in my estimation over the years after comparing him to later Republican / conservative Presidents. Nixon was downright liberal environmentally. I also liked Eisenhower and Ford, both Republicans. I think LBJ, a Democrat, has to be considered a failure due to Vietnam, despite all the other good he did. I even now have grudging respect for George H.W. Bush and his moderate foreign policy.

    By contrast, I think Mike holds all Democratic Presidents as the worst, and all conservative Presidents as the best, without any objective reflection on their actual success or failure.

  43. don’t forget WWII gave the Bush family their foothold too…some people like to forget that little nugget that W’s granddaddy helped finance hitler..but who’s counting…

  44. mike is 22 and still lives at home by the way

  45. FYI:

    Mike Matthews grandmom is into anal

  46. Only when her pumps are involved!

  47. delawaredem says:

    Jesus, DV! Is there a octogenarian alive in the State of Delaware that you haven’t bedded?

  48. Joe M says:

    A man needs his challenges, DD. No matter how unseemly.

  49. Que Qhe says:

    DTB, as long as someone is working towards the betterment of society, I don’t think that person is bad at their core. When legislators fuck over old ladies by not providing them benefits, most aren’t doing so because they get some sort of high off of screwing over seniors, they think that it is better for society as a whole not to do so. That doesn’t make them bad people, it just makes them stupid.

    They are just plain dumb, and thats why we can resent them as politicians, but as they can be genuinly decent human beings, who are we to resent them as people?

  50. mike w. says:

    “Certainly, Mike is biased for and against certain Presidents based on his ideological positions.”

    Isn’t that true of everyone?

  51. mike w. says:

    “Indeed, I wonder if Mike actually does think W will be considered a good or great President some day.”

    I highly doubt it.

  52. mike w. says:

    “By contrast, I think Mike holds all Democratic Presidents as the worst, and all conservative Presidents as the best, without any objective reflection on their actual success or failure.”

    Right, because clearly I’m a total Bush fanboy……

  53. mike w. says:

    “mike is 22 and still lives at home by the way”

    Yes, and your point is?

  54. pandora says:

    Who are you talking to? All the action is over at DV’s post! 😉

  55. my point it is you are hardly able to judge what works and what doesn’t when you live with mommy and daddy and have a few of Maslow’s needs all taken care of without ever having to take care of them on your own

  56. mike w. says:

    My current living situation has absolutely nothing to do with my ability to judge what works and what doesn’t based on my own informed opinion. I understand, for example, the fallacy of imposing “windfall profit taxes” as the Dems seem eager to do has everything to do with the lessons of history, as do other failed policies like gun control.

    I believe I’ve said before that some of Obama’s policies would probably benefit me more than some of McCain’s at this point in my life. (hey, free health insurance would be nice) but I reject Obama’s policies on principle alone, even if they might benefit me in the immediate future.

  57. pandora says:

    Actually, Mike, it does have something to do with your ability to judge. How, for instance, does the economy affect you? You aren’t paying a mortgage or the taxes that go with it. I’d guess that you don’t do most – if any – of the weekly grocery shopping. These are very real issues that you can only judge if they’re your sole responsibility.

    I bought my first home when I was 22. It was an eye opening experience. I never appreciated my parents’ more than when those first monthly bills hit or when I suddenly realized that things like toothpaste and paper towels didn’t magically appear.

  58. mike w. says:

    I would expect that some of my views will change in the coming years, but only someone with no integrity would allow their principles to take a 180 because of a change in lifestyle and / or living arrangements.

    Still, the lessons of history are not dependent upon my living situation. It doesn’t change my ability to look at a particular policy objectively through the lens of history and decide whether it’s bullshit, given the facts at hand. (see gun control and “windfall profit taxes”)