Bob Novak: Douchebag for Liberty

I work in an office with a TV I can have on in the background all day. Unfortunately, the only news channel I've got is CNN (not that there's too much to choose from stateside). Which means I am endlessly frustrated by their limp, incurious coverage. And that means a whole lot of caniption fits while watching the Crossfire Gang. The last couple days, it's been Carville and Novak. Novak will not share the stage with Begala anymore, after Begala dared to bring up some of Novak's actual words:

(from 7.2.04)

BEGALA: And let me ask you, Mr. Novak, with your new self-founded -- newfounded self-righteousness, are you going to retract the statement you said last week on "Meet the Press," where you implied that President Clinton was involved in people's deaths over Whitewater? That's the most outrageous things I've heard said about an American president.

NOVAK: I didn't say he was engaging -- and you're lying.

BEGALA: I'll read your words.

NOVAK: And when I said that...

BEGALA: "I don't believe that the Whitewater case was ever fully investigated. People died, and I believe Bill Clinton beat the rap on Whitewater."

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: ... he beat the rap and people died. Who died? Who died in Whitewater?

(CROSSTALK)

NOVAK: McDougal died, and...

BEGALA: He died in prison of a heart attack.

NOVAK: Well, people died (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But just a minute. You can't -- you can't say -- go on national television and accuse me of something I didn't say.

BEGALA: I read your words.

NOVAK: I did not say that, and that is a lie. And I...

BEGALA: These are your words, Mr. Novak. I read them.

NOVAK: And I'm ashamed of you for going on the air and saying that.

BEGALA: I got this from the transcript. This is the transcript from "Meet the Press", Bob.

NOVAK: That's an outrage. And it is...

BEGALA: It is an outrage. You owe Mr. Clinton an apology.

NOVAK: ... an absolute outrage because I did not say that he was responsible for those deaths. And this is not fun, Paul.

So, now he goes up against James Carville. And he apparently thinks so much of the Ragin' Cajun that he thinks he can just go ahead and lie to his face. On yesterday's show, Carville brought up the Census report showing a rise in the US poverty rate and the number of Americans lacking health insurance. Here's Novak's reply:

(from 8/26/04)

NOVAK: You know, James, I don't have to be politically correct. So I can tell you, these figures are phony on poverty.

CARVILLE: They are? Really?

NOVAK: This country is a really prosperous country. Most of the people who don't have life insurance -- I mean health insurance -- don't want to pay for it.

Now, not only is he disputing a report compiled by a federal agency full of Bush appointees, but he's doing it by that most Republican of tactics... just by saying so. Those figures are phony on poverty, because they are. And his notion that people without health insurance are just a bunch of greedy bastards who don't want to pay for it is completely insulting. People get sick because they lack health insurance, Bob. People die. They aren't trying to save a buck, moron.

Then today, on CNN's Live From... (which apparently stands for "Live From Everywhere But Where News Is Happening"), Novak and Carville joined Miles O'Brien to discuss the upcoming RNC. O'Brien starts showing the protesters, and asks Novak about them. Here's his quote (paraphrased, no transcript up yet):

NOVAK: I was in Chicago in 1968, and those protesters brought down the Democratic Party. But these protesters are just a bunch of idiots, and the only sensible thing to do is ignore them.

So, protesters are OK when it's at a Democratic Convention, but when it's at a Republican Convention, they should simply be ignored. Americans should be ignored. Not covered. Censored. Expunged from the record. Actually, maybe the only American that shouldn't be covered, Bob, is the woman whose identity you revealed to the world, risking her life and our national security.

Troll. Idiot. Liar. Douchebag.