His role in the outing of Valerie Plame aside and his noxious supercilious attitude aside, nobody wishes anyone to die of cancer. If he does have a malignant brain tumor, he faces a horrible period of treatment and, depending on the grade of tumor, a rather prolonged death. This does not mean I will miss his work at all but just that he is a member of my species. I'm not sure I include Cheney in my species but Novak, yes.

Novak never claimed he was the source of anything. If he was quoted as saying "I have received this information from a reliable authority who refuses to be named on condition of animosity", that would be Novak.

Robert Novak ..douche bag. Now he is a douche bag with a brain tumor. They are many other people on this planet more deserving of sympathy.

I hope he is in a lot of pain. Burn in hell Bob!

Did Novak show any compassion to the guy he mowed down with his corvette? Did he show any compassion to Valerie Plame or the other people at Brewster Jennings? No he did not. Does he deserve our compassion. No he does not.

Uh, yes.

More precisely - BushCo, over the last seven years, has robbed us of many things including compassion, especially for Shrub's cavalierly creepy cadre.

Just in time to rehabilitate his image as a hit-and-run driver.

Hey, I don't have any great love for Robert Novak, either, but common decency requires giving his side of the story a fair hearing, even if he would not be willing to do that in return.

When I first heard the story about his hitting a pedestrian, my first reaction was to wonder if he had been drinking. If he were inebriated, he might well not have noticed the pedestrian in the crosswalk, and maybe not even have registered the guy splayed out on the hood of his car. Or maybe he missed the pedestrian in the crosswalk and kept going to keep from being cited for a DWI. I thought the liklihood he deliberately ran the guy down in broad daylight on a busy street unlikely, but I didn't completely discount it, either.

But a brain tumor could explain why a pedestrian in the crosswalk or on the hood of his car did not register with him. And depending on how long the tumor has been there, it might explain a number of other things about his behavior in the last couple of years as well. That it was only discovered now is maybe not so strange; if he truly did miss noticing the whole incident, and knew that he had not been drinking or taking heavy medication, he might well have gone to the doctor, or been encouraged to do so, to discover if he had suffered a stroke or something else along that line.

Or maybe not. But I'm not willing to condemn the guy until we know for sure what is going on with him. And as much as I despise his politics and his nasty demeanor, I will still find it regrettable if it turns out he is suffering from something incurable, because that's just a sad situation for anyone to have to face.

To get out of his traffic ticket and possible court appearance?He has proven that he is just another untrustworthy pawn of this administration. I'm sure Dick Cheney will send him a 99 cent hallmark card.

..that my ideological opposites do to Sen Kennedy.

What kind of health insurance does he have? Maybe Novak's plight could lead a discussion of the need for actual universal healthcare in this country like the rest of the First World (and its ability to bring about early, preventive care in lieu of costly, late-term curative care, and pinning costs on the citizens themselves). Or not. No doubt Novak's admirably well-covered, given the income bracket he occupies, which is the American healthcare system operating as intended, in accordance with his own ideology.

Just as most of the right (not all, but most) was sympathetic in offering heartfelt wishes for good health to Ted Kennedy on his similar diagnosis, I for one will wish Novak godspeed in his treatment and recovery.

One can despise someone's opinions and actions, but wishing ill on another human is downright evil.

He's always been a nasty piece of work, vicious and reductive, and he outed Valerie Plame.

-- Lev Raphael

One would hope the word "traitor" appears in any piece talking about "what a great guy" Novak is. Not nice? Maybe, but it's accurate.

(BTW, Rosen, I got the sarcasm even if no one else did.)

Just in time to rehabilitate his image as a hit-and-run driver. I'm suspicious and not really in any mood to give him the benefit of the doubt. He can tell it to the judge. This move will keep the media fawning instead of pressing him on the hit-and-run.

That comment about what you may have seen on Novak's face in 2004 was completely undignified and uncalled for. I don't know who you think you are, but you certainly are not a doctor and you have no right to speak of anyone - republican, democrat or otherwise - who may have a brain tumor in the manner in which you did. The War Room has hit a new low. Shame on you Mr. Schaller.

Look. I don't wish ill of anybody. But. I can't pretend to be sad about Novak's health crisis, other than the empathy I feel for any human being facing their own mortality. And, should he be forced to retire, I wouldn't miss him.

Yes he's had access, but he's served himself more than the people, as his behavior during the Valerie Plame leak demonstrated.

That said, I wish him the best possible news after his biopsy.

Re: "Novak is the only columnist with sources in the paleo-con crowd and Republican ranks generally who is capable of breaking stories others in the media can't get"

Like revealing the names of covert CIA agents, which is a violation of federal law?