Novak hit a pedestrian. The bicyclist you refer to is the lawyer who saw the crime, chased after his car, and wouldn't let him flee the scene.

But as a paleoconservative I find him to have more integrity

You just wrote that you are a paleoconservative. Is that what you actually meant?

I don't like him or what he has written, but I do feel bad for him and wish him well. People don't really survive malignant brain tumors very often though. He and Kennedy both are likely to have less than a year.

I think the king of snarkness has a certain ring.

we'll be together a long long time.

The Scooter Libby case never gained traction because Novak couldn't be touched. Novak has the ear of many important polticians, he once chided Bush for running the economy to the benefit of 'Liberal' stock pickers. More recently he was fingered as the media source used by the Federal Reserve when they wish to 'jawbone' the market. If a Liberal reporter had this cozy a relationship with the administration, Conservatives would be screaming their heads off. Incidentally bicyclists are usually listed as pedestrians. I was in an accident last month, and the police reports lists me as pedestrian.

No love lost for the work he's done, but I wish him well personally. Godspeed to him and his family.

I really tried.

But there are hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead and most of them didn't make it to anywhere near Novak's age.

Russert & Novak: two peas in a pod.

Ignorant of facts; sticking to the spin; gotcha-journalists of the most infantile kind.

Unlike Russert, I'll miss Novak and his unique presence.

I am truly disappointed by statement, “. . . I find him to have more integrity and a greater grasp of realism than the loony neoconservatives of the present generation.” You can describe the personality, character, and traits of Robert Novak without ever mentioning integrity. This jerk outed Valerie Plame. This guy is a piece of sh…! Well, everyone knows that, but the GOP and you.

I'm so glad he's retiring. One less hack in the world of journalism is a good thing in my book.

As the victim of a hit-and-run driver, I would use many words to describe a driver who hits a person and leaves them without checking for the seriousness of their wounds. Integrity is not one of them.

Self-serving, thinks they are above the law, self-important -- but those are also the words we would use to describe the man who outed Valerie Plame and was a tool (in more ways than one) of Dick Cheney.

was against the Iraq war and said so constantly before we went in, so most of you ingrates should be kissing his ass.

And in a few weeks we'll hear of his death - no autopsy.

He'll soon meet up with his old friend Ken Lay.

As the religious right is so fond of laying the blame of bad things at the feet of the "wicked", perhaps Novak's illness has been brought on by God as punishment for his wicked ways.

belongs in a federal prison for outing a CIA operative. Plain and simple. Almost no one cared when Al Capone died of syphilis while in prison. Novak is a little man who used his position to ruin the lives of two people and more than likely caused the death of others who were exposed as agents working in other countries where Plame worked her magic. he helped brave men like George Bush and Dick Cheney invade a country and deserves to be placed in prison for his blatant Treason. Period.

This is the same Bob Novak who outed Valerie Plame, is it not? Does his illness disconnect your brain from your judgement to such a degree that you actually intend to argue he has more integrity than other journalists?

I'm sorry, there are some unanswered questions to this story that make me suspicious. Questions like:

1. Had Novak experienced other cognitive or perceptual deficits prior to this accident?

2. How in hell did Novak get away with only paying a $50 fine after hitting a pedestrian and leaving the scene of the collision?

3. Why didn't the doctor commenting on Novak's condition provide more details? Where is this tumor in Novak's brain? How big is it? What kind of tumor? How long has it been there?

4. Has Novak ever uttered a word of concern for the pedestrian, an 86 year-old man hospitalized with a dislocated shoulder?

I do not associate the words "integrity" or "honesty" with Robert Novak. The man sold out as a journalist to get access to Washington players, esp. Republican ones. He ultimately became a mouthpiece for Rove and Cheney and was far more concerned with his position of power than with honesty or impartiality. After 7+ years of lies, deception and law-breaking at the highest levels of our federal government, I can easily imagine a bit player in this farce inventing an illness to duck out of facing the consequences for his actions.

Really- or is this a joke? He has been a willing instrument of the neoconservatives including outing an undercover CIA agent for them for spite and retribution to her husband for writing an op-ed that countered claims in the run up to war.

I don't relish or celebrate anyone's sufering and it stinks when illness forces someone to retire but let's get the facts straight.

Where did you come from? Why did Salon hire you? Are you saying you're a paleoconservative? If so, what IS a paleoconservative? Why would ANYONE have anything good to say about Robert Novak? In the words of George H.W. Bush, the man is an insidious traitor — why isn't he in jail? Why do you think there's a "sensible substitute" in the conservative chattering class? They're all slaves of this White House, and to this day, every day, they're still doing Rove's racist, un-American bidding. Which brings me back to: Why are YOU writing items in War Room?