Robert Novak, Columnist, Dies at 78
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/bu...a/19novak.html

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Wow...any particular reason?

ETA: I'm aware of the Plame thing and his reputation...it just seems a bit harsh to celebrate that the guy died of brain cancer.

Stay classy.

Too late, it would seem.

Two of my Facebook friends have put up a status similar to aephi alum's thoughts; one is "My day is noticably brighter, Novak has died." The other is "Brain cancer evidentally doesn't work fast enough" with a link to the NY Times story.

Kind of shocking...

To me, comments like that say much more about the speaker than about the person they're talking about.

Sheesh! Most of my friends who deigned to comment on it (we're not a political crowd, no one's even talking about ObamaCare!) said something about his being the Prince of Darkness. But that's really about it.

I have a lot of friends who think they know more than they actually do about politics...mostly high school friends (and among those, mostly ones who did not attend college). My college and law school friends seem to be a bit more mature on issues (for the most part).

That's how it often is, huh? I think most of my core group of friends is pretty conservative (a bunch of us became friends when we started doing charity work for servicemembers), but we have enough to talk about where politics rarely gets in the way. None of us have jobs that belie our political leanings, either.

My office? Well, that's another story.

My favorite words/phrases from that story:

"pugnacious"

"cub reporter"

"notebook-and-shoe-leather newspaperman"

What are they going to say when people from the internet era start dying? "He began in the days of only 3 bytes of RAM"? It just doesn't have the same ooomph to it.

OK that was funny.

I once joked about a "dance on your grave" tour featuring mainly people responsible for Post-Modern literary theory, but it seems much harder to be that dismissive of people when you stop and think of them as human beings.

It would be hard for me to link to an obituary here with that kind of opening post, I think. Maybe I need to check to make sure I haven't done it.

Look. Death is almost never an occasion for celebration. (I say "almost never" because the execution of a serial killer or rapist could be considered cause for celebration. But as Novak was neither, that is irrelevant.)

I disagree with his politics, and then there was the whole Valerie Plame thing. But that by itself is not a valid reason not to respect someone.

I lost all respect for the man in 2002. At the time, he appeared on Crossfire as one of two "on the right" pundits opposite two "on the left" pundits. Then, as now, we were in a recession. There was a segment called (I believe) "Fireback", where they would answer viewers' letters and email. A viewer wrote in, in obvious distress, to give his own personal perspective on the economy. He had been laid off, his wife was unemployed, and they were struggling to support themselves and their children on unemployment checks that were small to begin with and would disappear entirely in a few weeks.

All Novak could say was: "Get a job."

We were in a recession. Jobs were not exactly easy to come by. I had been abruptly laid off a couple of months earlier, and I could not find a job for love or money, even with my master's degree from a top university. It was all but impossible to find so much as a part-time, minimum-wage job, let alone a job that paid enough to live on.

I wrote in asking him directly how he'd feel if he lost his job. What if he were in the other man's shoes and had to find a job, any job, to support his family - and couldn't even get a job flipping burgers at Mickey D's? Of course, my letter went unanswered.

The man had no perspective on the harsh realities of everyday life.

Nonetheless, I wish his family comfort in their time of sorrow.

What he said may have been insensitive. He may have lacked perspective, in your opinion. You may think the guy is a jerk.

But "good riddance," and expressing some sort of relief at his death (from a terrible illness) is a pretty extreme sentiment about someone who died.

ETA: I think I was just kind of surprised by your sentiments because I find you one of the more logical/reasonable people on the board.

If I had to bet, I'd wager there's a good chance he never even saw your letter.

And you don't think it sounds a tad insincere to say that after starting this thread with "good riddance to bad rubbish"?

Probably ended up in the hands of an intern or administrative person - with someone that controversial and that "public," so to speak, he must have gotten pages upon pages of letters from people. I would bet there were interns or administrative people who were responsible for sorting out only a small fraction of those letters for his review and comment.

^^^ Exactly what I was thinking.

Oh?

I'm sure of that. I'm also sure that I wasn't the only person to write in and criticize him for his callousness. I'm sure he got an avalanche of email, and I'm not annoyed that my particular email was ignored - but he ignored the whole avalanche.

Sorry, but your point is lost on me.

You seem to be sure of many things -- that he got an avalanche of mail and ignored the whole avalanche.

You also seem to be carrying around a lot of anger over something that someone you didn't even know did 7 years ago.

It seems that I was unclear about my feelings surrounding Novak's death. Let me clarify before you all dismiss me as a cruel heartless bitch.

There is a distinction between Robert Novak, human being, and Robert Novak, pundit.

I disagree with Novak's politics. When I first heard of his passing, the first thing I thought of was that insensitive "get a job" statement. That particular comment had hit me hard, at a time when I was unemployed, unable to find work despite glowing credentials, and depressed about it. Hence the harsh comment. I'd have said the same thing if he'd retired and stayed retired.

However, Novak was also a human being, just like you and me. He suffered from a variety of cancers, meningitis, and broken bones. I take absolutely no pleasure in the fact that another human being suffered and died and that his family and friends are now mourning his passing.

Am I sorry that Robert Novak, pundit, will no longer be appearing on TV and writing books? No. Am I sorry that Robert Novak, human being, suffered and died? Yes.

I hope that clarifies my viewpoint.

... And this is why I usually stay out of the News & Politics forum. :)

I wasn't going to go there, don't worry. ;)

It does.

LOL.

It does, thank you.

Now, get a job.

I did so, long ago.

I suggest you do the same.