Poor Bob Novak. About a month ago, as part of a series of sycophantic meetings, the president invited conservative writers/pundits such as David Brooks, Rich Lowry, and Kate O’Beirne over to the White House for a chat. Novak wasn’t invited — and apparently he’s feeling a little bitter about it.
From an appearance on The Diane Rehm Show yesterday:
CALLER: I take it from his previous comments that [Novak] would consider himself a conservative and fall on the side of government is more of the problem. And I guess it’s hard to reconcile that with support of a conservative administration that has expanded governmental powers in probably the three most important areas — the defense of the country, waging war, and administering justice — it seems to be remarkably incompetent.
NOVAK: Well, you know, I hear these things and I’m just amazed. Because I don’t support this administration. The president’s cut me off the list of conservative columnists that are invited there. They consider me a lot of trouble. Every administration has considered me a lot of trouble. We start good — and particularly with Republican administrations. But it’s like a bad marriage — it starts nice after the honeymoon and it just gets worse.
This from the man who recently said he “never enjoyed such a good source inside the White House” as Karl Rove.
Indeed, Novak seems to have thrown quite a pity party for himself during the Rehm interview.
Tim Grieve noted a few other choice tidbits:
* On the criticism he received after outing Valerie Plame: “The abuse — you can’t imagine the abuse I get in e-mails. People say things in e-mails … that are absolutely … dreadful. [Plamegate] cost me financially, it cost me very heavy legal fees — about $160,000. And then you have, beyond that, I wasn’t on ‘Meet the Press’ for a number of years, and it helped poison my relationship with CNN.”
* On his professional colleagues: Novak complained that he got “very little support” during the case from his “shameful” journalistic colleagues, who he said let their liberal ideology trump their commitment to real journalism.
* On the media in general: “What I tell [conservatives] is to go in the closet: don’t tell anybody you’re a conservative, don’t tell a soul, because you’re not going to get the job, and you’re not going to get advanced,” Novak said. “You just say you have ‘no political leanings’ … because a conservative label on someone would really be an impediment to their careers.”
It’s as if Novak lives in some kind of parallel universe in which conservatives have limited access to microphones, as compared to our universe in which the opposite is true.