Right-wing columnist Robert Novak wrote four columns about the Swiftboat group’s attacks on John Kerry between Aug. 2 and Aug. 27 — a little better than a column a week on the subject. All of them, naturally, supported the group’s smear.
Considering Novak’s political agenda, it’s not surprising he’d repeat the right’s favorite lie incessantly, but four columns in a month did seem a little excessive, even for a polemicist of Novak’s reputation.
As it turns out, Novak may have been getting a little added push on the issue.
Among the stoutest defenders of “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” the best-selling book arguing that Mr. Kerry lied about his record of service in Vietnam, is the columnist Robert Novak.
In his syndicated columns and on the CNN program “Crossfire,” Mr. Novak has lauded the book and referred to veterans who criticize Mr. Kerry – most notably John E. O’Neill, the book’s co-author – as “real patriots.”
Unmentioned in Mr. Novak’s columns and television appearances, however, is a personal connection he has to the book: his son, Alex Novak, is the director of marketing for its publisher, the conservative publishing house Regnery.
In a telephone interview, Robert Novak said he saw no need to disclose the link.
“I don’t think it’s relevant,” he said.
No, of course not. Novak’s son is responsible for generating attention for a book full of lies about a Dem war hero, while Novak was going above-and-beyond to generate attention for the same book in nationally syndicated newspaper columns and through his position at CNN. Not relevant at all.
How a dishonest hack like Novak keeps his job is a total mystery to me.