Bloggers are making way too big a deal about the incident today on CNN when Robert Novak uttered an obscenity and walked out. (If you didn't see it, the video's all over the 'net. Here's a good place to view it.) Since the rhetoric preceding his little outburst was pretty much the norm for years on Crossfire, everyone wants to know why he stormed off the set. A better question would be why this man was ever allowed on the set in the first place.
He's a dreadful reporter and always has been. Back when he was teamed with Rowland Evans, people called them "Errors and No Facts," and the surviving member of that partnership has kept their record intact. No one expects reporters to get everything right or for all a pundit's predictions to be on target but there's such a thing as being so consistently wrong that you just shouldn't have the job. A week or two ago, Novak was proclaiming he had inside info that the retirement of Chief Justice Rehnquist would come in a day or two. It didn't, and I'm afraid that's pretty typical.
For years, he's been touted as a major Conservative commentator but you rarely see any true Conservatives quote the man, and many seem to be embarrassed that he has so many forums to so badly represent their views. Actually, his conservatism seems to start and stop with one issue: That wealthy people should make more money and pay less tax. One suspects that given the choice of outlawing abortion, achieving victory in Iraq and having ten bucks shaved off his I.R.S. bill, he'd instantly go for the third option. It is in no way surprising that Novak loves the Bush administration and has been willing to shill for it and repeat any damn thing they told him to report, including the identity of someone who may have been a covert C.I.A. operative. The Bush administration has lowered his taxes.
There are all sorts of theories for his little outburst today: He knew questions were coming about his involvement in the CIA/Plame story and was looking for a way to get out before them. He knew CNN was ready to can him and wanted it to seem to be for a reason other than controversy and the fact that every show he's done for them lately has been cancelled. He's under stress because he knows the case is about to blow wide open and he's in the middle with some embarrassing (and perhaps, criminal) revelations looming. Some or all of these may be true…but I don't think it's outrageous that he walked off CNN. I think the outrage is that he was there in the first place.