Why They Call Novak "The Prince of Darkness"

From yesterday's "Meet the Press": MR. RUSSERT: Why are you the "Prince of Darkness"? MR. NOVAK: A reporter, old reporter for Washington Post at that time, John J. Lindsay, said--we used to cover the Senate together and talk about things, and he thought I was so gloomy about the future of Western civilization, I was all of about 28 years old then, that he thought I was the Prince of Darkness. And the name stuck. A lot of people call me the Prince of Darkness, though, because I'm for small government, low taxes and individual economic freedom. And of course, a lot of people--even a couple of them at this table--think that makes you the Prince of Darkness. MR. RUSSERT: You, you... MR. MURPHY: No, I just think it makes you wrong. Novak also discussed the Valerie Plame case: MR. RUSSERT: In hindsight, should you have identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent? MR. NOVAK: There was no indication by, by the official spokesman for the CIA or anybody else that anybody was put in danger, that--I suddenly didn't get a direct call from George Tenet, the CIA director, who I knew. And if he wanted to stop me from doing it, he could've, so I, I saw there was no pressure from me. They asked me not, not to use her name, but didn't say that it was anybody in danger or there was any security violation as a result. And what does Al Hunt think of Novak? I must tell you, it's a fabulous book, and I say that as someone who thinks that Novak has more wrong views than anyone I've ever met in my life. I mean, he really does believe that tax cuts can solve hemorrhoids. But once he gets rid of those silly ideological views, he's a great reporter. And how did Hunt and Novak meet? MR. RUSSERT: But wait, wait a minute. He talks about you in the book, that he thought you were a Cleveland Park kind of, what would you say? MR. HUNT: Liberal. MR. NOVAK: Liberal. MR. RUSSERT: Yeah. But he got to know you on, got to know you on the campaign trail. You talked about politics, sports. Then you went to a dinner party in 1981, both got drunk and had a knock-down, drag-out battle about tax policy. MR. HUNT: Yeah. MR. RUSSERT: You know, where I come from, we argue about women, football. MR. HUNT: Yeah. MR. RUSSERT: Tax policy?

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Why They Call Novak "The Prince of Darkness"

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