Bob Novak: Comedy Gold

If you haven't heard, Bob Novak said "bullshit," live on CNN. That right there is comedy gold. Now, for those of you who don't know who Bob Novak is, let me fill you in. If you've never seen Bob Novak, you've really been missing out. I mean, if you crossed the DNA of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Princeton historian Bernard Lewis, and literary critic Harold Bloom, you'd probably end up with good old Bob. Yeah, yeah, he's a conservative pundit on CNN's Crossfire (well, maybe not anymore), but he's been in the news recently because of the Valerie Plame controversy, a controversy that's extended its tendrils all the way to the White House and landed New York Times journalist Judith Miller in jail for refusing to name a source. Yet good old Bob, who originated the whole damn story, hasn't said anything, except teasing us all by suggesting that maybe he took the name from a book. Huh? Bob Novak's a comedian, he just doesn't know it yet.

On an entirely unrelated note, the entire John Roberts nomination has been an absolute fiasco for the Democrats. Under party chairman Howard Dean, the party's modus operandi has been to stall, fuss, and cry foul as much as possible. For a party realing from successive losing Presidential campaigns, this tactic will be particularly scarring especially if they expect to win Congressional seats in 2006. Instead of waiting until the confirmation hearings to begin their attacks on Robert's (limited) judicial record, they began from the moment of his nomination. Pointing to a case he argued while a lawyer as proof of his "threat" to Roe v. Wade has looked amazingly stupid after news yesterday that he lent his judicial expertise to a group lobbying for gay rights in Colorado. Proof positive that the Democrats should have just waited until his confirmation hearing before opening up the floodgates of criticism. The act has gotten tired, and while it may be impressive to legions of Democrats on the coasts, the very voters they need to win, those living in the blooming suburbias of the Southeast and Midwest, would care for more a little more substance than the Democrats have been giving them.

There's still time for the Democrats to turn things around. However, instead of finding positive labor solutions during a conference that saw a massive rift develop between the AFL-CIO, the best and brightest of the Democratic Party, including such heavies as Nancy Pelosi, Johnathan Edwards, and Barack Obama, found nothing better to do than bemoan the decline of labor and speak of the evils of free trade. The Democratic Party has embraced a policy of isolationism at a time when America needs fresh ideas, not backwards ones. This is the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who himself defeated the last great isolationist, Herbert Hoover, and began the most celebrated of all Democratic economic policies, the New Deal. There's still time, but it's running out quickly. Rather than worrying about who'll run in 2008 (and if either Rudy Giulianni or John McCain win their party's nomination, it'll be damn tough to win), they should be keeping their gaze firmly fixed on the 2006 mid-term elections.

P.S. Novak's this is bullshit is eerily reminiscent of Peter Finch's epic meltdown in the classic film Network, when he declares (and urges us to do the same), "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Well, apparently Bob was mad as hell and he wasn't going to take James Carville's shtick any longer.