Robert Novak has brain tumor

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak, in the news last week for hitting a pedestrian while driving in his black Corvette, said today he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

In a statement released through the Chicago Sun-Times, Novak said:

"On Sunday, July 27, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I have been admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where doctors will soon begin appropriate treatment. I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period."

Novak's assistant, Kathleen Connolly, said the 77-year-old Novak became ill Sunday during a family outing near Cape Cod, Mass. A family member called 911, and he was brought by ambulance to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where the diagnosis was made. She added it was too early to know whether the tumor is malignant or benign.

Novak was the first journalist to publicly "out" Valerie Plame, whose identity as a covert CIA agent was leaked by several administration officials to various reporters in an effort to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who is a foe of the Iraq War. Last week, Novak was involved in a traffic accident. He said he had no idea -- until a bicyclist stopped him afterward -- that he had hit a pedestrian, who was treated for his injuries and released from the hospital.

The Swamp has an item on this, as does our own Top of the Ticket.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images

Robert Novak redux

So now it turns out that the victim of syndicated columnist Robert Novak's hit-and-run pedestrian scuffle is not, as earlier reported by us and everyone else, 66 years old -- he's 86 years old. And homeless. And forgiving. And kind of tickled at all the attention.

Don Clifford Liljenquist told WMAL radio in Washington D.C. that Novak's account -- the columnist who outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative said he didn't know he'd hit anyone until he was stopped by a bicyclist -- is plausible.

"Yeah, it's possible that he didn't know he hit me. The vehicle was moving at 10 miles per hour or something like that, and the driver might not have seen me, because I rolled off and fell down to the pavement. So, yeah, it's possible that he didn't see me. He wasn't paying attention to his driving."

Mostly he seemed delighted to hear that he had been hit by a famous person.

"Bob Novak is the one that hit me? Well, everybody knows who Bob Novak is! He's a famous journalist! . . . I was struck by Bob Novak? . . . Well, I think that makes it a great story!"

-- Johanna Neuman

Valerie Plame-Wilson slams Bob Novak for hitting pedestrian

Syndicated columnist Bob Novak publicly revealed Valerie Plame-Wilson's identity as a covert CIA agent in 2003, setting in motion an investigation that brought down I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, and seriously damaged the reputation of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and White House political maestro Karl Rove for leaking her name to other journalists.

The Wilsons left Washington two years ago to live in Santa Fe, N.M., where, as Wonkette put it "terrorists and Bob Novak will never find them." Now, from the desert, they are weighing in on Novak's latest brush with the law in the nation's capital -- an incident that happened Wednesday in which the 77-year-old syndicated columnist, driving a black Corvette, hit a pedestrian and kept on driving.

In a statement to ThinkProgress, the Wilsons equated Novak's disregard for pedestrians with a similar disdain for covert CIA officers.

Our sympathies go out to the victim of Novak’s action. Once again Novak has demonstrated his callous disregard for the rights of others, as well as his chronic inability to accept responsibility for his actions.

We have long argued that responsible adults should take Novak’s typewriter away. The time has arrived for them to also take away the keys to his Corvette.

Meanwhile, details are emerging on other aspects of the case.

The victim, 66-year-old Don Likinquist, may be in worse shape than earlier reported. Or not. WJLA-TV is quoting an unnamed source who said the man has casts on his neck and back and is awaiting a surgical team evaluation.

The lawyer who stopped Novak half a block away -- and who does not believe the columnist's claim that he had no idea he'd hit anyone -- turns out to be an Obama Democrat. David Bono, a partner at Harkins Cunningham, contributed $2,000 to the Obama campaign in May during the frenzied primary run against Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

As for Novak, he's not talking, but he told WJLA-TV yesterday that he feels "terrible," adding of the victim, "He's not dead, that's the main thing."

But, as C2C (that's us, Countdown to Crawford) reported Wednesday, Novak has shown disdain for pedestrians before. In 2001, according to the Washington Post's Lloyd Grove, Novak yelled at a jaywalker, later explaining to Grove: "He was crossing on the red light. I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don't run the country, all I can do is yell at 'em. The other option is to run 'em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Chip Somondevilla / Getty Images

Bob Novak hits pedestrian

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak, the man who first publicly revealed Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative, hit a pedestrian while driving his black Corvette to work this morning along Washington's K Street.

The 77-year-old conservative journalist and TV pundit -- whose column on Plame unleashed a federal investigation that led to vice presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby's conviction for lying  -- told the Washington Post he had no idea he had hit anyone until he was flagged down by several witnesses, including a bicycle messenger who called D.C. police. Novak said the messenger (since reported to be not a messenger but a lawyer commuting to work) was "shouting at me that I couldn't just hit people and drive away. But I didn't know I'd hit him. I really didn't have any idea it happened until they flagged me down and told me."

Turns out this is not the first time Novak has had a run-in with pedestrians. The Washington Post's Lloyd Grove reported back in March of 2001 that CNN researcher Evan Glass was walking across Pennsylvania Avenue at noon one day when he passed in front of Novak's Corvette. "Learn to read the signs!" Novak snapped, according to Glass. Novak told Grove: "He was crossing on the red light. I really hate jay walkers. I despise them. Since I don't run the country, all I can do is yell at 'em. The other option is to run 'em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that."

Novak told the local ABC affiliate that he had no idea if the victim was even a man or a woman. You can see the WJLA-TV video of their interview with Novak here. The victim, a man in his 60s, was taken to George Washington University Medical Center with "very minor injuries," said D.C. Fire Department spokesman Alan Etter. 

Asked by C2C (that's us, Countdown to Crawford) if the columnist had been talking on his cellphone, a spokeswoman for Novak said, "I know for a fact that he was not." She said Novak, cited for failing to yield a right of way and fined $50, is no longer taking press calls.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images

Ex-Bush press secretary Tony Snow dies of cancer at 53

After a long, candid and public battle with colon cancer, former White House press secretary and radio talk-show host Tony Snow died early this morning.

Snow died about 2 a.m. EDT in Georgetown University Hospital. He was 53.

Snow previously served as chief speech writer for President George H.W. Bush and as a frequent host on Fox News Channel's "Fox News Sunday," "Weekend Live" and "The O'Reilly Factor."

He also guest-hosted for Rush Limbaugh and had his own radio talk show.

In September after 17 months in the White House job, Snow retired as President George W. Bush's third press secretary, saying that with his cancer he needed to earn more for his family than the job's $168,000 salary. He was succeeded by Dana Perino.

He said he left the press secretary job with regret, calling it "the most exciting, intellectually aerobic job I'm ever going to have."

In an early morning statement issued from his weekend retreat at Camp David, President Bush said he and Laura were "deeply saddened."

"America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character," Bush said. "It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day. He brought wit, grace, and a great love of country to his work."

Popular and inevitably cheerful, even during his draining chemotherapy treatments, Snow was well-liked among the White House press corps, and with the smooth practice of a broadcaster seemed to genuinely enjoy the public sparring with media and explaining his boss' positions.

Karl Rove, Bush's counselor and chief political strategist, was traveling in the Crimea this morning but described himself as devastated at the news. Having direct access to the president like Rove had was a key demand of Snow's before accepting the job on April 26, 2006, and beginning work on May 6.

He succeeded Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan in that position.

Snow had gone through remission, but the cancer returned and forced another operation. Despite the pain and nausea, he remained optimistic and talked openly on several programs about the experience as an aid and encouragement to other patients.

"I'm a very lucky guy," he would say frequently.

Although he had been ill recently, friends did not know the end was near. So the news was particularly stunning to those who knew the tall fellow with the large grin.

Just three months ago, CNN announced that Snow would join that network as a conservative commentator. The Kentucky native graduated from Davidson College in 1977.

Robert Anthony Snow was born June 1, 1955, in Berea. His father, Jim, was a social studies teacher and assistant principal in the Cincinnati suburbs, and Snow's mother worked as a nurse in the inner city. She too died of colon cancer when Tony was 17.

Snow was also a newspaper veteran, having written for a variety of smaller dailies before becoming deputy editorial page editor at the Detroit News and then editorial page editor of the Washington Times.

He also wrote a nationally syndicated column for Creators Syndicate from 1993 to 2000 that appeared in more than 200 newspapers across the country.

In April the Associated Press reported that Snow was admitted to a hospital in Spokane, Wash., with an undisclosed illness, and his speaking engagements were canceled. A month later he was again admitted to an Ohio hospital while traveling and told that he could not travel for some time.

"I'll miss it," Snow told reporters at his final White House briefing on Sept. 13. "I love these briefings." And it sounded to those professional skeptics like he really meant it.

For the full statement by President Bush, read the full story...

--Andrew Malcolm

Photo credit: The White House

This item on Tony Snow is cross-posted from the Top of the Ticket politics blog.

Not so fast on the dwindling Bush entourage

It's still true that shrinking news budgets, soaring gas prices and a slow-news White House in its last seven months have combined to lessen media interest in traveling with President Bush.

But threaten to take away reporters' pool reports -- those insider details on what happened within rooms too small to accommodate the entire White House press corps -- and man, they show they care.

Yesterday's announcement by the White House Correspondents Assn. that it was planning to limit access to pool reports to only those traveling with the president met with a torrent of objections.

You think reporters are tough on the president of the United States, you should see how they treat the president of the WHCA! (And believe me I know of what I speak here, having served my country, um, press corps as WHCA president during the first Bush presidency and taken my share of phone calls from disgruntled colleagues.) One had the good sense to note that Ann Compton of ABC News had touched "the third rail" of White House press relations.

My colleague Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune wrote an impassioned plea -- for access. "The idea that pool reporting on the road with the president will be available only to those who travel and pay for it should be repugnant to our profession," he wrote. "I call it pay to play. Another colleague calls it means-testing." Whatever it's called, said Silva, "This is the journalistic equivalent of soft money -- 25 grand (of your employer’s money) buys you a VIP pool report."

The WHCA insists the policy is just temporary -- until a new administration assumes office, sparking more press interest in traveling, never mind the costs. And so far, despite repeated calls to reconsider, it's standing firm.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Paul Morse / White House

A president without a press entourage?

For years, reporters have clamored to get on the Bus, lobbying White House officials for space on foreign trips, dogging the president's every visit.

But these days, thanks to rising fuel costs, shrinking news budgets and a president who's in the last months of his administration, fewer and fewer reporters have been hitting the road with George W. Bush.

So today, the White House Correspondents Assn. issued a decree: no plane ticket, no pool report. From now on, said the association's two presidents (outgoing Ann Compton of ABC News; incoming Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press), pool reports only for those traveling. 

Not everyone was pleased. Mark Knoller of CBS Radio objected to getting only the broadcast pool reports, since the print reporters tend to include more details. And Finlay Lewis of Copley News Service wondered about the historical record.

"Will these pool reports be retrievable at some point in the future or forever sealed off from us? Not to mention historians and others trying to get a fix on the last eight years," he asked.

As they say in radio, stay tuned.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Paul Morse/White House