The press is finally focusing on the guy who endangered all of our lives by outing a spy:
Robert D. Novak, the columnist whose unmasking of a C.I.A. operative prompted an investigation of who had given her name to him and others, expressed disappointment yesterday that two other reporters faced going to jail for not cooperating in the case.Other press folks want him to fess up:
But Mr. Novak, in an appearance on "Inside Politics" on CNN and in a subsequent telephone interview, once again refused to answer questions about what contact, if any, he had had with the federal prosecutor conducting the investigation or about what extent he might have cooperated in the case.
Gina Lubrano, reader representative for The San Diego Union-Tribune, which publishes Mr. Novak's columns on Sundays, said she found it baffling that someone who demanded answers to tough questions as part of his job could be so reticent when the spotlight turned on him.Basically, Novak is a nasty guy -- he's proud of what he did, even though it undermined American security. He should be prosecuted and jailed. And actually, you know if he was in prison, he'd make someone a great bitch.
"As a journalist, he would find that response unacceptable from others," Ms. Lubrano said.
In a column published yesterday on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, William Safire, a former columnist for the paper, urged Mr. Novak to "finally write the column he owes readers and colleagues, perhaps explaining how two sources - who may have truthfully revealed themselves to investigators - managed to get the prosecutor off his back."
