Daily Gut: The Prince of Darkness is Dead

Otherwise known as Robert Novak, this gnome-like figure dominated the political talk show landscape throughout the late 80’s and 90’s – as a panelist for “The McLaughlin Group,” and later the “Capital Gang.”

So, was Robert Novak the coolest man on the planet?

Of course not. But in my opinion, he deserves to be in the top 100.

Or, at least, ahead of anyone in Green Day. See, Robert Novak epitomized cool because he never cared about what people thought. Instead he stole the left’s stereotype of conservatism, and made it his own delightful persona. If being a fan of free markets, a strong defense and limited government made him evil, then evil he was.

And so he became the “Prince of Darkness.” And like the devil – he never changed. Novak never moved with the trends: he looked like Novak for a solid five decades short, round, dark, joyfully evil: for all we knew, he could have been an alien marble that survived on puppy souls.

Men like Novak normally don’t have a cult following, but he did. Because he was cool. While others would carry around dog-eared copies of old Hunter S. Thompson paperbacks, and believe nonconformity means acting like a nonconformist, fans of Novak knew that true rebellion meant rebelling against vacant rebellion. Novak, after all, wore a three-piece suit every moment of his life making him more of a badass than a tattooed and pierced Johnny Depp could ever think of becoming.

I met Novak briefly when he came to speak at an intern program in the late 80’s, and he took the time to talk to all of us, personally, afterward. He was both friendly and prickly – a porcupine out on good behavior. During the talk, he spoke about the importance of real reporting: talking to people, taking notes, and talking to more people after you took those notes.

It’s probably a good thing he never really had to deal with blogs, where mockery is easily fomented because so many bloggers rarely talk to anyone. But once you talked to Novak, you liked him. Which is why the left couldn’t stand him.

TONIGHT: Bill Hemmer, Andrew W.K., Ellen Karis, and other stuff too.