In the privacy of his Pennsylvania Avenue penthouse, Robert D. Novak must be loving this.
The conservative Washington columnist has gleefully seized upon past political imbroglios as fodder for his articles. Now, he finds himself at the center of what may become the first true scandal of the Bush White House.
And all from a brief - some say gratuitous - identification in a newspaper column of a diplomat's spouse as a CIA operative.
In a July 14 column, Novak reported that two Bush administration officials said that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, was a CIA operative. The columnist reported her name - though it is illegal for federal officials to disclose an undercover operative's links to that agency. A half dozen other journalists also reportedly received the information but decided against publishing it.
Wilson charged that the columnist had been used by Bush aides and had imperiled his wife. The flap became a full-blown scandal late last month when CIA Director George Tenet asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the leak of the woman's identity.
"I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," Novak said soon after to Newsday, which advanced the story by reporting the woman had been undercover. Since then, however, Novak has denied taking the bait that other journalists resisted, saying he had actively fished for information about Wilson. He also wrote that the CIA had not made a vigorous case for withholding her name.
But many Democratic lawmakers and commentators on the right and left have questioned exposing Wilson's wife publicly. Through an aide, Novak declined several requests for comment for this article, including a written request that set out in advance key elements of the story.
A resolute conservative whose beliefs have listed increasingly to the right in recent years, Novak is best known among friends and fellow journalists as one of the hardest-working columnists on the political beat. The ferocity of his tone has earned him the nickname of "Prince of Darkness," a mantle he has embraced. His journalistic home is the Chicago Sun-Times, although his columns also run twice a week in the Washington Post - a fact that makes him a highly influential figure in political circles. (His columns are also regularly published in scores of newspapers.)
"Bob's column is a must-read because he always tells you something you didn't know," says Lynn Sweet, Washington bureau chief for the Sun-Times.
