Nice-guy Novak

David Margolick's profile of Robert Novak which appeared in Vanity Fair a few months ago has some great quotes. Of course, this does nothing to advance a fair and reasoned debate about Rovegate, but then, when has Bob Novak ever promoted a fair and reasoned debate:

Everyone knows the toothy Novak smile, conveying derision and condescension more than mirth. And the Novak scowl, directed at those people—all told, pretty much everyone—he feels are more ignorant and less principled than he. And the Novak squint as he gazes through his sinister, heavily lidded eyes at the latest fool to cross his path. And the Novak harrumph, that distinctive compound of contempt, exasperation, and boredom with which he greets what they say. And the Novak splutter, when his lips and tongue can't quite keep up with the bile gushing from his brain. "Why does everyone take such an instant dislike to me?" Novak, surely more curious than concerned, once asked Robert Strauss, the former Democratic Party chieftain and an old friend. "Saves time," Strauss replied. ...

Novak's attack on Kerry led comedian Jon Stewart to label him "a douche bag of liberty." ...

"Underneath the asshole is a nice guy, but underneath the nice guy is another asshole," Michael Kinsley, a Crossfire veteran, has said. ...

"Now that Novak's a Catholic, I wonder if he'll become a Christian?" Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan remarked. ...

"Novak was a very intrepid, dogged, mainstream reporter, not this sinister, egomaniacal figure he is now," recalls Bill Moyers, a former Johnson staffer. I ask Moyers what occurs to him upon juxtaposing the two incarnations of Novak, then and now. "Every monster begins as a baby in a crib," he replies. ...