printRobert Novak on taking a university course on Western Civilization, from his 2007 memoir The Prince of Darkness: “It was a golden moment for a 17-year-old boy from Joliet, leading to four years of exploration in the riches of our heritage: Plato, Aristotle, Chaucer, Castiglione, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Milton, John Donne, Hawthorne, Melville, T.S. Eliot — dead white men all. How barren would be my life without that background?” A question no one thinks to pose vis-a-vis America’s youth and its miseducation.
Something else from Novak’s pen: “Always love your country — but never trust your government!” For some reason, the Chicago Sun-Times editorialists felt the need to excuse Novak’s professed fealty to the motto of the founders of this country.
VDARE’s Kevin Lamb provides something of a corrective: “Novak was first and foremost a Washington insider’s insider. He ranked third in most appearances on ‘Meet the Press’ and worked as a CNN commentator for 25 years. He was a master at leeching onto divisive figures inside various administrations (Karl Rove is one example) who ultimately would serve his own ends, secure his reputation and advance his own career. He was skilled at the art of dodging career-ending encounters that would put him at odds with the media elite. …”
Novak was a “plain old bigot” on matters Israel.
Diana West has also pointed out this fatal flaw in Novak’s (and indeed many American paleo-conservatives’) thinking. [See “Paleos Must Defend the West…And That Means Israel Too”]
I always knew Mr. Novak as one of the few antiwar conservatives (or “unpatriotic conservatives” according to neocon hack scribbler David Frum) that wisely opposed the ridiculous invasion of Iraq.
Robert Novak was right on Iraq, but terribly wrong on Israel and Hamas.