Alterman Labels Bob Novak Traitor to His Country And His Profession

One has to ask the question why - oh why - is this president's administration time and again proven to be in bed with people who act as traitors to this country. Novak. Murdoch. Perle. DeLay. Judy Miller. The Rev. Moon. Ken Lay. Jack Abramoff. Ahmed Chalabi. A.Q. Khan. The list goes on and on.

From Eric Alterman's column today on Novak:

On a historical note, Novak’s most consequential story before this one was the one that sunk George McGovern’s 1972 candidacy in which he quoted one of the senator’s Democratic colleagues as insisting that his campaign stood for “the three As: acid, abortion and amnesty.” The quote wouldn’t have mattered had it come from Nixon, but the fact that it was sourced to a Democratic senator, made the charge stick, as incredibly unfair as it was to bona fide prairie liberal and heroic World War II fighter pilot. Almost everyone familiar with the incident believed the source was Henry “Scoop” Jackson. But McGovern told me that he asked Jackson and the man swore it was not so. And if it were Jackson, then Novak’s pledge of confidentiality would have been released when he died. But Novak still will not reveal his source. We know he does reveal his sources when it suits his purposes; not only to Mr. Fitzgerald but also in the case of the former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, after Hanssen was arrested for spying. Why? Because, Novak wrote, "To be honest to my readers, I must reveal it.