Novak suspended

Friday, 5:24 am

By Kate

Aug

05

2005

Looks like Robert Novak got himself indefinitely suspended from CNN after uttering a bad word during live programming on Inside Politics yesterday. He was responding to a verbal jab that James Carville was giving him. It was fairly benign as James Carville jabs go. They were talking about Katherine Harris (R-FLA) running for the US Senate.

Novak is a pro and he’s been around the block a few thousand times. I’ve watched/listened to him have heated conversations and debates and arguments for years. I’ve seen him heatedly dish it out to other people he doesn’t like or agree with. But this time, he said what he said without much evidence of anger. While some reports have suggested that Novak screamed or yelled or in some way heatedly responded to Carville, my eyes saw a fairly calm, but irritated Novak, turn to Carville and say, “That’s just bullshit and I hate that.” And then he turned to the program host, threw up his hands and said, “Just let it go.” And the host quickly moved on to a different topic. It was at that point that Novak got up and simply walked off the set, removing his microphone from his jacket as he did so.

So what the heck? A seasoned pro who has avoided the use of profanity on the air for twenty something years finally lobbed a beaut when he wasn’t even in a shouting tizzy? That doesn’t make sense.

On the other hand, the show’s host did say he had told Novak before the show that they were going to ask him about the Plame case. The last paragraph of the above linked Chicago Sun-Times (Novak’s home newspaper) story may offer a hint at why Novak may have been...oh...a little on edge.