The Chicago Tribune just put out an email alert that well known Washington D.C. political columnist, Robert Novak, had died. I thought that I would post a few thoughts about it, since he was a well known political pundit. These comments have nothing to do with his personal life. He may have been a good family man. I have no idea.

All I am going to comment about is how his punditry affected me as I watched him repeatedly on news shows as I was growing up. I always felt that he was ultra conservative - almost jingoistic in supporting the status quo. He came off as arrogant to me. I felt he was looking down at me and thought that he knew better than most everyone.

And while he was known as being very conservative, I never had the feeling that he was what I think of as a "true conservative." That to me is one that believes in keeping agreements, paying your bills, not using resources frivilously, being strong in defense but not belligerent, believing in personal privacy and individual liberties. Those conservatives, such as Andrew Sullivan, I can admire because I share a lot of those values.

But then there are the conservatives that are opportunistic. They have less of a core in adhering to conservative values and more into gaining an advantage. I always felt that Novak fit more in that category than the above. So, when he "outed" Valerie Plame and her CIA operatives, it seemed so against what should have been his natural, country loving, conservative core. But no - he was using it to try and protect Bush and his people. In that way, his work was exposed for what it had become - a tool of the status quo.

But he had a successful career to the extent that he had access to the national market, print and broadcast, and was someone who could get access to a high level official. But the fact that Bush's people used him to plant the info about Plame, and that he actually carried it out for them, compromises his overall body of work.

Rest in peace Mr. Novak - your work is over, but you leave a lot of yourself in words, and that I can appreciate.