Novak's Revealing Interview

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who is fighting for his life in a battle to survive brain cancer, sat down for a very revealing interview with Barbara Mutasow of Washingtonian magazine. It's a must read for political junkies. Here's a few of the items Novak shares in the interview:

• He didn't pay enough attention to his two children when they were growing up.
• Politics is just as partisan today in Washington as it was decades ago: "Bob Kerr, a Democrat from Oklahoma, called Indiana Republican Homer Capehart a 'rancid tub of ignorance.'"
• The Republican Party finds itself in the same place it was in 1957.
• Mike Pence isn't on his list of "most interesting Republicans" in Congress.
• One of the sources he talks to daily is a former Lugar staffer.
• He has a very low opinion of President George W. Bush; Reagan is his favorite president.
• Newt Gingrich was a failure as Speaker of the House. "It's amazing to see how much influence he still has and how popular he is in the Republican Party."
• He regrets writing too much in his column about "behind-the-scenes" political trivia.
• On left-wing critics in the press' attempts to ruin him over the Valerie Plame affair: "The hell with you. They didn't ruin me. I have my faith, my family, and a good life. A lot of people love me -- or like me. So they failed. I would do the same thing over again because I don't think I hurt Valerie Plame whatsoever."
• The most helpful thing that someone can say to a person gravely ill like him: "I guess the most helpful thing they can say, if they're a man or woman of faith, is to tell me they're praying for me."