1115.org

Immediately after Robert Novak blew a fuse yesterday on CNN, most people couldn’t stop talking about the obvious meltdown material. During a seemingly benign discussion about Florida senatorial candidate Mary Kay (whoops, make that Katherine Harris), Novak swore on live television and then stormed off the set.

From the transcript:

NOVAK: A couple of points here: The first place, don’t be too sure she’s going to lose. All the establishment’s against her and I’ve seen these Republican — anti-establishment candidates who do pretty well. Ronald Reagan, I guarantee you that the establishment wasn’t for him. We just elected a senator from Oklahoma, Senator Tom Coburn, everybody in the establishment was against him. She might get elected — So, wait. Just let me finish what I’m going to say, James. Please, I know you hate to hear me, but you have…

CARVILLE: He’s got to show these right wingers that he’s got backbone, you know. It’s why The Wall Street Journal editorial page is watching you. Show ‘em you’re tough.

NOVAK: Well, I think that’s bullshit. And I hate that. Just let it go.

(Novak leaves set.)

Did Novak just snap? Was it a calculated move to avoid talking about the Valerie Plame/Karl Rove/CIA leak affair? I’ll leave that for others to try and figure out. I’m more interested in an earlier part of the segment, when Novak explains how he and Harris’s reputations have been taken hostage by bored geeks in the art department:

[HENRY:] Now she wants to move over to the United States Senate. Today she got the news that the speaker of the Florida House won’t challenge her for the Republican nomination. In the meantime, Harris is blaming unnamed newspapers for tarnishing her image by doctoring her makeup with Photoshop. — that computer program. Bob Novak, have you been investigating this make-up story?

NOVAK: No, but I’ve had the same experience that she did. A lot of my trouble in the world is that they’ve doctored my make-up and colorized me in a lot of newspapers on my picture. So, I sympathize with her.

HENRY: This is breaking news. I’ve haven’t heard this.

That’s right, Bob. Your image problems have nothing to do with being an amoral turd who decided to out a CIA agent to push a political agenda. If your world is so fragile that a few (so-called) doctored photographs will cause it to tilt on its axis…well, that sounds like a challenge, doesn’t it?

Sure it does.

(for the two people who get the reference…)

But don’t let us have all the fun—If you come up with some amusing Novak pieces of your own, send them in (jl *at* 1115 *dot* org) and we will publish them in a future post. We can’t let Katherine Harris take all the wacky makeup-related conspiracies for herself, you know.