First, this was clearly a "setup". Again, look at the presence of the Who's Who on the desk. What in the hell was that there for, except to throw it in Novaks face and say, "Hey bub, show us Wilson's name!"?
CNN's political bias which is legendary, and I'm not surprised they stooped this low. I didn't see that kind of "setup" whenever they've had Joe Wilson on the show, or any other liberal guest or commentator. There is no excuse for this type of ambush journalism from a network. Again, I seriously doubt whether Novak knew Ed was going to ask him some "Plame Questions" - at this point in the investigation what else would he want to know?
Frankly, Bob should tell CNN to shove the job, he's a better man and professional than to be on that hack network and definitely a better man than to sit with Carville and put up with his crap.
As for the conservative bloggers who were so quick to pounce on him with their self-righteous "big blogger" MSM meme comments, I think they need to chill! Seriously! As I said, it's getting real annoying.
UPDATE: For all the "speculators" who thought Bob ran off because of the presence of "The Who's Who" book, Wizbang has the details of what is in it:
Seems Joe Wilson is listed in the 2003 version which references his wife, Ms. Plame. Not only that but she is listed in every version from 1999-2005!
By the way, for the non-journalist among us, the Who's Who is a standard desk reference.
UPDATE: Rush Limbaugh on this echo's my thoughts:
" I wonder what took him so long. My question is -- and, by the way, anybody can wake up and have a bad day. It even happens to me now and then, folks. But after I don't know how long he's been on this show, 15, 20 years, however long it is, all I know is there's nothing in there about Valerie Plame, and Ed Henry hasn't said anything about Valerie Plame at this point to cause Novak to split the scene. Now, he's apologized for it, and said he was hoping that Carville was just trying to be funny. I remember I interviewed Novak some years ago for an issue of The Limbaugh Letter, and I said to him, point-blank, I said, "Bob, you know, a lot of people who watch the program who are conservative," talking about Capitol Gang in this case, because it was Novak against Mark Shields, Mark Maxi Shields, Al Hunt, and they usually had some liberal babe, be it Margaret Carlson or somebody else, and it was always three against one, and they were insulting Novak and making fun of him; Prince of Darkness stuff and so forth, and he'd just sit there and laugh at it -- and I said, "A lot of conservatives wish you'd fight back at some of that stuff but you sit there and take it, and I know you're friends with these people and they're probably just razzing you but you never dish it back and so forth." And I forget what his answer was, but I think he's got a right here to be, you know, a little sensitive about this. Whether walking off the set is the right thing to do, I don't know. But this whole notion that he's cracked up and needs to go, and that the little men in the white coats need to show up and drag him off in a little yellow bus somewhere I think is also way over the top."
Rush's interview with Novak is here. Read it.
Now for final two cents on this matter. Like the point I made before. Bob was there, arguing the conservative points, on TV and in print LONG before the conservative pundits, bloggers of today. He was doing the job when nobody else wanted it or had the guts to do it. Quite frankly many in conservative media owe him a debt of gratitude for where they are today. Instead of so-called conservative bloggers jumping on the "bash Bob" meme - some even before they had all the facts - perhaps, the man deserved the benefit of the doubt. Bob deserves that much. Yet to each his own, but I also thinks it's also time for a "gut check" certain bloggers to see if some aren't selling out just for a few hits on the old sitemeter.
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