Monday, November 19, 2007

Misreading Novak: Hillary as Nixon   [David Freddoso]

In case you live in a cave, let me direct you to yesterday's column by my old boss, Robert Novak, because it has caused a huge stir. It should cause a huge stir — but most of the stir so far has been the result of people misreading the column. Here Novak's brief item:

Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.

This word-of-mouth among Democrats makes Obama look vulnerable and Clinton look prudent. It comes during a dip for the front-running Clinton after she refused to take a stand on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's now discarded plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

Experienced Democratic political operatives believe Clinton wants to avoid a repetition of 2004, when attacks on each other by presidential candidates Howard Dean and Richard Gephardt were mutually destructive and facilitated John Kerry's nomination.

Here is Joe Klein's outraged response:

Rumors only become news when they are confirmed, cross-checked and responded to by the target of the attack. There are two possible reasons why Novak is peddling unconfirmed cra: (a) he is getting too old to do the actual legwork long-associated with his column (and respected even by those of us who find his views reprehensible) or (b) he has simply abandoned all pretense of being a journalist.

But Klein has it all wrong. Novak is not reporting that Hillary has dirt on Obama. He's reporting that her people are spreading the rumor that they have dirt on Obama. And this is a real story.

Novak makes no judgement on whether such dirt actually exists, but he notes that this rumor comes at a pretty convenient time for Clinton's people. If they are spreading rumors, it is so that they can gain a political advantage using a dirty trick behind the scenes to dissuade undecided Democrats from backing Obama. Novak is not playing along with dirty tricks about phantom rumors: he is exposing the rumor-mongerers for using Nixon-style dirty tricks.

11/19 01:38 PMShare