Look who the phony is

Thomas Sowell has spent a long time advocating a "conservative" ideology that has a tendency to bend with the wind. One day, not so many decades ago, some view was pinko before it became a Republican--colored red--part of the platform. Then, when rationally opposed, especially on campus, this "conservative" thought, was loudly defended by the likes of Sowell and routinely claimed as a "persecuted minority" on campus, again by the likes of Sowell. And who was most likely to make those initial arguments about "persecuted conservative thinking" especially on college campuses? The very people that Robert Novak calls "phony" in his book, "The Prince of Darkness." Sowell ends up praising Novak for bringing to the public attention the dark flaws of the human beings we elect to office. Well excuse me, but politicians have been phonies almost from the time this country became an independent republic. So, what Novak writes about is nothing new. Principled politicians may in fact only represent less than 1% of anyone who enters office. And most assuredly, they have their flaws too. But did Novak spend any time really checking out the idea if the "phony" politicians actually did the country some good during their time in office, or if they only did themselves and their special interest base some good while they were in office. But then, one could simply read the newspaper and find that out very quickly that more often than not, the politician was there to serve himself and keep his special interests happy. One doesn't need Novak's book to recognize it. And Sowell, as an economist, should surely have that sort of intelligence to pick up a paper and read it for himself as well. But, Sowell waits for Novak to bring to light the dark armpit of "public service."

Let us not forget that Novak depended on "phony" politicians bringing him the name of Valerie Plame Wilson, undercover CIA agent, so that he could out her to the American public most immediately. The sort of politicians who broke the law in order to get back at the Wilsons for having the gumption to stand up to the GW administration over the decision to go to war in Iraq. Novak didn't have any qualms and most assuredly no principles in making public Valerie Plame's name. So, if a lack of principles makes you phony, wouldn't the greatest irony be that Novak as phony writing about phonies in some seeking to justify his own narcissism book. Sowell does manage to intimate that that Novak did write about his own human flaws of drunkenness. OK, that's an excuse for rehab, maybe for endangering national security as Novak most certainly did. But having far more serious consequences than drunken actors shouting racial slurs to arresting cops. But Novak remains free to write and get published a book, that he hopes to get a cool few million off of, courtesy of the same phonies he needed (to stay safe from the consequences of his actions) in order to "expose them" anyway. Prince of Darkness is a tell all book about Novak and no one but Novak.