Robert Novak In Hospital for A Brain Tumor

Video

Columnist Robert Novak Has Brain Tumor

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and is being treated in a Boston hospital. Novak issued a statement Monday saying the tumor was found Sunday.

» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER

For example, Novak wrote in yesterday's column that "John McCain seems wooden, with a campaign that appears to be in shambles."

Steve Huntley, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist who worked closely with Novak when he was editorial page editor, said Novak never took vacations and never missed a deadline, even after breaking his hip and suffering "some illnesses people didn't know about. . . . He's never been one to shy away from controversy. That's made him a target for some people on the left who disagree with Bob's conservative principles."

A former reporter for the Associated Press and Wall Street Journal, Novak has written about battling a drinking problem, and a $1,000-a-day gambling habit, until suffering a near-fatal case of spinal meningitis.

He often forges a close relationship with those who leak information. In his autobiography, published last year, Novak described how he and Rove, "a grade A-plus source," dined at each other's homes at the start of the Bush administration. He said he did not criticize Rove until, and then only mildly, the Bush aide cut him off in 2003, because reporters "do not attack their sources."

Novak has served as a conduit for Republicans for decades. He reported last week that McCain was expected to announce his running mate within days but later concluded that he had been used to float a phony rumor. In his memoir, Novak said much the same about his publication of a questionable leak from the Nixon White House.

"We were so ravenous for exclusive news that we were susceptible to manipulations by leaks, compromising our credibility," he wrote.

In an interview last summer with London's Guardian, Novak said: "I'm 76 years old, and I don't have that much time on this earth. There's very little people can do to hurt me, and so I say what I want to say."