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BREAKING: Is Bob Novak Going to Prison (Finally)?? Prince of Darkness involved in Hit and Run?


According to a report in Politico, Bob Novak appears to have attempted to flee the scene of the crime after smashing into a pedestrian with his Corvette (how not surprising) in downtown Washington D.C. today. 

Novak may well have escaped if not for the valiant efforts of a cyclist who witnessed the accident and pursued Novak's car, eventually stopping his bike in front of Novak in order to prevent him from continuing his attempts to drive away. 

Novak then apparently lied to reporters on the scene, telling them that he didn't know he hit the pedestrian, who the bicyclist described as "splayed" on the windshield of Novak's Corvette.

Gives new meaning to Rush Limbaugh's term, the drive-by media.  I guess for Conservatives, it's the hit-and-run media.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11985.html

The bicyclist was David Bono, a partner at Harkins Cunningham, who was on his usual bike commute to work at 1700 K St. N.W. when he witnessed the accident.

As he traveled east on K Street, crossing 18th, Bono said a "black Corvette convertible with top closed plowed into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed onto the windshield.”

Bono said that the pedestrian, who was crossing the street on a "Walk" signal and was in the crosswalk, rolled off the windshield and that Novak then made a right into the service lane of K Street. “The car is speeding away. What’s going through my mind is, you just can’t hit a pedestrian and drive away,” Bono said. 

He said he chased Novak a half block down K Street, finally caught up with him and then put his bike in front of the car to block it and called 911. Traffic immediately backed up, horns blared and commuters finally went into reverse to allow Novak to pull over.

Bono said that throughout, Novak "keeps trying to get away. He keeps trying to go.” He said he vaguely recognized the longtime political reporter and columnist as a Washington celebrity but could not precisely place him. 

Finally, Bono said, Novak put his head out the window of his car and motioned him over. Bono said he told him that you can't hit a pedestrian and just drive away. He quoted Novak as responding:  “I didn’t see him there.”

A concierge at 1700 K Street said that she saw a bicyclist yelling and walked outside to see what the commotion was about.

"This guy hit somebody and he won't stop so I'm going to stay here until the police come," Aleta Petty quoted Bono as saying, as he stood in K Street, blocking traffic.

D.C. police confirmed that there was an accident at 18th and K streets NW at approximately 10 a.m. involving a black Corvette convertible and that the driver was a white male.

The intersection is in the hub of Washington’s business district and is filled with pedestrians who work in the law firms and lobby shops that line the corridor.

Novak, 77, has earned a reputation around the capital as an aggressive driver, easily identified in his convertible sports car.

In 2001, he cursed at a pedestrian on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th streets Northwest for allegedly jaywalking.

“’Learn to read the signs, [bodily orifice]!’ Novak snapped before speeding away,” according to an item in The Washington Post’s Reliable Source column.

Novak explained to the paper: "He was crossing on the red light. I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don't run the country, all I can do is yell at 'em. The other option is to run 'em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that."

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Novak is a world-class [body orifice].

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UPDATE and VIDEO (at the link below):

Novak claimed at the scene (18th and K) that he did not know that he hit the 66-year-old pedestrian and that he didn't see anything. [I wonder if that's what he told the police.]

Police questioned him for an hour and gave him a $50 citation for failing to yield.

HERO CYCLIST DAVID BONO dismissed Novak's claim. "There was a pedestrian splayed on his windshield. I don't think there is any way you could miss that."

More info from WJLA ABC 7 News in D.C.:

The pedestrian who was struck by prominent Washington columnist and commentator Robert Novak is in worse shape than first thought, a hospital source tells ABC 7 News.

The victim, a 66-year-old man, appeared somewhat incoherent, said the source who had seen the victim. The man appeared to have casts on his neck and back. The victim was X-rayed and a surgical team plans to evaluate him, the source said.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0708/537957.html

Novak: "He's not dead, that's the main thing."

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VOTE!

Do you believe Robert Novak's account of his accident?

Amazingly, it's running 50-50 at the moment, so go exercise your democratic duty.

http://cfc.wjla.com/processpoll.cfm?i=1899

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The Daily Show also covered it tonight. No video yet...

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The female WJLA Reporter at the scene asked Novak if he hit a man or a woman. Check out the raw video on the WJLA site. Novak said he didn't know. Yet he told HERO CYCLIST DAVID BONO, "I didn't see HIM there." Hmm...

From Politico:

Finally, Bono said, Novak put his head out the window of his car and motioned him over. Bono said he told him that you can't hit a pedestrian and just drive away. He quoted Novak as responding: “I didn’t see him there.”

A concierge at 1700 K Street said that she saw a bicyclist yelling and walked outside to see what the commotion was about.

"This guy hit somebody and he won't stop so I'm going to stay here until the police come," Aleta Petty quoted Bono as saying, as he stood in K Street, blocking traffic.

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Did you see this at Think Progress yesterday?

Politico notes that in a 2001 interview with the Washington Post, Novak said, “I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don’t run the country, all I can do is yell at ‘em. The other option is to run ‘em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that.”

See? There actually IS KARMA!!!!!

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Throw him in the slammer.

Generally, road rage is a very bad idea in Washington. The community is too small and whoever you are insulting/threatening/etc. today is likely to be someone you'll need tomorrow.

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Hooray for the cyclist.

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What an asshole.

Will this be the year of Change in the media? I hope so.

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I wish that Novac had managed to get a little further away than half a block. The more distance, the easier it would be to convince a jury that he was really trying to flee the scene. Half a block can be spun as "I was trying to find someplace to pull over."

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If he was TWT

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...like me then half a block and a witness would have been enough. If he were poor and black then they would not have needed the witness.

(TPM ate my post)

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I don't think a jury would buy that line given that Bono had to block his progress.

And after all, a fallen pedestrian was already blocking traffic behind him, so I don't see why he would even need to pull over. He could have just stopped. Was he expecting that less Compassionate Conservatives would just run over the guy?

Body orifice? Hmmm... Ear canal? Nostril? Urethra?

"Learn to read the signs, you...um...Mouth!"

I live in Baltimore and a few years ago heard a story from a DC friend about nearly being run over in the same way. . . by Bob Novak.

Compassionate Conservative my ass. I know I state the obvious, but I had to.

Correction your [location off body orifice]

Say "G'night," Novak, you're through!

Hallelujah!

I hope they send him to Federal Pound-You-In-the-[body orifice] Prison!

THE DOUCHEBAG OF LIBERTY STRIKES AGAIN!!!

I don't want to be construed as defending Novak, but just a couple of things:

1. When you are driving a Corvette, the sight lines are ridiculously bad, particularly to the driver's respective 45 degree angles.

2. Also, a Corvette's stiff ride is so stiff that even the merest bump feels as if you just ran over two kids riding in an REO Speedwagon.

Accordingly, put a 77 year old guy at the wheel of one of these train wrecks, and it doesn't surprise me that he didn't know he hit someone (unless Bono's account of the pedestrian being splayed on the windshield is accurate.)

The real crime is having what is basically an unsafe car which is capable of 150+ on the road.

DB

From:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/07/mission-to-18th-and-k.html

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Mission to 18th and K

The decision of a 66 year old pedestrian to splay himself across the innocent windshield of columnist Robert Novak's Corvette convertible on July 23, 2008 was made routinely, at a low level of intellectual consideration and attention, without the columnist's knowledge. Remarkably, this produced a firestorm of media attention that has yet to subside.

Witnesses' reports that Novak drove directly into the pedestrian, who was crossing on the "Walk" signal, that the pedestrian was splayed across the windshield involuntarily, as a result of being struck by Novak's vehicle, and that Novak then drove away from the scene of the hit-and-run until a witness on a bicycle chased Novak, having to repeatedly block his vehicle to prevent Novak's attempts to escape from the scene were highly unlikely, regarded by the columnist as less than definitive, and it is doubtful that Novak ever saw him. Certainly officers on 18th Street did not, before they arrived at the downtown address, attributing Novak's behavior to "reckless driving" and issuing a $50 citation.

That witness reports relied on the statements of a bicycle riding, knapsack wearing, possibly liberal and environmentalist lawyer made Novak's mission, moments earlier, the basis of unhinged Democratic accusations of "hitting a 66-year old man who was legally crossing the street" and "driving away after an accident victim was spread across the hood of your car", though these accusations were apparently forgotten by the time Novak was faced with reporters at the scene, and in response to their questions, tersely spoke.

Reluctance by the pedestrian to admit a mistake has led Democrats increasingly closer to saying that Novak dissembled about his actions when driving through the crosswalk. Even after a belated interview with TMZ, in which, in a quasi-apology rich with the dark irony for which he is noted, he stated that he was distracted while driving by "listening to NPR," finger-pointing at the events in the intersection continued. Messages between the Politico, Think Progress hashed over the quotes from witnesses, while more rational blogs speculated that the accident had been a set-up by liberal operatives, who hoped to draw attention from statements by John McCain praising the surge.

Novak's mission was created in his early crusading efforts to reform pedestrian behavior, using the clear, honest, visionary prose for which he has long been known. In 2001, he reportedly cursed at a jaywalker only blocks from the White House, on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th streets, intoning the command hear round the world, "Learn to read the signs, [bodily orifice]!" Stating further in an interview that "I really hate jaywalkers...I despise them...the only other option is to run them over...", Democratic operatives unfairly concluded that Novak's compassionate calling to urban reform in fact represented a mission to splay.

That's where Bono came in. Carrying the dual monikers of a sixties counterculture radical and a 21st century shades-wearing, debt-relieving, globe-trotting liberal firebrand, the bicyclist "witness" came to notice when, cruising lightly, almost as if windsurfing, he wheeled up on his no-doubt-French-made cycle to the window of Novak's Corvette (built entirely in the U.S.A.) and "hit the window with (his) fist." Bono claimed that he stated to Novak that "you can't just hit a pedestrian and drive away." He then placed his bicycle in front of Novak's car, apparently assuming that he had the force and authority to block Novak's further egress.

Bono is not a representative of District of Columbia Traffic Agency. However, his wife, Shaunee Moon (Littletree) Bono is an agency operative on liberalization of jaywalking policy. Two senior Traffic Agency officials told me that Bono's wife suggested sending him to 18th and K to intercept Novak's Corvette. The Agency states that its counterjaywalking officials chose Bono and asked Moon (Littletree) Bono to contact him. "I will not discuss any matters regarding my wife", said Bono, when I interviewed him, "Particularly when I am splayed across the hood of your car."

During the run-up to 18th and K intercept (near the offices where he served), Bono had made oral reports to friends that "accidents are not that likely", and that "you are more likely to be injured slipping in the shower than crossing the street; after all, in the street, there are traffic signals." Notably, Bono's oral statements did not include mention of the possibility of pedestrians voluntarily launching themselves onto moving automobiles. The report of the Agency's interview with Bono remains classified.

After Novak stated that "He's not dead, that's the main thing," Bono declined any further interviews. "The story was never me," said Bono, "it was always the guy who drove directly into a 66-year old man crossing at a walk signal, who flew across his windshield, and then driving away, until repeatedly stopped by witnesses." The story, actually, is whether a covert jaywalking inducement policy, launched by an Agency operative, and executed by the spouse of that operative, should remain covert. I, for one, say no--in the Agency's, the streets' and the public interest.

Cite:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/07/mission-to-18th-and-k.html

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The victim was a known Democrat, and therefore it is actually Obama's fault.

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The only way we're getting rid of Novakula is with a stake, a garlic necklace and the sunrise.

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If that SOB Novak goes to jail I will gladly offer myself up to go hunting with Dick Cheney! I swear it would be worth it to get shot in the face if it would send him to the slammer!

Question: If the police already gave him a $50 ticket at the scene, is the city able to press further charges? I was under the impression that if you're cited for "failing to yield" at the scene then the police cannot go back and issue a new "hit and run" violation which would carry potential jail time.

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I'm looking for Novak columns where he humps Kennedy's Chappaquiddick incident. So far the best I have is:

http://www.saturatedpratt.com/writings/tedkennedy.html

"many were beginning to view the lack of an investigation into any potential wrongdoing by Kennedy as preferential treatment toward the senator."

There's gotta be a better example of Novak's hypocrisy out there. Anyone got a better one?

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ohiomeister

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