Novak meltdown

Judith Miller might be surveying the landscape and figuring out that she's better off in jail. Better there than doing the slow, horrible and public meltdown that Robert Novak is performing before our very eyes. Both journalists are mixed up in the Bush Administration's apparent outing of an undercover CIA spook, and up until now I've been feeling sorry for the most famous she-con since Martha. But now I see it's the dude on the outside who is in pain.

It's all very Wizard of Oz. Dorothy (Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald) throws a bucket of water at the flaming scarecrow (Miller) but hits the Wicked Witch of the West (Novak) who screams as he shrinks and sizzles into a puddle of goo, until there's nothing left but his broomstick and hat.

Yesterday, Novak swore and walked off the set of one of those CNN shoutfests that absolutely nobody with a life cares about. What will kill Novak, when he looks back on it, is that he was goaded into this meltdown by arch nemesis James Carville, who basically called him a tool for the far-right establishment. Which of course, he is. Carville — for some reason, Novak didn't think to call him a tool of the far-left establishment —  had the mother of all smirks on his face, but no one else was amused. Both CNN and Novak apologized.

Figures. The only interesting thing that's ever happened on "Inside Politics," and CNN is apologizing for it. Sorry folks. Didn't mean for a little real drama to taint all this fake drama we churn out five days a week.

Space Shuttle

Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive in this overly sensitive age of ours, but I can't help but think NASA could have handled this whole space shuttle situation better. Here they blast these people into orbit and once they're up there, NASA frantically announce that OHMYGOD THE SHUTTLES ARE UNSAFE AND THEY MAY BLOW UP AND ANY SECOND AND WE'RE GROUNDING THEM FOREVER!!!
I mean, what are these poor astronauts supposed to think? Are they looking at each other, saying: "Unsafe?" "Grounded?" "Um. Like where does that leave us?"
Bummer. You're already skittish because of the unsatisfactory results of the last shuttle ad NASA goes Major Tom on you. Of course maybe the astros don't get the live CNN feed. Maybe NASA is, to their faces, telling them "Remain calm, all is well."
Or maybe they don't care. It just seemed like bad timing, is all.

steroids

So Raffy gets busted while Giambi plays on. You can say what you want about the Yankees' dominance over the American League East, but at the end of the day there is simply no denying that New York, fair and square, year in and year out, continues to acquire the league's top masking agents.