Try not to speak ill of the departed...

On the other hand, one shouldn't work too hard to falsely sing their praises.

America's greatest self-proclaimed bipartisan managed to take a break from tut-tutting those liberal sourpusses who favor unions, clean air and health care to type out a eulogy to Bob Novak. It failed to note little things like his role in outing a CIA-operative to serve a petty political grudge or in the case of Robert Hanssen relying upon an actual traitor for the same purposes. But I guess that's what we filthy bloggers are for.

The self-mocking parody of himself that Bob created as the Prince, a grumpy right-winger, was sometimes taken more seriously by his audience than he intended. Bob was pugnacious, when challenged, but his instinct was to help his friends whenever they needed it.

Indeed, and I wonder how often that "help" made its way into his columns, hell when did it not?

But how could 'Mr. Bipartisan' pass up this little bon mot to Novak and his long-time collaborator Roland Evans; observe closely the "bipartisan" hymnal according to the Dean:

Bob's conservatism was real. He grew up with an anti-FDR father in Joliet, Ill. As his doorstop of a memoir makes clear, he and Evans often argued over the tone of their column. Evans had a liking for liberal Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller. Novak preferred the more rigid right-wingers, like Indiana Sen. Bill Jenner.

It's bipartisan as long as it involves just Republicans.

Surely, the funereal dirge of the media in our time.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]