Robert Novak, Douchebag for Regnery
(with apologies to Jon Stewart)

If you bother listening to, or can't escape hearing, what Robert Novak has to say, you know that lately he's been full of praise for the "real patriots" responsible for Unfit for Command, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth slambook on John Kerry's war record. What you probably didn't know until it came out in today's NYT is that Novak's son is the director of marketing for the book's publisher, archconservative Regnery.

"I don't think it's relevant," he said. "I'm just functioning as a columnist with a point of view, and a strong point of view," he added.

Now, to the extent that Novak's probably not getting a check from his son, the way George Will did from Conrad Black, he's correct in stating that it's not a financial conflict of interest (though I'm sure he'll be remembered at Christmastime a little more warmly). But at a more fundamental level, Novak should know better than to use his public pulpit to promote anything to which he has any sort of intimate connection without forthrightly acknowledging the situation.

Especially considering what Times reporter Jacques Steinberg didn' have room to tell you in his brief article. A quick online search turned up some interesting facts: Novak père also happens to serve on the board of trustees of the Phillips Foundation, which awards fellowship grants to conservative journalists, with Alfred Regnery--and just last year, that organization gave Novak its Lifetime Achievement Award. (His association with the group goes back at least as far back as 1998, when he was cited in news reports as one of the judges for that year's awards, and possibly further.) But wait, it gets better: Regnery is itself a division of Eagle Publishing, which was spun off from Phillips International--the corporate parent of the Phllips Foundation--in 1993. Add that to the fact that Novak's written an introduction for at least one Regnery author, and it's beginning to look like Robert Novak's relationship with Regnery might be a little more relevant than he would care to have the public believe. But, hey, at least when he's languishing in a federal prison, he won't have any shortage of reading material.

Gee, it sure would be nice if some political blogger--or, hell, a print journalist, ran a little further with this ball. If you see somebody doing it, let me know!