Conservative political journalist Robert Novak was involved in a hit and run in Washington D.C. today. Novak has worked most frequently with CNN but has also appears on other networks and writes the longest running syndicated political column in the US. He was driving his black Corvette (you read that right) to work this morning when he ran into a man who was crossing the street. Novak kept driving right along, claiming that he didn’t feel, hear, or notice a thing. Pedestrians and bicyclists chased his car and caught up to him at the next intersection.

Journalist Robert Novak hit a pedestrian with his car in the nation’s capital Wednesday morning, Washington police Lt. Michael Lockerman said. Novak continued driving, unaware he had hit the man, he told told reporters for WJLA-TV and the Web site Politico as he got out of a police car.

“I didn’t know I hit anybody,” he said near the scene of the incident at 17th and K streets in northwest Washington. “A bicycle rider stopped me and said I had hit someone.” Novak said he was cited for failure to yield right of way.

[From CNN]

Novak is known as the “Prince of Darkness” – not just because that’s the title of his memoirs, but also because he has a very angry way about him. Something about the eyebrows. Oh, and the way he yells and carries on. And his countenance. So pretty much his whole personality.

You’ll remember that Novak was the jerk who outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative in his column back in 2003. He’s also said he “relished” attending a cockfight in Puerto Rico and that America has “too damn many” anti-cruelty statutes protecting animals.

TMZ has a much better write-up than CNN (not a sentence I ever thought I’d say), including an interview with Novak.

Novak tells us he was listening to NPR in his Corvette when suddenly, “Some guy came up and hit my car with his fist. I figured I had done something that had created road rage, but I didn’t know what it was. Then a bicyclist blocked the road in front of me. I asked what the problem was. He said, ‘You can’t just hit people and run away!’”

Novak says the cops came, put him “briefly” in the back of the police car and asked about what he heard at the time of impact. Novak told them and us that he didn’t hear or feel anything. They asked if he had been drinking or on a cellphone. He answered “no” to both.

Novak, who was citied for failing to yield, says he won’t fight the ticket, adding, “I assume witnesses are telling the truth.” And we asked him about his comments back in 2001 — that he hates jaywalkers and thought about running them over. He responded, “I’ve said a lot of things I shouldn’t have said.”

[From TMZ]

True that, Bob. What I find second most confusing about this whole thing is the idea that one of the most conservative talking heads in the nation was listening to NPR. Which makes me wonder what else he’s lying about.