Broder on Novak

In the Washington Post, David Broder looks at the loss Bob Novak, the last of a generation of political reporter.

And before that, he was one of the three best political reporters of the 1960s. The other two were Alan L. Otten and Paul Duke, and the remarkable thing is that all three of them were working at the same time in the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau.

Duke, who became the beloved moderator of PBS's "Washington Week," died four years ago. Otten, who adopted me on my first presidential campaign in 1960 and became the best mentor anyone could ever have, died two weeks ago.

And now Novak is gone. When I heard word of his death on Tuesday, it struck me that we are not likely to see their likes again. Collected from separate corners, Illinois (Novak), New York (Otten) and Virginia (Duke), they were assembled here by editors who had a passionate commitment to covering Congress and politics as if the decisions being debated really mattered. (more)