Snarkeology 101: I Cannot Believe We Forgot The Celebrate The 17th Anniversary Of The Late Robert Novak...

...losing his shit and storming off the CNN set back in 2005.

The Dubya Administration was just beginning to come apart at the seams.  It was becoming clearer by the day that claims of Iraqi WMD were flat out lies, and the air was hot and redolent with names like "Judith Miller", "Jeff Gannon", "Scooter Libby" and "Valerie Plame".

No one ever figured out exactly what set Novakula off, although as a 100% in-the-tank bombastic stooge for the Bush White House, there were any number of reasons why it was probably a bad idea for the infamously thin-skinned Novak to be anywhere near a camera while James Carville needled him and challenging his "toughness".  

From 9News, 08/04/2005:

CNN suspends Robert Novak after he swears, walks off set

NEW YORK (AP) - Robert Novak, whose revelation of a CIA officer's name in a 2003 column has sparked a federal probe, was suspended by CNN after he swore and walked off the set during a live telecast of "Inside Politics."

CNN correspondent Ed Henry said afterward that he had been about to ask Novak about his role in the investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame's identity, which Novak has repeatedly refused to comment on aside from some references in his column...

A contretemps which I'm sure would never be allowed under CNN''s new, rightwing management.  

And while no one ever figured the exact why and wherefore for the eruption, but many novel theories were advanced, including my own, which you can still find here ("Carville Discovers Novak’s Launch Codes".)  Although it is a sign of the times and the age of the Liberal Blogosphere and the transience of all things that the links for every single graphic I linked to in the post (as was the custom of the time) are now dead.

Ah, but the memory, my friends.

The memory lives on.

I Am The Liberal Media