Wednesday rightwing columnist Robert Novak -- the man who outed spy Valerie Plame -- hit a pedestrian with his car. According to eyewitness reports, the man was walking in a crosswalk. He landed on the windshield of Novak's car and rolled off, and 77-year-old Novak drove on. A bicyclist -- who happens to be a lawyer who formerly worked in the Justice Department -- chased Novak down and blocked his car so that he was forced to stop.
The lawyer who stopped Novak said the man he hit went up on the hood and was splayed on the windshield; there was no way Novak didn't realize he hit someone. The man, it turns out, was an 86-year-old homeless man. The impact of the collision dislocated his shoulder.
DC police detained Novak for about an hour and shockingly only gave him a $50 ticket for failure to yield. Not hit & run? Leaving the scene? Why didn't they pull his license immediately? Why wasn't he given a breathalyzer and a drug test? Why didn't they confiscate his cell phone to find out if he was on the phone (or his Blackberry) when the collision occurred? The man had just hit another human being and drove away. Either he was callous and should have been arrested, or he was so inattentive behind the wheel of his car that he hit someone and didn't know it. In that case his license should have been seized. There's no way a person hits your car and you don't know. I've hit birds and felt the impact.
* Douchebag of Liberty is what Jon Stewart dubbed Novak after he outed Valerie Plame.
WaPo: Novak Cited for Hitting Pedestrian
WaPo: Man Hit by Novak Has Hurt Shoulder but Is 'Doing Fine'
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