UPDATED: Robert Novak’s Unfortunate Accident (includes Daily Show video)

Apparently the pedestrian Robert Novak ran down isn’t doing too well. Novak feels ‘terrible.’  But probably not as terrible as the man he hit. Meanwhile, Novak’s had a $50 traffic citation. Jonathan Turley has some details of the aftermath and discussion of the legal ramifications. 

Turley notes:

Novak admits that he was a block away the accident when he was stopped by a bicyclist. However, that bicyclist witnessed the accident and says that he had to chase Novak after he sped from the scene. He would seem a pretty credible witness. He is David Bono, a partner at Harkins Cunningham, who saw the accident and says that Novak “plows into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed into the windshield.” How does one not notice a guy splayed on your windshield?

Bono said that he was outraged by the Novak’s flight: “This car is speeding away. What’s going through my mind is, you just can’t hit a pedestrian and drive away.” It is hard to see how Novak was only charged with failing to yield the right of way. There is at least one eyewitness who believes that this was a hit and run — and another witness supports part of his account with a contemporary statement. Another witness, a concierge named Aleta Petty, said that Bono told her immediately after the accident that he was going to chase a hit and run driver. She quoted Bono as saying “This guy hit somebody and he won’t stop so I’m going to stay here until the police come.” Thus, Bono did not just adopt a harsher view after finding out it was Novak.

I still feel kind of bad for Novak. I can’t believe he really just drove away. I don’t know why, though—res ipsa etcetera. But till I’m sure, I’ll carry on feeling sorry for him as well as the victim.

Help, Jon Stewart, give me some perspective here!

‘The only difference between Robert Novak’s hit-and-run and his career is that this time someone stopped him.’

But Jonathan Turley gets the last word:

Novak joked in 2001 about his hatred for jaywalkers and the option of running them over…. Novak’s hit pieces on folks like Valerie Plame are now notorious examples of his work. However, the alleged expansion to the actual use of a car for a hit and run is a new development.

UPDATED: It is cheering to read in The Washington Post that the man Novak hit is doing fine and is apparently quite braced up to learn that he was hit by somebody famous:

The homeless pedestrian who was struck by a car driven by syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak said in a radio interview yesterday that he is “doing fine,” recovering from a dislocated shoulder, and voiced surprise and amusement that the prominent political pundit was at the wheel of the Chevrolet Corvette that hit him.

“Bob Novak is the one that hit me?” said 86-year-old Don Clifford Liljenquist, sounding astonished when WMAL (630 AM) reporter Troy Russell told him that the driver was Novak. “Well, everybody knows who Bob Novak is! He’s a famous journalist! . . . I was struck by Bob Novak? . . . Well, I think that makes it a great story!”

cross-posted at Buck Naked Politics