And the columnist and talk show host Robert Novak has died at the age of seventy-eight. Novak was one of the most well-known right-wing commentators of the last three decades. In recent years, he became best known for outing the CIA operative Valerie Plame, inadvertently setting off a protracted controversy that led to the conviction of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney.