I’m starting to enjoy Robert Novak’s columns. They give a certain kind of satisfaction. For example, I really got a kick out of this:

As measured by offices held, Republicans have been in much worse shape during my half-century of reporting in Washington. The party was a mere remnant after the Democratic landslides of 1958, 1964 and 1974. But never have I seen morale so low.

Not for nothing, but that includes Watergate and LBJ’s landslide election over Goldwater. Novak is calling the GOP the ‘Grim-Old-Party’, and that’s pretty accurate. He might add a couple of adjectives to make it the ‘Grim-Old-White-Dude-Party’, but who am I to complain? Look at this and try not to smile:

The week before Labor Day, when nothing of importance was supposed to happen, brought bad news even as it appeared nothing worse was possible:

The apparent disgrace of Sen. Larry Craig, a former member of the party leadership, was all the worse because several Republican senators and staffers were not a bit surprised. That raises two questions. If so many people knew Craig was an accident waiting to happen, why was he not eased out of office? How many other examples of possibly scandalous behavior are known but hidden?

It wasn’t an ‘apparent’ disgrace, the whole police interview was caught on audio tape and leaked onto the tubes. But I don’t know how they were supposed to ease Craig out of office.

Novak goes on to detail other bad news and to bemoan the state of the GOP’s presidential field before concluding:

Past candidates have succeeded in pointing to corruption in Washington, but always by the opposite party. The Republican Party’s next leader faces a more complicated problem.

I wish Novak wrote 7 columns a week.