A little more about Robert Novak as a peddler of confidential information in the service of GOP partisanship, from Joe Conason's New York Observer column for August 6, 2001:

Robert Novak ... admitted on July 12 [2001] that [Robert] Hanssen had served as his main source for a 1997 column attacking Janet Reno, then the U.S. Attorney General, for supposedly covering up 1996 campaign-finance scandals. Although Mr. Novak still believes that the information offered by Mr. Hanssen was valid, even he cannot help wondering whether Mr. Hanssen was “merely using me to undermine Reno.”

If you do't think of Robert Hanssen as part of the right-wing conspiracy, read on:

Apparently Mr. Hanssen would have been eager to use Mr. Novak against the Clinton administration, if a June 16 cover story published by Insight magazine is to be believed. The author, Paul Rodriguez, obtained numerous e-mails allegedly written by the spy in recent years, some of which include venomous invective against President Clinton and his appointees. The messages are full of speculation about subjects ranging from Mr. Clinton’s personal behavior to the Elian Gonzalez and China fund-raising affairs. One of the Hanssen e-mails concludes sardonically, “I guess from this you can determine that I am not a big fan of Clinton.”

(Kudos to the good Roger Ailes for spotting this.)