TVSquad

The TV talking head and former right side of CNN's political cluster#*$& Crossfire has passed away.

Robert Novak died Tuesday morning at the age of 78 from his bout with brain cancer.

The right-wing pundit was a journalist first as evidenced by his long stint in the ink stained world of newspaper reporting from his days as an Illinois sports stringer to his columns for the Chicago Sun-Times. But he's probably best remembered by audiences' eyeballs for his work as a TV pundit and his uncanny ability to make news as he reported it.

Election night! Election night! Let's check out the folks at CNN. Is Wolf Blitzer going to lose his mind? Is Anderson Cooper going to be pretty? Is John King going to lovingly stroke the magic board? Let's find out.

9:00: That's what we've got for now. I'll be back shortly with more updates-- and maybe we'll have a new president. Not that CNN will project that.

8:59: Soledad O'Brien is looking at demographic information with Mr. Magoo. Poor Mr. Magoo can't work the touch screen because he's not tall enough. Hilariously, this comes at the point in which they're talking about how age is a factor in the way people vote.

8:57: Drink. They're not even making a projection in Arizona.

852: Can someone tell me what is up with these clean coal commercials? This is the 7,000th one I've seen today.

8:48: James Carville looks more and more like a reanimated corpse every day.

If you're a political junkie -- guilty -- you're likely looking forward to the upcoming conventions. Just the prospect of an election with no incumbent running sets 2008 up as an exciting election, and with only 24% of the country believing that America is going in the right direction, this is definitely a time for change.

NBC News is opting to insert an element of change in its convention coverage. The network announced today that the late Tim Russert's son, Luke, has been hired by NBC News and will be put on his father's beat, politics.

Luke Russert's first assignment is Decision 2008, where he will be correspondent-at-large at both the Democratic and Republican conventions. While this hiring smacks of nepotism -- or allegiance to the memory of Tim -- Luke is not without some journalistic skills. He's a Boston College graduate, majoring in History and Communications, and has been co-hosting a sports talk show on XM Satellite Radio. He shares the microphone for that program, 60/20 Sports, with political analyst James Carville.

With seven separate nominations in the Guest Actor and Actress categories, it's hard to believe that any 30 Rock guest stars were left off this year's list. The men nearly swept the nominees list for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, earning four of the five available spots. The ladies made up half of the Guest Actress category; not bad!

Still, a few brilliant and hilarious performances were left out. You can't argue with nominations for Will Arnett and Elaine Stritch, but I'd swap one or two of the nominees with a few of my own favorites. Check out my list of overlooked 30 Rock guest stars after the jump. And yes, I left out Jerry Seinfeld. Emmy got that one right.

Interesting tidbit from, of all places, Time magazine: James Carville and Mary Matalin, political strategists on opposite sides of the fence who just happen to be husband and wife, will be participating in a Lifetime reality series called Election. In the show Carville, who managed Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, and Matalin, who is a well-regarded Republican strategist, will each advise a high school student that's running for school president.

I've always wanted to see Carville and Matalin in a reality show, considering they have a successful marriage despite their opposing political views, and also because both of them have made-for-TV personalities (especially Carville, whose character was already immortalized by Billy Bob Thornton on the sitcom Hearts Afire in the movie Primary Colors). I just wish they'd put cameras on their everyday life, instead of doing this this contrived idea. Imagine: a fight about government wiretapping turns into a night of wild passion. It'd be a hundred times better than The West Wing, I tell you that.

[via Mediabistro]