Novak didn't walk, he was thrown off the set.

[ChiDem]

Watch the video, I have it on Tivo and you can clearly see him curse, then roll his chair back like he is walking, then rolls back in ..but something off camera catches his eyes and he clearly looks at someone and then lurches up and leaves it's plain as day on tv, I haven't watched it on my computer yet.

FOX News is running the clip, and doing the story

sorry if this is a dupe, just watched it 5 minutes ago.

[Hissyspit]

1. Could be... It is interesting that the other two don't seem thrown by his

walking off. They don't seem to miss a beat, so maybe they were aware of his cue to leave, as well.

[htuttle]

2. I think the producers were speaking into all of their earpieces

I agree that Novak looked like an invisible voice told him to get off the set.

[rfranklin]

5. I think it was Karl Rove communicating through the...

Bush Radio Network. Same as during press conferences and debates.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Yes and his comment "just let it go" was to the director

(re: his "bullshit" comment) who apparently did not want to "let it go" and called him off the set anyways.

[ChiDem]

4. makes sense.

[BlueEyedSon]

6. Seriously... the "let it go" comment seems apropos of nothing, directed

toward neither Carville nor the other dude....

[ChiDem]

10. I agree.

He wasn't walking because of the book, he was going to stay.

He was all ready to start spouting..."I do not want to comment on a ongoing investigation"

Plame questions wouldn't have scared Novak off.

[Swamp Rat]

7. Hmm... you might be right.

It did seem like he was parroting the voice in his earpiece. His actions and statements in that moment were non sequitur.

[warrens]

8. CNN suspended him indefinitely

According to NPR this morning.

[Coventina]

9. His "dark mark" started to burn & he had to report to Voldemort

Sorry, been reading too much Harry Potter lately.....

[bunny planet]

11. Republicans for Voldemort

One of my favorite bumperstickers.
Count Novakula is definitely a death-eater (or a pudgy dementor).

[Ready4Change]

12. 'Fraid I disagree.

From the times I've watched it, it looked to me like Novak said 'I hate that" and "just let it go" in response to Carvilles comment about the "Times?") editorial page. What THAT is, I don't know.

Carville seemed to act as if he expected it to be a joking barb. A barb meant to derail Novak from grabbing all the sound bit time. That's one of the things Carville's good at. Using the conservative tactic of making a belittling, barbed "joke" and a liberal talkers expense, and then, before an effective response can be made, jumping in and moving the topic in their own direction.

Carville did this. The host shifted his attention to Carville, over Novaks objections, and Novak looked the host in the eye to try to get a chance to get back into the conversation.

It's a debating-style ebb and flow, and it goes back and forth between Carville and Novak all the time.

What was different here was, rather than finding his chance to get back in, Novak instead gets up and walks off the stage. There was enough of a delay between "just let it go" and his walking off that I don't think they are directly related.

I think, instead, he realized this was his chance. He'd been told the host meant to ask him about Plame, and he wanted to avoid that. Here, he could act like he'd had "enough" of Carville, and use that as an excuse to avoid Plame questions.

[Liberal In Texas]

13. I don't buy it. As someone who worked in broadcast TV for more

than 30 years (most of that time as a director of live news), if a producer or manager had been wanting him off the set, the first thing they would have done was to cut his mike.

But his mike is clearly on while he's taking it off and tossing it down. As he is walking away, you can hear it rustling against his clothing as he is grabbing for it, and the "thunk" as it comes free of his tie or shirt and silence as the audio man finally cuts it.

If they had wanted him off, they would have told the anchor to toss to a break ASAP and at that point during the commercial he would have been told in his IFB to leave (probably by saying something to him like "Mr. So-and-so wants you in his office NOW.")

No producer or manager is going to attempt to jerk someone off the set while the program is going on, not when you can wait a few seconds to get to a break to deal with it.

Besides, it all happened so fast, that the decision to pull him would have taken longer than what happened. Yelling "cut his mike" could have happened after the BS remark, but clearly that didn't even occur.

Sorry to have to blow up your theory, but it just doesn't seem at all likely.

[BlueEyedSon]

16. thx lib

[kentuck]

14. It's very possible...

When you look at it a little closer, it appears it was a set-up all along by Novak, perhaps with the knowledge of Carville, to give him an excuse to leave CNN. Why? Because something is about to break and Novak does not wish to be "fired" to take care of a "legal" problem. This gives him an out of his legal contract with CNN.

[Imagevision]

15. Kudo's to Mr. Carvel - jack his ass up james!