Is Bob Novak Channeling TPMmuckraker?

For the second time in a month, a news item first reported by TPMmuckraker has shown up in the work of conservative columnist Bob Novak.

The first appearance of a TPMm item in Novak’s column came on Aug. 14, you’ll recall; Novak mentioned that Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) hadn’t reported a subpoena to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), as House rules require. On Aug. 2, we were the first — and until Novak, I believe the only — outlet to note Harris’ flaunting of the obscure rule.

Now, Novak has noted in his Sept. 3 column the difficulty Texas Republicans will have in “writing in” the name of candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs in the TX-22 congressional race, which will choose Tom DeLay’s successor. This pithy item was first probed and written about in detail on Aug. 22 by my colleague, the sharp-eyed and indefatigable Paul Kiel.

To be fair, we cover a broad swath of waterfront, so some subject overlap with Novak isn’t surprising. But in both cases, the tidbits have been obscure. In fact, on both items Paul and I conferred about whether more than a handful of our die-hard readers would care. (On both, we decided it didn’t matter, we simply thought they were kind of funny.)

So Mr. Novak, if you’re reading us, let us know! Send us a fan e-mail. At least let’s get our stories straight before Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald gets to us.