Novak Announces Retirement; Says Prognosis "Dire"

August 5, 2008 8:17 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Veteran conservative journalist Robert Novak announced his retirement on Monday, a little more than a week after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

"The details are being worked out with the doctors this week, but the tentative plan is for radiation and chemotherapy," Novak said in a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, which also quotes the 77-year old political commentator as saying his prognosis was "dire."

Sun-Times spokeswoman Tammy Chase told ABC that Novak will be treated at the National Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C.

Novak was diagnosed with a brain tumor on July 27. He said at the time that he was "suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period."

Novak wrote the nation's longest-running syndicated political column together with Rowland Evans, the Evans-Novak Political Report, which began in 1963. He was conservative commentator for CNN before joining Fox in 2006.

He wrote the July 2003 column that identified Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, causing a criminal investigation that involved questioning the President George W. Bush.

The federal probe found Vice President Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice in March 2007. Libby's 30-month prison sentence was commuted by President Bush, but Congress is still investigating the controversy.