Robert Novak Diagnosed With Brain Tumor

Influential conservative commentator and longtime Washington journalist Robert Novak has been hospitalized after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

"On Sunday, July 27, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor," Novak wrote in a statement given to his publisher. "I have been admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where doctors will soon begin appropriate treatment.

"I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period."

A fixture of the Washington media for five decades, Novak played a prominent role in the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal when he identified Plame as a CIA operative in his newspaper column. Last week, Novak was in the news when he was cited for hitting a pedestrian with his car in Washington.