Journalist Robert Novak has brain tumor

WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- Washington journalist Robert Novak announced Monday he has a brain tumor.

"I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period," the 77-year-old syndicated columnist and political insider said in a statement.

Novak's statement didn't indicate whether the tumor was malignant, CNN reported. His assistant, Kathleen Connolly, told the U.S. network he is waiting for a biopsy to come back within the next few days, and is alert and talking.

Novak became ill Sunday while in Cape Cod, Mass., and was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where the tumor was diagnosed, Connolly told CNN.

Novak, long known for his close connections to the administration of U.S. President George Bush and the Republican Party, was at the center of a scandal caused by his identification of Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent in 2003. The episode ultimately led to the resignation of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.