T he hardest-working man I have ever known has retired. Privileged to call him my boss for half my (admittedly brief) career, I suffer an incalculable loss as Bob Novak sets down his pen, but millions of his readers are also saddened.

While only the Internet’s puerile purveyors of uninformed vitriol celebrate his retirement, there is another class of people in this town who — even if they admire the man — benefit from the end of Novak’s column: The politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats and operatives who want to work in peace and quiet, out of the public view.

What we’ve lost is not primarily a conservative voice — Novak was one of many who clearly and consistently articulated the call for limited government and, later in his life, also the protection of the unborn.

What we’ve lost primarily is a reporter who cast a cynical eye on the best-laid plans of bureaucrats, who took the same level of skepticism to his coverage of both political parties, and who was motivated, above all, by the desire to unearth information that powerful people would prefer remained buried.

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To the detriment of the republic, there is now one fewer skeptic calling around Capitol Hill until he gets the real dirt; there is one fewer sleuth — freed by his spot on the opinion pages from what Novak calls the “deaf-dumb-blind” sort of impartiality that often makes news reporting worthless — exposing the true machinations in the government. This can be a cause for relief for many powerful people.

Novak regularly expresses wonder at the Internet’s effect — both positive and negative — on journalism and discourse in this country. He has often asked me to explain why bloggers and online writers would be willing to attach their names to the nasty, personal and unfounded vitriol poured forth from both Left and Right on the Web.

Novak became a favorite target of many on the Left who could see little more than conservative or liberal — who imagine every writer is wearing a Red jersey or a Blue jersey.

This partisan lens through which TV and the blogosphere casts much of politics is actually a boon to the politicians of both parties. As long as it’s Red vs. Blue, then campaign contributions keep flowing, politicos are immune to criticism from their own base, and actual ideas — which are pretty annoying things for many politicians — take a back seat.

Novak was one of the journalists — and, thankfully, there are still many others of all political stripes — who did not align with either party, and, as Fred Barnes put it, was harsher on the GOP, with whom he agrees more.

Thanks to fate’s unfair hand, Novak will be remembered by many as the man who revealed Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee. Thanks to the ignorance of many bloggers and television commentaries — and their willingness to write on what they know nothing about — his role in this affair is presented as his doing the hatchet work of a Bush White House scrambling to defend the Iraq War.

This false account is ironic on two fronts. First, what Novak did in this case to earn such ire from the Left was publish something that a CIA spokesman (without much of an explanation) asked him not to print.

Publishing things the government doesn’t want you to publish — when you have been given no reason to suspect it will endanger a life or compromise national security — is what Washington reporters should do.

The second irony is that the conversation that led to Novak’s disclosure about Mrs. Wilson (a throw-away line, almost) was a chat between two Iraq War opponents — Novak and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

I remember riding the elevator with Novak one day, discussing how one Republican congresswoman had just named Teddy Roosevelt as a hero. Novak, never a T.R. fan, pointed out to me that Roosevelt had coined the term “muckraker” as a term of reproach.

Roosevelt had also argued that the “critic” doesn’t “count.” These are convenient arguments for a man in power to make — and they are dangerous arguments for our country if we listen to them.

Novak has hung up his rake, but just as many damning facts lie buried beneath the muck. Here’s hoping more journalists — on our news pages, opinion pages, and even our blogs — continue Novak’s work of making uneasy the men and women in power. I know I’ll try.

Examiner Columnist Timothy P. Carney is editor of the Evans-Novak Political Report. His Examiner column appears on Fridays.