At the end of his weekly New York Times
column today comes this cold announcement: "This is William
Kristol's last column." That completes the rout of Nov. 4, 2008.
There'll be dancing in the liberal streets. And so we have that
rarity in today's economically declining media -- someone let go
for purely political reasons. On top of that, someone let go who
is its lone conservative voice and a most readable, not only
Washington- but New York-savvy voice.
Kristol notes in his piece that Jan. 20, 2009 marked the end of a
conservative era, and challenges liberalism to defend liberty to
the same extent the right has since the election of Ronald
Reagan. Or to the extent FDR did. President Obama's success, he
writes, will depend on whether he follows their lead. Dinner with
Barack Obama didn't save Kristol at the Times, but it
did give him the last word. And now the Times can return
to talking to itself.
