A Few More Words on Times Op/Ed Columnists

Anyone out there a regular reader of The Times' op/ed page? Well, regardless of your answer, I figure I owe you a degree of balance in my previous comments about David Brooks so that you understand I do not feel their page has any truly brilliant commentors these days.

From my PoV, Paul Krugman is exceptionally good and the best they currently have. He's helped me understand some tough issues and I don't think he takes positions just to upset the rabid righties who've depicted him unfairly as some extreme lefty. Krugman was attacked for a long time by the righteous righties before he began to respond in kind. And even then, I don't think Krugman would ever purposely color his take just because he's a target by these folks. I do believe he tells his story as he honestly sees it (part of my argument with Brooks and the fellow who will replace Safire is that they are party loyalists who will say whatever will keep Uncle Karl from getting mad at them).

I like Bob Herbert who is the only one I feel could be seen as a true progressive. His series on the IBM worker safety issues and others have been quite good.

Maureen Dowd - the token woman - can be a real mixed bag. Again, the rabid righties depict her as a shrill, boozy, self-hating Catholic which is funny because she spent most of the Clinton years taking on Clinton far more often than his loud Republican opposition in Congress). Of all the Times' op/eders, Maureen's words can be the sharpest; other times she rivals Brooks for petty mediocrity. But I've also thought she's delivered some very smart columns that provided more than sheer enjoyment at her acidic etching.

Tom Friedman, someone I used to respect somewhat, now seems a boat adrift because of attending to the watching the helm, he's too busy wringing his hands and asking, "What would that great man Tom Friedman do?" Earth to Tom: don't hold yourself to such a high standard; God knows the rest of us no longer do. His best columns in three years are the ones he doesn't write.

Nick Kristof is another one who occasionally comes off strongly but spends most of his time as a bobblehead badly in need of a spring adjustment. He went from my "must read" list to "Must I?" on/around 9-11.

I liked a bunch of Bill Keller's op/eds and find myself wishing he were back writing them rather than managing. As top gun, I think he feels he has to overcompensate for the paper's perceived liberal bent (funny how the liberals see this quite differently). But then, that's the most effective weapon in the Rabid Right's arsenal these days: accuse even their acolytes of being leftwing radicals so the accused spend all their time trying to get back their credibility with the Koolaid investors' group.