New York magazine floats some names in regards to who may succeed William Safire as the token conservative on the New York Times op-ed page: David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Christopher Caldwell, Richard Brookhiser, Fred Barnes, Robert Kagan, and John Tierney.
I wouldn't mind Frum or Krauthammer (Barnes, I would mind), although I've been saying all along that Caldwell would be the best choice. A frequent Weekly Standard writer who has been contributing to the NYT Magazine for the past year or so, Caldwell used to write great columns for New York Press, and while he's quite similar politically and stylistically to David Brooks, it's not as though Krugman, Herbert, and Kristoff aren't all clones anyway.
That said, John Tierney would be intriguing. He wrote a great magazine piece a few years ago called "Recycling is Garbage" that was so persuasive that I haven't recycled since.
UPDATE: Here's a whole blog dedicated to getting Jonah Goldberg the job.
Speaking of the Times op-ed page, how lazy is Maureen Dowd, giving away two-thirds of her column to a letter from her Republican brother? I've often compared Dowd's style (and skill) to that of a college newspaper columnist, but I don't even think such a gambit would past muster with The Justice.
Posted by Stephen Silver at November 30, 2004 12:07 AMNo, giving space to a Republican sibling would definitely not pass muster with the Justice. Definitely not.