by David Weigel
Hi, everybody; I'm the third of Andrew's replacements in age, eminence, and good will. (He's spending some of his "fishing trip" in Amsterdam with my magazine and the creators of South Park. Jealousy is my right.) Heartfelt thanks to Andrew for giving me the chance to help fill in here. I've been reading his blog since its original design, that dark blue mass so opaque you could break a cornea trying to grok the text. It was always worth the pain.
I'm a creature of mainstream media in the worst way -- I did four years at a mainstream j-school and a year and a half at the editorial page of USA Today. My stint there began with the death of Ronald Reagan and ended, more or less, with the death of John Paul II. It overlapped with the 2004 conventions and the columnist stints of Michael Moore and Ann Coulter. In other words, I'm very happy to be here.