Here's one for low-tech cyclist

Matt Yglesias makes his contribution to the end of the decade lists, with the "Ten Worst Washington Post Columnists of the Aughts."  (My title not his.)  And what a treasure trove it is:

10. Michael Kelly
9. David Broder
8. Jim Hoagland
7. Robert Novak
6. Michael Gerson
5. Fred Hiatt
4. Robert Samuelson
3. George Will
2. Robert Kagan
1. Charles Krauthammer

It personally prompted what may have been my meanest comment ever:  "Michael Kelly almost single-handedly redeemed the Iraq War."  

I argued with the selection of the almost super-humanly bland Jim Hoagland over the execrable "liberal" Richard Cohen:  "As for Hoagland, I'll have to take your collective word for it;  I don't think I've actually remained awake through one of his columns.  I would go with Cohen"

Please feel free to join in, quibble, or engage in more gratuitous trashing of the dead.  Hey, it's fucking Christmas time!

Comments

[big bad wolf]

wow. wow. you really did make that michael kelly comment. that just makes me

envious.

[Sir Charles]

Thanks. I thought it packed a whole lot of venom into one very short sentence.

[big bad wolf]

and with your sunglasses on no one will ever know who made it.

[Sir Charles]

So true.

[cathy]

I wish Kelly wasn't dead because I can't properly hate dead people

[low-tech cyclist]

Like you, Sir Charles, I've never been able to finish reading a Hoagland column before falling asleep. Looks like you weren't the only one in the MY thread to have that 'problem,' either.

So I'd say Hoagland out, and uber-wanker Cohen in.

But what can one say, looking at the entire list, besides: what a lot of terrible columnists the WaPo has!

[Nelson]

I'm going to have to say Gerson. While Krauthammer, Hiatt, and Will, advocate more terrible ideas per inch of newsprint, Gerson brought back that "heroic conservativism" bs that reminded me of Marshall "bullshit moose" Whitman. I dare say Gerson can even surpass Broder as a Joe Lieberman hagiographer. I object, however, to the inclusion of Richard Cohen. His 'liberalism' isn't worth a damn, but Cohen is as hilariously, bad a prose stylist as Friedman. Does unintentional comedy count for nothing here?

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

DougJ at Balloon-Juice has his own list, which puts Cohen at the top. His list is:
10. Charles Krauthammer
9. George Will
8. Anne Applebaum
7. David Broder
6. Michael Gerson
5. Jackson Diehl
4. Fred Hiatt
3. Robert Kagan
2. Robert Samuelson
1. Richard Cohen

I can't help asking, are there any candidates at all for 'best' WaPo columnist?

[kathy a.]

i don't read these people on a regular basis, but how can krauthammer come out 10th on anyone's bad list? every so often i try another sample [i am the costco shopper of wapo political columnists], and every time it is poisonous.

[low-tech cyclist]

I can't help asking, are there any candidates at all for 'best' WaPo columnist?

Meyerson, Robinson, Dionne. That's it.

I can't see how DougJ put Diehl in the 5-spot. I've never been able to remember a thing he's said long enough to comment on it.

I'm pleased to see that DougJ included Anne Applebaum. While her "Keep Roman Polanski free!" diatribes may be fresher in people's minds, the following graf, published in the WaPo the morning after the 2004 election, is what made me sit up and notice what a total moron she is:

the worst possible outcome today would not have been the victory of your opponent. The worst possible outcome would be, and will always be, a repeat of Florida 2000: lawyers, spin doctors, courts and protests that would drag out the result past last night. That is because a disputed outcome, whoever is doing the disputing, would do far more damage to the country in the long term than anyone’s worst Bush nightmare or anyone’s worst-case Kerry scenario, whether a declaration of war against Syria or the nationalization of private medicine or the appointment of a Supreme Court justice who believes in creationism.

As a nation, we handled the damage done by our extended 2000 election night* pretty well. Even by 2004, it was extremely clear that the disaster wasn't in the contest but in the winner. How blind did one have to be to not see that?

*Like with the "Kill the Bill" movement, I'm responsible for this as well. When my wife went to bed on election night in 2000, I told her I was staying up until it was clear who'd won. I won't ever say that again.

[Sir Charles]

Nelson,

I do agree that there is a ludicrous quality to much of what Cohen writes that is worthy of the occasional laugh.

Jim,

Best Post columnists:

1. Harold Meyerson
2. Eugene Robinson
3. E.J. Dionne

I think I've exhausted the list now.

kathy,

You really aren't missing much. Krauthammer is repellent -- blood thirsty, mean-spirited, and dishonest. I think he is the worst, although there are days when you could talk me into Gerson holding the slot then again Broder actually strikes me as the guy who does the most damage in many respects.

[mijnheer]

The decade is best known as the "noughties", not the "aughts" or "zeros". "Noughties" is so much .... noughtier.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2009/dec/23/guardian-daily-podcast
http://quiz.independentonlinesolutions.com/home/quiz/noughties-news
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/1566691/best-worst-noughties