While this is not breaking news, I’d like to call everyone’s attention to the  New York Times Op-Ed Page.  Gasp!  There’s a new token Republican writing for the paper.  

Ross Douthat, formerly of The Atlantic, replaced William Kristol after his contract expired at the end of last year.  Ross began blogging for the paper’s website in January and is now well-into writing weekly columns.  I had the opportunity to work with Douthat as an editorial intern at The Atlantic in 2008, and most everything he put out at the magazine was well-written and very thoughtful.  While I didn’t always agree with what he wrote, it was nice to find a conservative voice that didn’t always spout party rhetoric or devolve into vitriolic attacks on a certain program or bill.  

Douthat’s writing always seemed a bit pained to me, in the best possible way, like he was constantly in conflict with himself; able to acknowledge validity of another viewpoint but also determined to stick to his own.  

Not that you don’t already read the Times opinion page religiously (hello, this is Scoop44), but now you have another column to check out.  Wouldn’t want to shut ourselves in an echo chamber, now would we? And for President Obama, this is one conservative voice worth paying attention to.

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