Say It Ain't So, Frank

Frank Rich, the Times' most talented and trenchant op-ed columnist, is surprisingly leaving the paper for New York magazine. His column, published every Sunday in the Week in Review section, was often my highlight every Sunday morning. (As I eat Cheerios, I read the sports and then linger over the Week in Review, finishing with Rich.) Rich's nickname was "The Butcher of the Beltway" -- adapted from his earlier days, when, as the Times' theater critic, he was "The Butcher of Broadway" -- which was quite accurate. He threw sharp daggers every week, usually at Republicans but also at Democrats regularly, including at President Obama, who Rich has found unsatisfactory.

His time as a theater critic served him very well in the op-ed pages because he frankly deconstructed the pageantry and ritual that dominate modern politics better than anyone else. It shone at greatest length in his most recent book, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold," about the Bush 43 administration's love of theater in place of truth and accomplishment, and the press' willingness to look the other way. I like David Brooks' writing very much, but he's intractably earnest, which can be tiring when those he writes about rarely have the same character. Sure, Rich often dipped his pen in the same well, as all columnists do, but the content was always worthwhile and the writing had a real emotion and heft to it, as though it could unravel before its final point. It nonetheless arrived there, huffing and charged.

Perhaps Rich's greatest strength was his choice to write about national politics from New York rather than Washington where, as he often noted, he could expose routinely flawed conventional wisdom and tackle the underlying seaminess of the two parties (OK, of the Republican Party). He can still write about politics from New York with New York, but it's somewhat strange that he wants to leave the Times. What better job could there be than writing a weekly column for the Times in the Week in Review? The taxing-workload-to-national-influence ratio was unbeatable. Rich's last column is next Sunday, March 13.

Update: Coincidentally, Dan Kennedy's post about Frank Rich's imminent departure has the same title.