[ambrose]

A personal note. My colleagues at the Journal have been sterling. This is the third time in four years they've allowed me to take a leave, the first two to finish books. They appropriately decided I cannot write for them during this time even now and then, because it is not the business of The Wall Street Journal to employ Republican or Democratic operatives. (I hate that word because it sounds so John Le Carre; but if you are trying to help a party you are operating in its favor, so there you are.) My personal thanks to James Taranto, my wonderful editor of four years;

Do you think he threatened to tear her apart, limb by limb, over this?

[daviddennis]

It is rather interesting to read our old friend JT, and to remember that he honed his skills over on David's Amazing BBS(*).

I'm sure he was supportive and respected Peggy's decision.

But there is something I don't get. Any political campaign worth its salt would love the services of Peggy Noonan. Why on earth does she feel she has to take a huge financial hit to get in on the game? I would think that, managed reasonably well, her earnings would actually increase. Why make the sacrifices if there's plenty of money sloshing around for everyone?

D

(*) For those tuning in, this was a computer bulletin board system I ran in the late 80s that had Ambrose and James Taranto, now head of OpinionJournal, as users. JT or The Bood, as he called himself back then, honed his already first-rank debating skills on my system. Computer bulletin board systems were the percursor to systems like Free Republic.