I wondered where he was. These things are rarely “amicable.”
After I noticed he was definitely gone about a week ago I started watching every night, thinking it might have been an elaborate gag -having him disappear for a while and not saying anything about it. So when Greg literally spent two sentences on it and then moved on to a video of a kitten attacking a puppy I figured there was much more to the story. If he was just getting his own show on MSNBC, no doubt they would have had some fun with it. On the other hand, Bill and Greg like to joke A LOT about drug abuse. I recognize that most of that is just jokes, but as I have some experience with that in my family, I hope for Bill's sake it's not that.
I like Greg and his show and Bill may have been ready for a change, but when you hear something like this in politics or show business -- "He’s been a close friend of mine for 13 years ..." -- it usually means, "I hate him and I've been dying to get rid of him."