For leaving, of course. Because I’ve loved having Karen as a colleague. She is a total pro–yes, cynics, there is such a thing in journalism. She does the work. She interviews people, with skepticism–our appropriate operating system–not cynicism. She has been a tigress on health care, an issue that has affected her beloved brother, as she wrote beautifully early in the year. She is all Texas; which means she has that nasty sense of humor–devastating, when she chooses to deploy it. And she is solid to the core. No gimmicks, just reporting and then reporting some more. Damn, I”ll miss her.
Meanwhile, I’m back home from Afghanistan. It was a remarkable trip, much of it spent on the front lines in a Taliban-controlled area near Kandahar with Dog Company of the 1/12 of the Fourth Infantry division, whose soldiers kept this old man (and photographer Adam Ferguson) safe on patrol and made us feel welcome. Their professionalism and humanity under extremely difficult circumstances are a remarkable tribute to this country. I’ll have a lot more to say about that in next week’s magazine…for now, though, I’m going to keep my own counsel, catch up on the news and gossip I missed while away…and mourn the loss of KT, while wishing her well at the Washington Post.