frits! Uh..fsrit! frist! I mean first!

bye Kevin, I'll be lurking at the new digs.

Paul,
I think you should have offered Inkblot fresh tuna every day. That way there would be no possibility of Kevin leaving Washington Monthly.

"Pack up dem bags ma, looks like da boy is mov'n agin!"

Well, I followed Kevin here from his original site, and I'll follow him to MJ as well.
Just leave a link to your new digs, Kevin.

Thank you Kevin for reminding me of Bryan's in Farmers Market-great food-better than Phillipe's

I guess nobody is going to get any work done around here today, huh?

As a Kevin Drum reader from the Calpundit days, I will surely be bookmarking your new Mother Jones site as well. Thanks for all the interesting political insights over the years - I am looking forward to more in the future.

To Steve and Hilzoy, I think it's great that you will have this venue for your writing - your guests posts and posts at your own web pages have been consistently excellent. Good luck!

What?!? You cheapskates wouldn't fly Drum to DC for a little meatspace merrymaking? That's just not right.

Kevin, I've followed you daily since Calpundit. You, TPM & Atrios are my three main blogs, so I look forward to following you to Mother Jones with that hothead David Corn. Your political commentary is great, but I also enjoy the pieces on grammar and the other off-beat and sundry topics you cover. Keep up the good work, and congratulation on your new digs. I will also keep Washington Monthly in my daily rotation, and maintain my mag subscription.

As one of the most intelligent and well-read bloggers in the blogosphere, Kevin Drum will be hard to replace. Although Steve Benen is a good choice. Best wishes Kevin and thanks for puttng up with all the shit you got from the regulars!

This is the first political blog I discovered and liked well enough to have been addicted to it, so I blame Kevin for my permanent image in my household as the person always sitting in the corner of a couch in the family room with a laptop.

And who knew that Kevin was someone who leftist enough to share the digs with David Corn.

No farewell, as MJ replaces my WM tag.

Kevin,
I remain somewhat sane as a result of your blog! Thanks so much for the life line.
Will follow to MJ....

I started reading Kevin's blog when it was Calpundit. He's given me an interesting perspective into American politicts and every day life. I'll surely follow him to MoJo, but apart from his great excerpting talent and his choice of subjects, I like the format of this blog.
Thanks, Kevin, and good luck and a good time at your new place.

Any truth to the rumor that Rupert Murdoch just bought Mother Jones and changed half its name?

Bon Voyage, Kevin! Bienvenue, Steve! Laissez les bons temps rouler!

(Pardon my French.)

I remember when CBS got the Bush Guard story pulled out from under them, I thought, "Damn, they should have had Kevin vet that stuff for them first."

The Washington Monthly was very smart and prescient to turn their website into the Political Animal blog. When other news magazines and papers were trying to charge for access to web based content, The Washington Monthly was one of the first to allow for open comments about current events. Four years later almost every other media peer of the WM, and even newspapers, have abandoned restrictions to content and opened up their stories to reader comments, although many require registration. During this time other, pioneering blogs have taken a step back, not only requiring registration, but consolidating into web conglomerations, which students of McLuhan and Marx should recognize as a historical inevitablility.

Many thanks have rightfully been given to Mr. Drum, but it should not be overlooked that the Washington Monthly offered its nationally recognized journalism brand to legitimize the new medium of blogging. Thanks.

As much as Kevin annoys me at times, I generally do respect him. I came for his writing, but I'll be staying for Benen and Hilzoy, (both of whom I like better than Kevin).

The Washington Monthly is low on the foodchain? Not at all. Think of it more as being like a primary source of energy, like plankton.

Best wishes to Kevin.
High hopes for the new bloggers.

Thanks for all the great writing and good luck at your new location.

I always found Kevin to be smart and honest, and generally fair. Not a bad record in this biz.

We don't know how Kevin does it, but regularly and elegantly he delivers incisive analyses. Thanks Washington Monthly for presenting him. We won't be lost from WM -- Benen is also absolutely discerning.

I'll read both blogs, but I plan to keep my print subscription to WM.

I'm never going to find a pundit I agree with 100% (and during the primaries we disagreed a lot...until later on, anyway), but Kevin is definitely one of the penetrating and sensible thinkers out there on politics and government and stuff, and Washington Monthly's loss is definitely Mother Jones gain. I'll be checking out both blogs.

Congratulations Kevin. Nice to see local boys make good.

I've always been impressed by the skill with which Kevin writes his posts. He is the best blogger I know for provoking discussion, and no one beats his wonky charts. He deserves a medal for his leadership exposing the conservative myth that SS was running out of money and for his work on healthcare costs. He also has been a thoughtful, consistent voice for women bloggers. Not to mention catblogging....

WM will miss him. I'll certainly check out his new gig with Mother Jones, and I wish him all the best there.

(An imaginary glass of champagne is lifted in the general direction of OC as I virtually toast KD's excellent work.)

Good luck at your new digs, Kevin. And Paul, please refrain from the "OC" nomenclature. No one called it the OC until that stupid Fox television show.

I must say, you guys at Monthly have great taste. You always seem to have some of the most talented people working, either directly or indirectly, for the magazine.

CalPundit was the first blog that made me think "Hmmmm, maybe these 'blog' things aren't just warmed-over GeoCities pages after all." (Lucky it wasn't a Friday...)

Little did I know that Kevin's thoughtful posts would be a gateway drug. Now I swim comfortably in a sea of shrill DFH's. "Why do I hate America", Republicans ask? Kevin, that's why!

Thanks Kevin for the insights, and best of luck with the move.

Thank you for taking him on. I'll stick around for a while to see how it goes without him.

Now what's the link to his new home?

Congratulations, Kevin. And thanks for fighting the good fight in the face the slings and arrows from all sides. I think you've given a voice to the concerns of many while providing great information and insights on contemporary issues, evidenced by a faithful readership, lively comments section and even the grudging respect of many of your political opponents.

I look forward to reading you over at Mother Jones and reading Steve Benen and hilzoy on this end.

All this jumping around is certainly indicative of a lack of placeness. I bet many of us followed the trail from Josh to Kevin to Steve. What a pack of elitists! Those who are glued to TV news and talk radio don't know what they are missing.

I have noticed comments in the archives from 2004 and 2005 have been erased. Can these comments be found anywhere?

[unfortunately these comments were permanently lost due to a server crash -- mod.]

How nice that we can say hello to Benen and Hilzoy without saying goodbye to Drum! My only problem is deciding which to read first-- TWM or KD.

congrats all around to Kevin, Carpetbagger (who will now be Carpetbagging?) and hilzoy. should be fun bringing those commenting communities together, too!

I first ran across Kevin at Calpundit where he did some serious reporting on George Bush's stay here in Montgomery, AL. I've been a daily reader since, and will continue to be at MJ (well, I'll be out of the country for a couple of weeks in Sept, otherwise...).

Glad the Carpetbagger is coming over, I can keep the same bookmark;>

CONGRATULATIONS and GOOD LUCK...already have Mother Jones bookmarked! Can't believe that I have been into this blogging thing for 5+ years after seeing some guest on WJ one morning talk about "blogging" and having to google it to find out what it was about...now have a daily list bookmarked and a routine of catching up on each day's POSTS...it will be good to have one more to go to...now if the information would just get more positive and happy, happy!

Paul,

This is much more for you than for Kevin. Consider:
A) This is the first time I ever "was told" that Kevin had any role at the Monthly, other than "we need a blogger, so get a blogger". I figured he had no role in the magazine whatsoever.

B) Your moderator blows. Moderation should be done with a light touch. It should be consistent and follow printed rules. It should be applied evenly across the board. There is no reason whatsoever to moderate people who don't use even a pseudonym, or change pseudonyms. What does that gain anyone? There is no reason to moderate people like mhr. Why are is comments changed to a "*"? Is it to protect our tummies from adverse ideas? Moderation should only be for physical
threats, outing of personal information, and spam. Moderation should also have a well defined appeals/complaint department. I don't know who your moderator is. HE/SHE SUCKS ASS AND CAN DIAF. I would probably feel differently, if a) the moderator had a name, b) the rules were consistently applied, c) your moderation policy respected us as adults and didn't moderate out people who you thought might hurt my tummy, and d) there was a forum to appeal/complain

C) Bloggers can use editors too. Encourage your bloggers to remember the first rule of Teh Intart00s: "TL;DR."

I do have one request for both WaMo and MJ. Please change the comment setup so that the name of the post appears at the top, so I can skip troll posts immediately. I know there are blog readers that can do the same thing, but I can't use one while I'm at work.

I must say, Kevin's posts have been stimulating and center-leftish enough for my taste (sometimes he's too kindly to the "bad guys" but even then I know it's basic decency or not knowing some particulars.) I have thoroughly enjoyed commenting here and I notice that the most articulate and knowledgeable folks comment here, including "Keanu Reeves (no, really)" - well who else would deign to make the parenthetical note that's supposed to him, yeah it's really him? Really, the work some folks put into their long comments is impressive. Some commenters come up with clever new neologisms, doggerel, etc. (such as repeated by Sullivan at his own fascinating but commentless blog.) I myself came up with "MSMemia" and "chicken squawks" who are bloggers who don't allow comments.

And of course we even have entertaining trolls, like "Al" (who has now transcended ordinary human existence and become a legend, a "spirit"), fat white guy, etc. There's just no comparison, when looking e.g. at the mostly breezy exclamations at Atrios etc.

I believe that even commenters here have influenced debate on issues. After our big discussions against social security privatization, I noticed similar arguments being made in letters to Newsweek and on discussion boards. Carry on, Kevin at the new digs and many of us will drop in to continue the great tradition.

I started reading Kevin four years ago as an undergraduate studying abroad in Chile. His blog was my daily read to stay abreast of the goings on in the world. Since then I haven't missed more than a handful of days.

About a year ago Kevin introduced me to Steve Benen's blog. I trusted his opinion on other matters, and as a result of his consistent linking to Steve's blog, I began reading Steve on a daily basis. I'm excited that the one other blogger I regularly read will be taking over here. Hopefully Steve will introduce Friday Dogblogging?!?!

In addition to all this I started a blog, thanks in large part to reading Kevin's blog. What an influence in my life!

Thanks Kevin and WM. It's been great reading over the years. Looking forward to more from both.

Cheers,
Sean

"media behemoth Mother Jones."

Am I the only one who sees that as a rather unbecoming cheap shot?

It was a couple of years ago that I started checking in maybe twice a week and especially on weekends because he was there and other than Whirled View, no one else was. But the he was so down-to-earth and logical and at the same time funny--and, of course, there were the cats!
So for many months now it has been every day. I'll continue that schedule over at MJ, but I won't abandon the Washington Monthly--you are pretty good at finding smart people!
And thanks, Kevin, for remaining available; I'm too old to go crazy and you are the voice of sanity for me.
Alice

I can't overstate my respect and admiration for Kevin Drum. He consistently writes one of the smartest, most influential blogs in the political universe. But I can't remember a time when he was nasty, sloppy, or injudicious. And that's no small achievement. Kevin is proof that thoughtful blogging isn't an oxymoron; he sets an example that all of us, myself included, would do well to follow. And while his departure is clearly Mother Jones' gain, the addition of Steve Benen and Hilzoy mean that it's not the Monthly's loss. Although I'm not a Monthly alum, I've known--and admired--many over the years. This is, indeed, just another episode in the magazine's long history as a launching pad for great writers. My only complaint is that now I have one more blog I can't afford to skip.

Kevin, I'll be right along to your MJ blog tomorrow--I've bookmarked it. And my cats Casey and Cooper will be there as well. They insist on keeping up with the exploits of Domino and Inkblot.

You run a great blog. Please keep the miscellaneous discussion type questions coming. It's a nice break from all-politics all the time.

Thank you for letting me post my comments.

I just wanna say that your farewell to Kevin was truly classy and I think better of the magazine for it.

Kevin was always a good time.

Just want to thank Kevin, back in the Calpundit days, when I emailed him asking for more pictures of his cats, for responding with Cat-blogging Friday, therefore creating an Internet Tradition.