By: E&P Staff John Tierney, the conservative/libetarian columnist for The New York Times, announced in his space today that he is leaving or losing his influential spot on the Op Ed page after a fairly short run. He said he will be writing a column and blogging for the Science section.
Gail Collins is stepping down as the Times' editorial page editor and returning to Op Ed, but not until next summer.
After a typically contrarian column today (behind the Times' paid wall) -- in which he said that voters in last week's election want "gridlock," not action, in the next Congress -- Tierney suddenly announced: "Whatever they do the next two years, I won?t be here to kick them around. This is my last column on the Op-Ed page. I?ve enjoyed the past couple of years in Washington, but one election cycle is enough. I?m returning full time to the subject and the city closest to my heart: science and New York. I?ll be writing a column and a blog for the Science Times section.
"I hate to abandon my libertarian comrades here fighting in the belly of the beast, but this is the right moment to leave. After six years of libertarians reluctantly electing Republicans as the lesser of two evils, we?ve finally had enough. We?ve voted out big-government conservatism, and the result is the happy state of gridlock. For now, our work is done. See you in January in a new column on a new page."
Tierney's previous column had rapped the popular "Borat" movie for slandering Kazakhs.
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