I was sad to learn it became necessary for Human Events to dissolve the bonds that connected them to conservative print consumers, and layoff several staff members in the process today.
There are a lot of good folks over there, including great John Gizzi (who was reportedly among those furloughed.)
If you don’t know Gizzi, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of politics. Gizzi could tell you who represented Kansas’ second district in 1958 (and a story about them) — if he wanted.
He joined Twitter a year or so ago, and here’s a classic example of one of his tweets (which I saved): “Herman Cain is 1st candidate to write [a book] envisioning himself as Pres. since Huey P. Long wrote “My First Days in the White House.”
How many people do you know who would see Cain’s book ,”This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House” and immediately connect that with Huey Long’s “My First Days in the White House?”
That’s Gizzi.
Remember when Newt Gingrich had the idea that we could simply abolish bad courts? Gingrich cited Thomas Jefferson as precedent, but Gizzi pointed out to me that Gingrich very likely got the idea from a novel that Gizzi had also read (which makes perfect sense if you know Gingrich).
Someone should grab him up right away. They don’t teach what he knows in J-School.