We are as glad to see your back as we were relieved at Jake Tapper's and David Horowitz' and Andy Sullivan's departure.

You always were generous with your Red Stars. Thank you for recognizing my considerable talent. :-)

If you run into Joe Klein over there at Time, please give him the old "Rochambeau" for me. (South Park fans get it).

...need a full-time, daily animator...?

...can we expect to see the last of "Kansas O'Flaherty"? Salon and the so-called creators have been notably silent on the subject.

Too bad Michael is leaving, but I am proud to have been a paying Salon reader throughout his tenure.

If Salon can keep breeding reporters like Michael, who go on to bigger things, there may yet be hope for MSM!

Don't think of this as Salon losing a partisan hack. Think of it as Time gaining a partisan hack, and better yet, one who can hide his hackery under the aegis of sort-of-legitimate journalism!

Npw tell me all about how reporters don't have a pro-liberal-Dem bias.

A "culture critic" makes me a little nervous. I try to keep thing like Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse at a minimum in my life.

THANK GOD! FUCKING SWEEEEET!

But seriously folks...you don't know how much I was hoping to see Camille Paglia and Farhad Manjoo mentioned.

Another good one leaves. Although I confess that I cannot read his (or anybody else's) coverage of campaign minutiae. It mystifies me why anybody as sharp as Scherer could be happy covering kindergarten antics.

Here is an announcement I must have missed: when did Rebecca Traister stop writing for the Broadsheet column? It has been a couple of months since I have seen her byline there, I reckon. I miss her writing.

Michael's writing over time. But not at first. It was a smart decision to have him write brief updates, a la War Room, from the campaign trail. His insight ... or maybe just his ability to relay it ... was sadly lost on me when I read all or nearly all of his debate reports. I don't wish him ill, and try to generally regulate my (minor, I hope) "blog rage" (taking out life's frustrations on well intentioned political writers). It's just that I really have high standards for this stuff, and I really want to find a place where I can rely on cutting-edge, insightful investigative journalism. All I really care about around here is the political stuff ... but I do read and comment on other things for kicks. I did enjoy Sarah's piece about bras ... since I've never owned one (not even a Manzier or a Bro), I had no idea. Good luck Michael. Try not to take any advice from Joe Klein.

I've been following your work for years. I suppose it's all right if you move to Salon, but please finish your "Crying in Restaurants" column over at Nerve first!!

With O-Ren Ishii on the conference table cutting off someone's head as a lesson to the others.

Just don't get rid of your readers who post regularly. I look for a certain few every day and welcome their fresh thoughts. Also, the wonderful Mr. Tennis, evoking everyday at least three of the nine muses!

Hannaham is a mixed bag. The Winehouse piece was pretty good. However, no more articles on Britney please!

Anytime you can sign someone from Nerve, that's a good thing.

Now, you just need to get rid of Paglia. Admit it, her stuff is tired and lazy and her take on global warming is both bizarre and irresponsible. She is not smart, original, insightful, or interesting. I hear she is capable of being all of these things. However, she's not earning her pay at Salon. Hitchens, who seems to play her role over at Slate.com, is much, much better.

I have been waging a spirited campaign on this site to get Salon to have on it's payroll a Black writer. I am elated that my pressure work on Salon( Joan) to hire James Hannaham..

My only reservation is that Salon did not hire me but instead selected a Black gay male. Black gays are a very minute part of the Black Cultural matrix in America so Salon will still need me and other Black posters to fil in the gaps.

I do hope Salon will not have James become the designated Black 411 answer man quite often White publications segregate content and have Black writers only writing about Black themes.

I hope James is free to muse about finances, foreign policy, eco issues and all that is human....

Salon you did good ...well almost...lol,lol,lol

The girl with the cool name!

I'm sorry to see Michael Scherer go. I'll miss his usually perceptive, CONCISE takes on politics.

Now please get rid of Glenn Greenwald, who can never say in fewer than 100,000 words what other people manage to say in 400. His permanently indignant tone is exhausting to read and his relentless nitpicking of other journalists' work lacks any semblance of wit. Just think about the glee that, for example, Christopher Hitchens shares with his readers when skewering a target.

Greenwald's writing is a waste of disk space and RAM -- and my subscription money.

Where is Cary and what did you do with the body?

Cleansing the petty sexism in the broads on a sheet, er, broadsheet as well.

I watch you, Joan, on the tube now & then and, you are someone with intelligence over emotions which is the polar opposite of the anger and hateful drivel whined in the above mentioned section.

As for Cary~~

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

With all due respect to Michael Scherer, who is a good writer and I'm sure a nice guy, I won't miss his campaign coverage here at Salon, which I've always found tepid and surface-level. I never could get through any of his debate round-ups this primary season, and I always finished his candidate interviews wishing he'd asked more probing questions. Time is a good place for Michael. Salon needs something more.

In defense of Glenn Greenwald: we need his indignation in these insane times. What seems like long-windedness is necessary to avoid the appearance of a rant, a la the Daily Howler, and to provide more than just poke or a sneer. I suspect Greenwald's scathing criticisms break through to their intended targets, or at least their surrogates, in a way that more pithy bloggers do not. He serves an important role in his own way just like Atrios and Kos and Josh Marshall and Jane Hamsher and Bob Somerby do in their own respective ways. Salon should hold onto Glenn as long as they can.