First Frank Rich, now Bob Herbert

Bob Herbert, following Frank Rich, is the second New York Times op-ed columnist in less than a month to announce they were leaving the paper.

Both columnists said they wanted to pursue new angles in journalism.

Fortunately, the Times did NOT go craptacular on Rich's replacement, naming Joe Nocera. But, Nocera, at least from what I've seen of his blogging or commentary outside of Times news stories, isn't really, well, opinionated. And, to the degree he is, he's a business columnist.

I hope the Times thinks outside the New York-DC axis, and outside the traditional bipartisan poles, for a replacement for Herbert.

The story notes that the NYT is in the middle of revamping its Op-Ed section. And, of course, it has the paywalls going up. Both are good reasons for thinking outside the box.

Herbert's farewell column is here. Apparently, he's leaving now, unlike Rich. Interesting. Anyway, he goes out with a bang - call it millions for Libya, but not one cent for the homeland.