Totally OT, but what the hell, there’s gonna be enough time to express outrage over Ferguson, a great takedown of Ron Fournier by Adam Weinstein: How to Write Love Letters to America’s Nonexistent Political Middle

If you’re not a political journalist, the chances are very good that you’ve never heard of Ron Fournier, the Thomas Friedman of Helen Thomases. Fournier is one of the most-revered of wizened white-guy oracles known collectively as Beltway Types. Today, he wrote the Magna Carta of Beltway columns. Here’s how.

National Journal’s editorial director and senior political columnist. Longtime AP politics guru. Author of Applebee’s America. Honorable mention in a David Brooks essay contest. All of these are true statements about Ron Fournier, but none of them really captures his genius. Ron Fournier is America’s palpitating heart, a folksy war addict who hates long wars, a critic of government spending who hates budget cuts, a squared circle who gets your disgust with all these danged partisans, especially when you’re voting for them en masse.