She [Ann Devroy] was everything Broder is not: fearless, intellectually honest, scrupulously fair, and suspicious of power. ~Paul Begala

Kicking around David Broder has become quite the pastime lately, and no wonder.  He represents everything that thinking people (and even, when convenient, someone like Paul Begala) find repugnant about establishment media figures and the political consensus they slavishly protect (as they protect their positions by doing this).  Matt Yglesias asks whether the Post‘s circulation would be harmed by letting Broder go and answers in the negative, but I think he misunderstands the function that Broder serves.  As the Post is the reliable establishment rag, its editorial line painstakingly aligned to match the most dreadfully “centrist” of “centrist” consensus views, so David Broder is the most dreadfully “centrist” among dreadful “centrists.”  The Post could no more part company with him than it could become a newspaper dedicated to holding government accountable and serving the public interest.  You might as well ask the editors of The Wall Street Journal to not oppose the interests of Middle America or call on the Times to treat Christians with respect.  It would not be in the nature of the Post to send Broder packing.  They would have to admit that flacking for concentrated power and war was somehow, well, undesirable, which would mean that they ought to close their doors forever.