Posted 5:10 PM by Gene

I really thought Howell would tough it out. He might have, too, had Jayson been a garden-variety plagiarist and not a Guinness Book-setting sociopath. But face it, Jayson was Howell's teacher's pet, and all because of his race, and that was a cause; and then the Braggart threw his tantrum, a kind of regal rug-tugging from under Howell's feet. And let us not underestimate the impact of some of Howell's pet projects, like The @#$%&* Iraqi MUSEUM Project, and especially The AUGUSTA Project, which became one of the news business's all-time greatest self-parodies and a symbol of what went wrong with the Times under Howell -- the world changing, the obsessions, the favorites-playing, the pounding of the table, the banging on his reporters. Howell might have been a great editor -- in the war years. But in this prune-shriveled age, with news at the speed of light and opinions seemingly faster, he was doomed. And Andy S., just because you had opinions doesn't mean you amount to diddly-squat.