Lamenting Rosie

Rosie O'Donnell is leaving The View, after one of the most productive years of pulverizing culture-war agitprop in recent memory.

This must necessarily be a bad thing for folks like conservative blogger Michelle Malkin and Fox's quasi-Right-wing Bill O'Reilly. Her steady stream of lunatic pronouncements about Bush, gun policy, and media - and of course, most memorably the Trump kerfuffle over beauty pageants - has summoned a fertile tide of viewers for not just the catty gabfest itself, which has seen ratings spike 15% in the past year.

But with it, too, the possibility of a backlash:

Statements by public figures are being watched more closely in the post-Don Imus era. The lobbying group Focus on the Family said it was preparing to contact advertisers on "The View" as part of a campaign against O'Donnell. The group is angry at O'Donnell for comments they feel were insulting to Catholics.

As a Catholic I would have been against such a boycott - on principle, because I prefer people to use the market directly, by simply not watching 'The View' - not resorting to pressure groups. But also because O'Donnell is a useful fool to have in the media spotlight. When folks need a good example of the half-brained Connecticut Leftism that pervades media outlets, all you needed to do was wave a hand towards this looming monstrosity as exhibit A.

Rosie was one lucky enemy of mainstream, conservative-leaning America.

Heh: "Our long national nightmare is over."