The New Republic's take on the Domenech matter? Oh, well, Mr Domenech wasn't the right kind of conservative blogger, and that's largely the fault of liberals, who have much to learn. The sorry episoide just proves that.

Domenech deserved to be let go; but in the course of celebrating his demise, liberals have missed the real lesson of this entire episode. Instead of hiring a conservative, the Post hired a caricature of one; Domenech's blog would have been less a product of red America and more a product of what blue America understands red America to be. More than anything else, the sad saga of Ben Domenech reveals just how simplistic blue-state elites have become in their understanding of American conservatism.

So that's the great lesson to be taken from this. The elite fails to understand conservatives. Forget about the implications of an unuitable yet connected candidate winning the job.

And picking up the pieces, one wonders...

One question still remains: Who will Brady pick as Domenech's replacement? He might want to take a look at these lists (here and here), compiled by Slate's Jack Shafer when The New York Times was looking for columnists to replace William Safire. For the most part, Shafer's suggestions include respected, or at least respectable, conservatives: Heather Mac Donald, Steve Chapman, John Ellis, Stuart Taylor Jr., Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn, and James Lileks. Then again, the Post will probably pass on all of them: Not one conforms to a liberal's caricature of what a conservative should be.

Does this mean (as I think it does) that only an extreme, buffoonish conservative can hope to get hired? And that Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn, and James Lileks are not buffonish enough to please liberals?