No place for Dana Milbank’s bitterness

The Herald, for the most part, does an excellent job of keeping editorial opinion off the front page and in the opinion section where it belongs. But, do we really need columnist Dana Milbank anywhere in our paper? This bitter smash-mouth clown leans mostly left-progressive in his politics, but in fact rarely has anything good to say about anybody. “Clown” is the pejorative Milbank routinely uses for most conservative commentators and politicians. “Smash Mouth” is the title of his 2002 book trashing both George Bush and Al Gore. He should come with a warning label: “Quintessential America-Hating Eastern Elite Intellectual Clown” (pedigrees: Yale, Skull and Bones New York Times and Washington Post writer, etc.).

OK, so maybe the opinion page needs one writer of Milbank’s ilk for diversity, balance and shock value. But why him? We already have a home grown one of the Western variety whose columns regularly appear in the Herald (won’t mention any names; hint: initials S.S.). Even his (Milbank’s) name sounds like he belongs in an Ayn Rand novel along with Balf Eubank, another Eastern elite slimeball in Rand’s novel, “Atlas Shrugged.” Everett and Snohomish county don’t need to hear anything from this unhappy bitter man.

Ralph Dufresne

Marysville