In 2008, Jennifer Rubin was Pajamas’ then-DC editor, who, along with myself and other Pajamas people, kicked off PJTV with coverage from the 2008 GOP convention in Minneapolis. She would leave PJM to blog up a storm over at Commentary’s Contentions blog, but still made time for frequent appearances on PJM Political, our Sirius-XM show. Jennifer has been hired by the Washington Post, editorial page editor Fred Hiatt writes:
I’m delighted to announce that Jennifer Rubin will be joining The Post with the launch of a new blog next month. Jennifer will provide critical news coverage and commentary, with an exacting eye on conservative policy-making and Republican campaigns, pundits and politicians. From a conservative perspective, she also will cover a wide range of foreign and domestic issues and media controversies. We imagine her blog in some ways as a companion to Greg Sargent’s Plum Line, though of course with its own style and blend of reporting and analysis. With a Republican majority moving into the House and the 2012 Republican primary cycle gearing up, there couldn’t be a better time to bring Jennifer’s fresh perspective and insightful reporting to our readers.
Jennifer comes to The Post from Commentary Magazine where, as contributing editor and chief blogger, her provocative writing has become “must read” material for news and policy makers and avid political watchers. Her work has also appeared in the Weekly Standard, Politico, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, the National Review, the Jerusalem Post and numerous other print and online publications. Before her career in journalism, Jennifer was a labor and employment lawyer in Los Angeles for 20 years.
At Commentary, John Podhoretz writes, “We’ll miss her, but we’ll keep reading her, as I expect you will too.”
And to think I knew her when…
Update: Stacy McCain adds, “My favorite piece by Jennifer Rubin was a column she wrote for Pajamas Media in February 2009:”
You will recall that, at that time, many Republicans were still talking about the need to cooperate and compromise with the new president. Rush Limbaugh had become a lightning rod because of the Four Famous Words: “I hope he fails.” (I had expressed my own view of the Democratic agenda in three less-famous words: “It won’t work.”) Yet in February 2009, the question of whether the GOP should oppose or support the Obama agenda was still very much debated. It was Rubin who distilled the correct insight into a strategic maxim: “The opposition party must oppose.”
And now that the opposition party has triumphed — winning 241 House seats – by obeying that maxim, Rubin will now be positioned to provide excellent coverage of the battles ahead.
In addition to her blogging, Jennifer’s recent lengthy Commentary expose on California’s myriad woes, written from the perspective of a longtime California resident who finally hit the ejector seat in recent years after surveying decades of fiscal and legislative insanity, is also well worth your time.
I did not know I would ever have a good reason to read the Post!
The WaPo hiring Jennifer Rubin is a sign of intelligent life in the universe.
Excellent! Make ‘em honest, Jennifer!
The Washington Post’s editors were wise to hire Jennifer Rubin. I will actually make a point to visit her blog. Is the Post fed up with losing money? Will it tend to be more balanced in the future? This announcement at least is encouraging.
The problem with Contentions is John Podhoretz’s hypersensitivity towards anything remotely touching on matters of race. Barack Obama was helped considerably by center-right writers who hesitated to take to him to task out of fear of being charged with racism. They often handled him with kid gloves.
Being overly sensitive to the possibilities of being castigated for someone’s race is just as bad as being racist. It allows evil to spread when it should be called out. The correct answer when you are accused of racism unjustly is to say “That’s BS! I don’t give a damn about his race, it’s the policies that suck.”
What an absolute joyful bit of news. Wow. If I have a more favorite writer/essayist in the universe of those who do this, I can’t think of one at the moment. (there are a few who are tied for first place with Jennifer)
She is a delight to read and I do not miss almost anything she puts into the blogosphere.
WaPo gains instant credibility with me with this news. (a long trip from the utter lack of credibility it held with me)
I just hope her clear voice and even clearer thinking is not lost in a sea of corruption there. A sane voice at th NYTimes, for instance, is totally washed out with the flotsam and jetsam of rampant, unchecked leftist drivel.
WaPo was headed down that sinkhole. Very, very, very few hires would inspie me to believe they had any hope of return from the abyss. This, however, was one of those rare ones. She’s a gem. They don’t deserve her, but they can earn that right to showcase her with more deeds like this.
Bravo and best of luck, Jennifer. Make them earn you.
Hmmm.
I got nanned from The Plum Line Moonbat Sweat-Lodge for constantly pointing out that the ACA, (Socialist Utopia ObamaCare), had effectively enslaved the American people.
It seems that the slaves didn’t care for being called slaves.
I wonder if that ban applies to Jennifer Rubin’s new blog.
I always liked her writing here at PJM, and she kicked it up a notch at Contentions.
If the WaPo hasn’t barred the door to me, I might stop by.
Hats off to Jennifer Rubin. She was parctically carrying Contentions all by her lonesome. How amazingly prolific. And how clear. Truly top of the heap. May she grow and prosper
While I am happy for Jennifer Rubin, with the new gig she has at the Post, I am deeply saddened for Commentary Contentions. To me, Jennifer was Commentary Contentions. Her absence will leave a huge gaping hole there when she goes over to the Post. I wonder, though, after Jennifer goes to the Pose whether will still be the same person I have come to admire at Contentions. Too many times, I have seen other conservatives who after becoming the poster boy (or in this case, girl) conservative for a leftist publication themselves start to drift left.
You seem to have voiced my thoughts,though whether she will, through inertia, drift left or the editorial current take her, seems a bit pessimistic at the moment.
Let’s hope that she maintains the quality she displayed at Contentions.
Too many times I’ve seen people like Jennifer brow beaten into submission eventually or they go the way of Juan Williams.
This is fantastic news! Congratulations to Jennifer and to WaPo!
Excellent! I read all writings at Contentions, she pretty much predicted all the problems Obama is experiencing. I am sure she will be missed at Commentary.
Except that it appears that it is only a blogpost position. Not an editorial, columnist, or even printed position. Unwanted red-headed stepchild type position. As other-than-influential a position as they can make it I suspect.
More lip-service IMHO.
Just warn her to stay away from the water cooler Eugene Robinson and Sally Quinn use.
That water ain’t right!
Congratulations Jennifer – you’re a wonderfully talented writer.
Let’s hope the Washington Post doesn’t treat Jennifer as some token conservative and gives her all rights and privileges. If they do, perhaps they’ll finally learn just how wrong they’ve been.
Hopefully for her she can telecommute.
Snarky side point: did you notice that their bio of her doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of PJM? I love Jennifer Rubin, but WaPo still has a very long way to go.
Jennifer Rubin has produced an outstanding body of writing in the past three years. Her posts at Contentions are always my first stop in the morning.
My first stop in the morning also! Flotsam and jetsam. I have no idea how I shall cope. Hard to think I might have to encounter Sargent in order to find J-Ru. She should have a column, not relegated to a blog amongst too many.
If you are reading this, please do not let up on TNR
Great news for Jennifer, probably also for WaPo.
If Jennifer can continue being as truthful as she has been, the truth quotient at WaPo will go up — and might start improving their reporting. And their other news.
One wonders why in the age of electronic media, a well-respected columnist with conservative views would choose to join a publication’s masthead that is well past its prime. The Post has been discredited as a non-reality based rag sheet for quite some time now. So curious that as the conservative swell across the nation is toppling The Old Liberal Guard, Ms. Rubin would want to associate her many talents with it.
Can one say, “Follow the money?” Prediction: Jennifer Rubin will be a Post employee for eighteen months.
It will be interesting to see if the utter disdain she shows for “the Obami” at Contentions comes through in her new gig. She’d fit right in at WaPo on the immigration beat.
I’ve loved Jennifer Rubin since seeing her lip synch “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” in the film Delusion.
I don’t want to give WaPo that much consequence! It is an organization that betrays truth at every turn. One house conservative will not change that. Jennifer, I will miss you.
Can anyone imagine for a moment the New York Times hiring Jennifer Rubin? Of course not. That’s the difference between a great newspaper- the WaPo- and the propaganda rag which is what the Times has become under the leadership of Pinch Sulzberger. Not to say the WaPo doesn’t make it’s share of mistakes but at least you’ll find a diversity opinion there, unlike the NYT.
Please Jennifer convey my utmost disgust to Richard Cohen- remind him he is still a JEW like us and his “IDEARS” will buy Israel death- his last ridiculous (what passes for) editorial made me swear off the POST forever- Best of luck in the sea of vipers
WAPO is getting it at least that conserveatives actually read newspapers while libs get news from Jon Stewart and colbert- money talks
I cancelled my local paper a year ago and never missed it – I also do not miss the anger I felt every time I did read the revisionist history, the implied biases, the fawning scraping and bowing to Obama, that their editors don’t even notice and the appaling LACK OR REPORTAGE on so many topics Ihad to find on the net, the disgusting obeisance to ISLAM and the constant drumbeat to make us “understand” instead of combat the apartheid misogynist infiltration of Pisslamic ideology, the accusations ………. I look forward to seeing any conservative editorial in national MSM
Is the Huff Puff going to let Rush Blog on the site next year???? Maybe not but we could have hope for a change.
Jenifer Rubin is first rate – WAPO is second rate. I think Jennifer is on a career path that will be advanced by a stay at WAPO. I predict good things for her after WAPO.
Now having looked at some of the other writers at Commentary I wonder whether it’s worth my while reading Contentions’s Max Booth when he writes in his TSA Scanners vs. Profiling Redux
This is fatuous nonsense for if there is one thing Israeli security people know is that there are a lot of secular types who don’t have a rabbi. As for the one airport is he implying that the TSA team would have to rush from one airport to the others to cover their check-ins? Don’t they already have individual teams at each and every airport already?
It doesn’t mean that although the person does not fit the profile that the luggage is free from examination.
They have learned since then and even then they did not have to physically determine if the woman was using a pantyliner and not something else as is being done at the moment.
TSA Gropes Menstruating Woman Because of Panty Liner
Is Mr. Boot’s criticism serious?
As for Alana Goodman’s “Why Do Israeli Settlers Love Sarah Palin?”,
well I’m not an Israeli Settler and I empathize with Sarah Palin because of her down to earth approach to life. It seems to me in talks with ordinary people in the street that what distinguishes Palin from those strong supporters is the fact that she is not scared of voicing her opinions. She seems firm in her convictions whereas those others are always testing the wind.
Is this another specious attempt at decrying Sarah Palin?
Anyway I think that with Rubin gone Contentions will be the poorer for it.
Ever read the Washington Post? It is the fountainhead
of liberal idiocy. Can anyone please tell me how a woman of “deep and passionate convervative convictions”
makes this transition? Its like watching a “staunch” and “fervent”
anti Communist take a job at Pravda because the pay is better.
Or is this transition really not that big a change at all for Ms.
Rubin? Promoting Jewish interests is her one real life long commitment and if she can do so in a forum with a better access to the political cocktail party “A List” so much the better.