This is William Kristol’s last column.

Those words were tacked on to his most recent column for the New York Times, and thus the strange bedfellows elect to sleep apart.

No word so far as to whether Kristol left, was fired, or came to some kind of mutual agreement. Its pretty clear that the New York Time's slide into oblivion continues unabated, Kristol's contribution notwithstanding. Kristol for his part, has to recognize that being a New York Times columnist doesn't impart the prestige that it used to.

When Kristol joined the Times last year, I thought it was emblematic of their complete cluelessness with regards to the conservative movement. Kristol has no constituency among conservatives. His "value" was as a policy-wonk, and since Obama isn't going to implement any conservative or neo-conservative policies, he's pretty much out of work. Kristol will continue making a living off of Newcorps' various investments, but I think his star, which rose with Bush, is setting with him as well.

UPDATE: Jealous out-of-work, or underemployed liberal scribes are mocking Kristol, ascribing his departure to "bad writing" and lack of due diligence.

Let's be candid shall we? The New York Times didn't hire Bill Kristol to write a column because they thought he was a good writer and always checked his facts. They hired him because of what he knows, who he knows and who he is--the same as the Washington Post.

If they let him go, it was certainly not because he credited Michelle Malkin with something Michael Medved said. It was because he doesn't bring anything to the party anymore.

Its just so ironic that his critics are so clueless about the nature of their business, which explains why their blogging and not writing columns for the New York Times.

Of course these guys credit an inside source of unknown authority for their assessment of the situation, even as the Times flat-out tells you what happened.

“It was mutual agreement,” Andrew Rosenthal, the editorial page editor, said of the change. “We discussed this before the election, and decided that we would end now.”

Notably that fits in perfectly with my analysis--Kristol's value at the times was at an end when Obama won the Presidency.