I’ve had requests to come out of head cold-induced blogging hibernation and post thoughts on the flurry of political and media news locally. OK. Here goes.

On David Sanders leaving as a contract columnist for us at Stephens Media to become the campaign manager for Stanley Reed’s candidacy for the Republican senatorial nomination: I say first what I said to young David last evening by phone.

It’s that I thought he was getting much better of late in his columns, writing more solidly and doing incisive counter-intuitive commentary, such as his credible attacks on Mike Huckabee for commutations and other things. And I thought he was naturally better on TV than in print, a kind of Roby Brock with flashier clothing.

I hope none of that was condescending.

I have nothing much to say on the general and rampant problem of the cross-pollination of political operatives and political journalists. I do not believe there was any intent by Sanders to blend his roles improperly by penning a column on his last day extolling the man he would hire on with in a matter of hours. I do think that was bad judgment. If a job offer was under consideration, Sanders should have, in my opinion, studiously avoided writing about the man with whom the possibility existed that he might imminently take employment. But that’s just me, and no politician wants to hire me.

I think what’s happened to Sanders is what happened to Josh Lyman when he went to New Hampshire to size up Jeb Barlett. David got this idea that this Stanley Reed is the real deal. Josh thought Jeb was an intellectual liberal who would be true to his principles if elected. Sanders thinks Reed is an intellectual conservative who would be true to his principles if elected.

A right-wing replacement for Sanders as a columnist? That’s up to somebody else, of course. As the allegedly liberal columnist, I have and want no say in the matter. So it would do no good for me to nominate David Kinkade, who can write well and is seriously funny. And he clearly qualifies by the modern standard since he was a political operative for Asa Hutchinson not so long ago.

About Amanda Manatt leaving Channel 7 to manage communications for the state House of Representatives in a new position created by a speaker of the House with too much time on his hands and some kind of overblown notion of a modernizing legacy . . . she’s very bright and will do well and it’s good to see her escape from local TV news. She’s a daughter of the Delta and well-trained academically at Fayetteville in multiple media platforms.

That speaker, Robbie Wills, closed a recent blog post of his own by openly declaring that he missed me and wanted me to call him. I’ll let this little post suffice for communication between us. Anything else I’ll take to Manatt.