Breslin Files Last Regular Column

[Khephra]

NEW YORK -- Opinionated and outspoken to the last. In his last regular column, published in Newsday on Tuesday, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jimmy Breslin said he was so sure Democratic nominee John Kerry was going to win the presidential race easily that he wasn't even going to stay up to watch the election returns on television.

"So I go to bed with total confidence. ... And I leave today as the only one in America who from the start was sure John Kerry would win by a large margin," Breslin wrote.

Most of the column was about why Breslin thought Kerry would win. Only at the end did he write, "Thanks for the use of the hall."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-people-breslin,0,4279888.story?coll=sns-ap-entertainment-headlines

[Dookus]

1. aww...

so long Jimmy. I grew upin NY and read him all the time. He was a workhorse, that's for sure.

[mulethree]

6. good paper

He used to write for the NY Daily news and when he moved to NewsDay I switched to read him there. Found Newsday to be a much better paper in general and still read it though I've moved near Philly.

[JoFerret]

2. Great columnist

Greater prediction. Thanks for all the work Jimmy.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Breslin wrote a column on the eve of the invasion of Iraq

that I think I'll carry in my heart the rest of my life.

Blood Remains on the Hands


The least blood, a small squirt when removing a needle, two drops, that's all, no more than two drops, and suddenly it is everywhere. It remains after all. Wipe and it returns. Look about and it is in two and three places. Wipe those places and the blood does not go away. Two drops appear as a needle comes out and then it is endless.

Blood from the body of a baby bombed to death in Baghdad, blood by the pint, running onto the street as fast as a swift river, has magic in its pure infant cells. Of course you cannot scrub the street clean because the blood from the baby already has covered the street and is in the air.

Blood from a bombed baby in Baghdad goes over the wide choking sands and it crosses mountains and then great land masses and then suddenly, over a channel, it is in Westminster, in London, and people look at the sidewalk and wonder where these large blood spots came from, and the officer on duty in front of 10 Downing Street looks at the door handle and worries, how did this get here without me seeing this and having it cleaned? He has a servant rush to the door with cloth and polish and he wipes the blood and polishes the door handles and then walks off and the guard happens to glance at the door handle and the blood is back, smeared bright new red over the polished handle.

The baby's blood is off to rush over the ocean, a strange red cloud poised to rain and it floats over the green of the Washington parks and goes down a sloping street to the State Department, where as a man opens a car door for Colin Powell he suddenly notices blood on the door handle and he quickly unfurls a handkerchief and wipes the handle and Powell gets in and the car goes off and the man who held the door is left in the driveway and he sees the red that is still on Powell's door handle.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0331-11.htm

Thanks Jimmy, for speaking the truth to these criminal fucks!

:toast:

[saigon68]

7. I read this too

Very very powerful

Jimmy Breslin was a true working class American.

[Julius Civitatus]

4. He will be missed

He wrote some of the most corageous words against Junior's warmongering at the time when nobody dared. He's one brave soul and an excellent writer indeed.

My best wishes.

[Indykatie]

5. Wonderful Writer

So many of his columns about Iraq have brought tears to my eyes. I didn't realize he was retiring.

[fugue]

8. Oh, it breaks the heart!

I didn't know he was retiring. . . .

Thanks for all your efforts, Jimmy. We'll miss you.

[Sniffle . . . ]

[indigobusiness]

9. Breslin is an oldstyle bareknuckle hero...

an American.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. Yeah, he will be missed here in NY. No matter where he worked

Newsday, Daily News, Post, or Sun, he was a clear voice for the average man.
He was not the "superstar" type media guy either. He drank at the same pubs as real people, listened to their stories and worked tirelessly to keep his POV from being silenced.

Mazel tov, Jimmy.

[Blue_Tires]

11. good luck, jimmy

and thanks

[Kenergy]

12. Thanks Jimmy,

In my books, you're one of the best!

[truthisfreedom]

13. he was right, but there's no paper trail to prove it. goodnight, Jimmy.

sleep well, and enjoy the ride.

[USA_1]

14. JB

One of those tell-it-like-it-is type New Yorkers who wasn't afraid to speak his mind. And he backed up everything he said with the truth. A great guy. A real New Yorker. His writings will be missed.