Today marks a special day at the Weekly Standard. Mary Katharine Ham, the Mary Tyler Moore of the blogosphere and the real star of the O’Reilly Factor, officially joins our team to fill the capacious blogging gap left by the on-leave Michael Goldfarb. (Actually, we expect her to more than fill the gap but don't tell Goldfarb.) The wit, wisdom and pluck that has distinguished Ms. Ham’s work will now distinguish these very virtual pages.

We are very excited about welcoming Mary Katharine – please check the blog frequently for her observations and insights.