We like nothing more than when our friends and co-workers succeed at their dreams, so it's always slightly bittersweet when we see our friends succeed - but their success takes them away from us.
Today, we have to wish a fond farewell to one of our editors, Deborah Corey, as some of her new responsibilities are taking a bit more of her time.
Deb's involvement with The Daily Felltoon has been good, we felt - for both her and the Daily Felltoon. Over the past year, thanks in part to Deb, our tone has changed slightly, and even improved. Because of her influence, at times, we've considered topics from angles we might not have otherwise.
This is the whole reason that each of us, individually and collectively, have always advocated discussing important topics with those people we don't always agree with.
We'll admit - having sane, civil, well-informed debates with people you call your friends doesn't always make for easy, maintenance-free friendships. It does make for solid personal relationships, and long-lasting friendships, though.
Those are the kind of friendships that often push us to even higher heights.
In the time that Deb has been on staff with us, her writing has gone from strictly freelance, to freelance plus blogging - and now to being paid for her blog. As a former staffer for the Washington Times, and a DC political media contact, her status is growing - as are the numbers of people who read her blog.
She now has enough people reading her content that she's been able to sell some advertising on her blog, which will supplement her freelance income - which we're very happy about. She's also now the blog director for the Washington, DC Young Republicans, who just launched their new website. And she's once again covering the Conservative Political Action Committee meetings in DC.
Deb's blog is a bit more conservative than her work with us - or what we know to be some of her more default positions. We don't fault her for that, however, as she's catering to a more exclusively conservative crowd . "Give 'em what they want," as the old saying goes.
She's a true conservative, as we've always noted. She's just significantly more sane than many of her colleagues in the conservative media.
We hope that Deb keeps getting more readers, and more advertising - and maybe, if they're smart, one of the many DC-based political publications will scoop her up soon, and pay her some serious money.
For now, we simply say, "Thank you," to Deb for giving us the opportunity to work with her, and to gain a little more perspective from the conservative side of the aisle.
It's made us all better, personally and professionally.
We hope that each of you is lucky enough to have friends and colleagues that do the same for you, as Deb as done for us.
