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In addition to continuing his weekly column, Mr. Blankley will also become a visiting senior fellow in national-security communications at the Heritage Foundation, The Washington Times reported today.

Mr. Blankley came to Washington in 1982 and worked for six years in the Reagan White House as a speechwriter and senior policy analyst. He was graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles and received his law degree at Loyola University of Los Angeles. He also received certificates of international law at Notre Dame and the University of London.

Mr. Blankley said yesterday, "Since I was a young Reaganite in 1982, I had always read and admired The Washington Times. But working at The Times as editor of the editorial page, I have grown to love the newspaper. Under the leadership of Wes Pruden, it has courage, spirit, professionalism and a profound sense of purpose. It is everything that an American newspaper ought to be — and that makes it very rare these days. It is not only a family newspaper for its readers, but it is very much a family for its employees."

Regarding his new post at Edelman, Mr. Blankley says he will help clients "navigate the confusing and turbulent waters of today's Washington."

The editor in chief of The Times Wes Pruden expressed admiration of Mr. Blankley's years at the paper, as well as regret at his departure: "The Times owes a great debt to Tony, and if I thought it would work, I would have refused to accept his resignation when he told me last month that he would reluctantly leave us. He has given spirit and spunk to our editorial pages, giving them bite as well as bark, and making them unique in Washington, just what editorial pages should be."

You can read Tony Blankley's latest column and view archives of his work here, and see the full text of The Washington Times' story on their website here.