A long-time columnist for the Daily Southtown, Phil Kadner is taking a buyout offer from the Chicago Tribune, the paper that bought his paper.

I met him briefly while running for Governor against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan when his paper was called the Southtown Economist, but I had read his columns before and continued to do so.

Often,  they often were quire insightful, right on the mark.

Now he has written his last column.

His final thought, advice to a budding columnist left me laughing:

“Do good,” I told him. “Have fun. Kick ass.”

JimRod, the Two-Headed Chicken.

I also have a soft spot for the Southtown Economist because it ran the survey asking over 1,000 people who they favored for Governor in 2002.

Its results showed us capturing the “magic” 5% figure required by the Illinois League of Women Voters to be in its debates.

After that, Blagojevich and Ryan conspired not to participate in the League event, picking a Rockford venue in which I was excluded.

That led to the JimRod, the Two-Headed Chicken costume and cartoon.

Wonderful cartoon.

And so descriptive of the chicken-heartedness of both men.