Robert Costa, the “golden boy” of the nation’s premier
political reporters,  is switching from
the conservative National Review to the more-mainstream Washington Post.
Costa, the NR Capital Bureau chief in Washington, has
earned heaps of praise in recent months for his in-depth, behind-the-scenes
coverage of the politics surrounding the government shutdown. On Twitter, Costa
routinely receives applause from fellow journalists.
“Bob has become an absolute must-follow for his coverage
of Republicans, particularly after his stellar runs during this year’s
government shutdown, the fiscal cliff negotiations and the 2012 presidential
campaign. He is a believer in journalism, new and old …” said an internal memo
from editors to reporters.
It’s a bit unclear whether the Post’s new owner, billionaire
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, played a role in stealing away Costa from NR. But
Bezos’ promise to bring new reporting talent on board was already demonstrated
in mid-October when the paper announced the hiring of Associated Press
investigative reporter Adam Goldman.
In any event, the Post editors promise that Costa will
continue doing what he’s been doing as “one of the country’s best chroniclers
of the Republican Party.”
Last month, New York magazine crowned Costa the “golden
boy of the government shutdown” because of his enviable style of reporting.
The magazine concluded: “His reporting from behind the
closed doors of  Republicans in Congress
held up as indispensable, a shining beacon of the (journalism) form in which a
man tirelessly asks questions and prints answers without fluff or bluster.”
In a brief chat with the Post’s Erik Wemple Blog, senior
politics editor Steven Ginsberg went even further in describing Costa’s
abilities: “We’re not looking to change the way he covers politics. He has put
forward a new model on how to dominate a beat.”