First it was just a beautiful rumor, and now it’s been confirmed: Rosie O’Donnell will announce this morning that she’s leaving The View, effective in June. So ends a year full to bursting with kindergarten feuds, ethnic slurs, public vulgarity and mind-boggling stupidity. As Barbara Walters said in a statement on Rosie’s imminent departure, “We have had, to say the least, an interesting year.”

How this “career change” will be spun is anyone’s guess. Right now Barbara is saying that the move was entirely Rosie’s decision, based on contract negotiations between her people and the network. Rosie concurred, saying, “My needs for the future just didn’t dovetail with what ABC was able to offer me.” In my experience, it’s been quite a while since ABC offered me much of anything that dovetailed with my needs in the future or even the present, but Rosie’s nonstop spew of idiocy was one of the worst non-dovetailings I can remember. Thanks, ABC, for moving Rosie out the door. Without her, I’m sure The View will once again rise to the level of vapid, forgettable blather we’ve come to expect.