Yepsen was pretty worthless as a political analist. Everything I read from him I heard the night before on CNN by national talking heads. This has been a long time coming in my book.
Yepsen's old Monday column, long (about half a page), and a lot or even mostly about goings-on at the statehouse, was state-of-the-art, must-read, the best.
It was enjoyable to read, and you felt like you knew what was going on, like an insider, even if that was your only contact with the state government. When they got away from this, I can't blame Yepsen for wanting to insert his own ideas into policy debates, and perhaps just wanting change himself, but it wasn't the same. The old column was better.
He will be missed in part because they just don't have people like that around anymore. Someone else I liked a lot was James Flansburg, "The Old Reporter," who similarly knew what was going on, and who always or often had original ideas. Similar to Yepsen's old column, you wouldn't want to miss it. If you didn't subscribe, it made it worth buying the paper that day. I read somewhere he was forced into retirement I think, his salary too big, compared to those younger they might bring in from out of state (e.g. Basu).
If they really want to replace Yepsen, from what I have seen, I agree with blog comments I saw elsewhere that they should bring in Kay Henderson:
Radio Iowa
Perhaps the Register has someone else just as talented waiting in the wings, but I seriously doubt it.