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You are here: Home / Open Threads / I am glad that Michael Kelly is dead

I am glad that Michael Kelly is dead

by | 130 Comments

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And I wish he’d died younger. I recommend this piece from TNC:

There’s a kind of writer who gets his kicks writing bad reviews of music and books. You see that same spirit in Kelly’s mocking of Paul Krugman, Kurt Vonnegut, and Janeane Garofalo, or in his attacks on the French by evoking the ghost of Pétain.

That glee turned Kelly into a thin writer who spurned nuance in favor of hyperbole. In the fall of 2002, for instance, Kelly wrote that Bush…

…presides over an administration that is unusually intelligent — and also cunning — unusually experienced, unusually disciplined and unusually bold.

Of course, when some establishment asshole dies, the serious people tell us that we’re monsters if we say we’re glad they’re dead. When some asshole they don’t like (say Hugo Chavez or Gore Vidal) dies, they happily dance on his grave.

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    liberal

    If you consider the way our polity really works, he was in some position of influence and power. Which makes him relatively culpable. Therefore, he’s a slightly higher-ranking war criminal; may he rot in his grave.

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    He was one of the nastiest and most relentless leaders of the anti-Gore jihad (and was a key figure in the decline of The Atlantic). And for those of you who don’t remember him, he was IMHO like Sullivan, one of those Beltway darlings whose voice carried a lot more influence among his peers than the general public. He was also one of MoDo’s best friends. I can’t go as far as glad he’s dead, but I’ll sure as shit speak unpleasant truths about him, dead or not.

  3. 3.

    eemom

    Dayum, you’re even bloodthirstier than I am.

    Also too, that’s no song lyric. I ain’t even gonna google it.

  4. 4.

    Derelict

    I can’t say glad he’s dead. Rather, I wish he was alive to see just how monstrously wrong everything he wrote has turned out to be–and to see him confronted by those to whom he has caused unimaginable suffering through his writing.

  5. 5.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Copy/Pasted from a previous thread: Kelly was both a Clinton pantie-sniffer and an Iraq War cheerleader. He was a part of the coterie who destroyed TNR. He isn’t quite up there with Cheney in my books, but he did a good deal of harm in both public discourse and public policy while he was alive.

    ETA: Oh, yeah, fuck him and the horse on which he rode in.

  6. 6.

    DougJ, Friend of Hamas

    @Derelict:

    I don’t mean I’m glad he died in the sense of his being punished, I mean that I’m glad he’s no longer with us. I feel the same way about David Broder and Tim Russert.

  7. 7.

    eemom

    In any event, good to have a nice grave dance thread to wash out the bullshit taste of, like, every single one of its predecessors today.

  10. 10.

    c u n d gulag

    Jaayzoos H. Keerist saying to Peter, “Look, there’s a lot of you clowns I don’t trust, but the one guy I know will never betray is, is Judas!”

    The assessment of the W Mis-administration is the funniest thing I’ve read in years.
    Also, the most tragic.

    But ya gotta give it to him on the “cunning,” “experienced,” and “bold.”

    Man, talk about wishful thinking, to back up your war-lust positions!

  11. 11.

    raven

    Nine years ago at just about this time the Illini were getting ready to play the Ville in the Final Four. Bohdi was a 6 month old pup and he got away from me and had the best time running away while I freaked out that I might miss a minute of the game!

  12. 12.

    quannlace

    Didn’t know anything about him. But after reading his Wikipedia entry; unlike all the other chickenhawks, he actually went to Iraq?

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    @raven:

    Final Four

    What is this “Final Four” of which you speak? Are you already at the Bingo Hall my good man?

  17. 17.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I’m glad the vile piece of shit is dead, for sure.

    The problem with Broder’s death is that it was relatively painless and he didn’t suffer for the damage he did to our discourse with his bullshit centrism.

  19. 19.

    raven

    How in the fuck do they play these games in domes? I sold my SEC championship game tickets because the upper level endzone seats were too far away! Those seats were $500 today.

  23. 23.

    MattF

    Kelly’s death in Iraq overshadows his role in the Clinton years– in fact, Kelly was the epicenter of Clinton-hatred in the Villager media. Completely bonkers on the subject. But since Kelly was a talented and influential writer/editor, he made OCD respectable. Anyone who was familiar with Kelly’s writing in the ’90’s saw an obvious subtext in his admiration for Bush– “He’s not Bill Clinton.”

  24. 24.

    Judge Crater

    He was a fool. And an arrogant one.

    Thought he was Churchill or Hemingway, going off to write insightful bullshit about a great war-time adventure. He died in a Humvee accident in a fifth-rate, pointless exercise dreamed up by neoconservative assholes more stupid than himself.

  25. 25.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MattF: Kelly was almost pathological in his Clinton hate. When you read his stuff on Clinton, you could sense the spittle-flecked rage driving him. Off the deep end, he was.

  26. 26.

    Mike in NC

    I recall that Kelly wrote a weekly column for the WaPo at one time. He was mildly critical of candidate Bush in 2000 a couple times, but post-9/11 he joined the lemmings in the Village who were sycophants and apologists for the administration. Had he not drowned in a ditch ten years ago, Kelly today would probably be a regular commenter on Fox News.

  27. 27.

    smintheus

    The driver was also killed.

    Was the name of this driver ever reported? Or did only the death of Kelly matter?

  28. 28.

    Bruce S

    I’m not glad he’s dead, because it took a war he mongered to kill him. Rather have no Iraq war and Michael Kelly still churning out insane, dishonest screeds than the vice versa that actually happened.

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Bruce S:

    I’m not glad he’s dead, because it took a war he mongered to kill him. Rather have no Iraq war and Michael Kelly still churning out insane, dishonest screeds than the vice versa that actually happened.

    Good point.

  31. 31.

    Bruce S

    DougJ – I get where you’re coming from but reading the way TNC frames his critique of Kelly and the way you frame yours, it’s pretty obvious that TNC knows better how to engender a wider spectrum of friends than…uh…”Hamas”(and those of similar disposition, if not politics.) Just saying…

  32. 32.

    eemom

    @Citizen_X:

    That’s how progress happens: one funeral at a time.

    And in that vein, the thread is kind of depressing, as I visualize the hideous smirking mug of Bobo and remember that he’s the same age as me…..and sure as shit not covering any war zones.

  37. 37.

    MattF

    @eemom: Right… Cleveland Park is a very safe area in DC, a bit north of Georgetown. Although, perhaps, not quite as safe as Bethesda.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Bruce S: @Omnes Omnibus: I always said if I could pick GWB’s punishment for Iraq it would be long life, good health, and perfect lucidity about the consequences of his decisions.
    As even those brief quotes show, Kelly was as mad as a hatter. His internet nickname was “Yosemite Sam”, and that was just from his print columns, IIRC he was not a frequent TV bobble head.

  43. 43.

    Hungry Joe

    When some asshole they don’t like (say Hugo Chavez or Gore Vidal) dies, they happily dance on his grave.

    The New York Times didn’t deem Gore Vidal worthy of an A-1 obit. I did an honest-to-god spit-take with my coffee when I saw that. No way was it an oversight: Vidal wasn’t One of Them, and had little but contempt for the Times. I guess they showed him.

  45. 45.

    wrb

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I always said if I could pick GWB’s punishment for Iraq it would be long life, good health, and perfect lucidity about the consequences of his decisions.

    That was Dante’s scheme

  46. 46.

    Bruce S

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I had never paid much attention to the prick until an old friend who was equally delusional sent me Kelly’s disgusting attack on Al Gore. It’s bizarre that some decent folks like James Fallows and Hendrik Hertzberg have fond memories of someone whose public persona was so repugnant and whose judgement was so totally twisted. Apparently he was a more complex person than the horrible stuff that appeared in print, but all I know about him is what I know, and it was wretched. That he was an “esteemed” editor only makes the crap he vended as an Opinion Columnist seem even more juvenile and twisted. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some substance abuse problems. Have no knowledge, but there seemed to be some kind of Dr. Hyde personality in those columns, if he was in fact such a wonderful friend to so many apparently decent people.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Bruce S: And you gear your style to the award you seek.

    I could not stand Kelly through the 90s, but, in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, I got much closer to hatred. He was the epitome of the preening war cheerleader who shat on anyone who did not immediately fall in line. Generally I am a de mortuis nihil nisi bonum guy, but Kelly is one of the ones for whom I make an exception. FWIW Cheney leads the list.

  48. 48.

    Ben Franklin

    Why? are we talking about this?????

    Aren’t there any live human beings who are still causing mischief?

  53. 53.

    BArry

    @Derelict: “I can’t say glad he’s dead. Rather, I wish he was alive to see just how monstrously wrong everything he wrote has turned out to be–and to see him confronted by those to whom he has caused unimaginable suffering through his writing. ”

    We’ve just seen that, in the 10th anniversary orgy of lying. Kelly would be singing perfectly in tune with the rest of the WaPo war chorus, about how they were right, and we hippies were wrong, and invade Iran and Syria right now!

    And people like Ezra Klein would be less likely to have a job there.

  54. 54.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Bruce S:

    Apparently he was a more complex person than the horrible stuff that appeared in print,

    Since it’s taken this long … You know who else was a more complex person than the horrible stuff he did?

  55. 55.

    Narcissus

    Here’s one that’ll bake your noodle:

    Would David Bloom still be alive if not for Michael Kelly?

  57. 57.

    Bruce S

    In some ways I have to say that Thomas Friedman was probably worse than Kelly, in that he never shed that veneer of reasonableness and regret (excepting that incredible performance on the Charlie Rose show, that St Peter might re-play for him before he’s sent to Hell), and I think he had more credibility with liberals who weren’t total assholes, but more the PBS set – sort of like Colin Powell’s egregious breach of public trust in his “moderate” persona. If anyone turned the tide of opinion among the “middle” it was guys like that – Kelly was a known bomb-thrower and had probably pissed off a lot of Dems with his ClintonPhobia.

  61. 61.

    Napoleon

    He was a complete piece of crap as a human being. A great reason never to get The Atlantic.

  67. 67.

    Jamey

    @DougJ, Friend of Hamas: I’m an arsehole, so I’ll go you one further to say that I hope Breitbart’s last minutes were filled with agony and terror at least commensurate with the misery he inflicted on others.

  70. 70.

    LanceThruster

    …presides over an administration that is unusually intelligent — and also cunning — unusually experienced, unusually disciplined and unusually bold.

    All these U-bombs made me think of this —


    After the 1970 invasion of Cambodia enlarged the war, fury and the demoralizing realization that nothing could stop the warmongers swept both the antiwar movement and the troops. The most popular helmet logo became “UUUU,” which meant “the unwilling, led by the unqualified, doing the unnecessary, for the ungrateful.”

    From – http://kennysideshow.blogspot.com/2008/12/soldiers-revolt.html

  73. 73.

    Linda

    I don’t wish him dead, but, as Chris Rock might say, I understand. What’s frustrating is that the bullshit we are fed is that we live in a meritocracy, when the truth is the opposite: commentators and political leaders who have been proven objectively wrong, and business leaders who have failed (to the extent that companies have paid them not to stay but go away), like Carly Fiorina (a twofer failure in both business and politics), are revered as wise people.

    This is not because they are wise, but because once you make the right friends, and cultivate the right allies, you can just fail forever without consequences. Seeing this happen over and over makes us all bitter, and we see the bad thing that happened to Kelly as a too rare case of deserved Karma. Even in death, however, he is lionized for being a great friend and only now being held accountable for the damage he helped cause. Unlike still-walking disasters like Cheney.

  74. 74.

    Wyatt Earp

    Dubya Bush, Dubya Bush,
    Cunning, experienced and bold,
    Long live his name and long live his glory
    And long may his story be told!

  75. 75.

    David Koch

    David Broder

    Bob Novak

    Michael Kelly

    Andrew Breitbart

    Christopher Hitchens

    Charles Lane

    Bobo

  76. 76.

    pokeyblow

    Bush was indirectly quoted in Time (or Newsweek) a year before the Iraq war saying “Fuck Saddam, we’re taking him out.”

    Romney was taped saying, regarding 47% of Americans, “my job is not to worry about those people.”

    All you have to do is take these guys at their word and thing become a fuck of a lot less mysterious. Apparently, doing that is beyond the capacity of those at the top of our press pyramid.

  77. 77.

    BGinCHI

    When I first saw the post title I thought Doug was just really sick of watching Ally McBeal.

    Then I remembered it was David E. Kelley.

    Never mind.

  78. 78.

    eemom

    “And all the people said, what a shame that he’s dead, but wasn’t he _____”

    Since there’s no song lyric in the post title….any takers?

  82. 82.

    eemom

    @raven:

    And a splendiforous thought it was. How often do you get two songs about suicide in one 1960s folk album?

  84. 84.

    Citizen_X

    @LanceThruster:

    After the 1970 invasion of Cambodia enlarged the war

    And see? That turned out OK, right?

    (One destabilized country, one genocide, and three million dead later, that is.)

  87. 87.

    eemom

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    a splendiforous for you as well!

    We oldsters gotta stick together. (With due recognition of the fact that you are -2 of an oldster than I.)

  90. 90.

    BGinCHI

    I want to root for Wichita State but it’s in Kansas and I’m mad at Kansas right now.

    Excepting Lawrence, which I like.

  93. 93.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @DougJ, Friend of Hamas: We’re all terminal, and I wish he’d died much sooner – before he did so g*ddamned much damage with his opionating. TNC makes the important point that it was his contemptous glee that made him so vile. he was just a nasty piece of work.

    TNC:

    It is often tough to reconcile what people do professionally with what they do personally. I don’t mean to attack a man who was–by every account–a great father and husband, and a great friend. But great fathers and great husbands die with some regularity and do not merit remembrances in national publications. Michael Kelly is not publicly notable because of his personal fidelity but because of his professional work. Faced with a historic conflict, Kelly’s professional work amounted to a gleeful embrace of what was wrong, and a gleeful assault on what was right.
    __
    That too must be remembered.

    Unlike Omnes, I’d like to spare the horse, which bears no fault for having been selected as transport by a vicious asshole.

  94. 94.

    Publius39

    @Jamey: Co-Sign. All the RIP Andrew Breitbart posts from the Villagers disgusted me. I’m glad Shirley Sherrod is taking his estate for everything it is worth.

  96. 96.

    Publius39

    Louisville is making a push, but Wichita is up by 6. I hope the Shockers pull this one out.

  97. 97.

    raven

    @JPL: I know it’s beating a dead horse but this place has really changed in the last couple of years. I tend to think it’s because West Virginia totally sucks and are amazingly stupid for leaving the Big East but I guess it’s just different people.

  99. 99.

    Corner Stone

    @BGinCHI:

    but it’s in Kansas and I’m mad at Kansas right now.

    Why the anger man, what’s wrong with Kansas?

  100. 100.

    David Koch

    @Narcissus: Oh fuck, I forgot to put the Mustache on the Dr0ne list. Fuck. As to Sully, he done a lot to remove himself from the MQ-9 list.

  103. 103.

    Keith G

    @Bruce S:

    In some ways I have to say that Thomas Friedman was probably worse than Kelly, in that he never shed that veneer of reasonableness and regret (excepting that incredible performance on the Charlie Rose show, that St Peter might re-play for him before he’s sent to Hell)

    Are Jews a part of this Peter fellow’s portfolio?

    Anyway in general, publicly celebrating, or worse wishing, death on one’s political opponents seems like a rather Tea-baggery thing to do, but whatever flips y’alls switch.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    presides over an administration that is unusually intelligent — and also cunning — unusually experienced, unusually disciplined and unusually bold.

    I don’t see the problem. The Bush administration was unusual, at least two or three sigmas out, when it came to intelligence. Kelly just got the sign wrong.

  105. 105.

    chopper

    it must be so weird to die not realizing you were butt-ass wrong about everything in your life.

  107. 107.

    BGinCHI

    @Corner Stone: Kansas used to have a liberal streak but it’s done gone batshit crazy. Makes Missouri look kind of sensible.

    People say “don’t generalize” but honestly, it’s useful sometimes.

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @BGinCHI:

    I don’t trust anyone who can’t hold a decent grudge.

    I have a friend who says that her family motto is: Grudges are light and easy to carry.

  113. 113.

    Chris

    @Derelict:

    I can’t say glad he’s dead. Rather, I wish he was alive to see just how monstrously wrong everything he wrote has turned out to be–and to see him confronted by those to whom he has caused unimaginable suffering through his writing.

    They never “see” how monstrously wrong they were.

    George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and all the rest are all living free and rich, and there’s no evidence that any of them have lost the slightest bit of sleep over their crime. Neither do most of their cheerleaders.

    If Kelly had come back, he would’ve turned into another one of them. Instead, he was killed by the war he helped sell. Seems like poetic justice to me, as well as the fate every one of those bastards I just mentioned should have had.

  115. 115.

    the Conster

    The guy ingloriously drowned in a ditch the first week of the war he cheered for to have happen and traveled half the world to get to. That’s pretty poetic, on the order of Appointment in Samarra.

  118. 118.

    Cheap Jim

    I have friends who are Friends, that is Quakers. Kelly said they were traitors. I’m glad Kelly’s children were saved from having to be raised by such a person.

  122. 122.

    Ella in New Mexico

    I really think it’s incredibly shallow and even worse, bad Karma, to say you’re glad someone like this writer is dead.

    Reserve that kind of sentiment for the Hitlers of the world.

    A post titled such as this really drags Balloon-Juice down.

  123. 123.

    mick mcDick

    i am waiting for Ann Coulter and Liz Cheney to drop dead. i will not pretend to be nice about it. good on you, doug.

  124. 124.

    Bob h

    What makes Kelly’s death appropriate is that it was due to the war people like him helped start.

  125. 125.

    Bob h

    @mick mcDick: If you’ve cyically appealed to the worst in Americans as a way of carving out a professional niche for yourself, then I too eagerly anticipate your death.

  128. 128.

    Emperor of Icecream

    @Linda: @Linda: at # 74. That is a brilliant insight. It is what drives you around the bend, the constant disjunction between the narrative and the reality. We are led by (and thus have to hear from in all the enveloping media sources) idiots and charlatans who are put upon the pedestals of wisdom in the public square.

  129. 129.

    Paul in KY

    Michael Kelly was one of the nastiest SOBs I have ever had the displeasure of reading.

    I am not happy he died the way he did, because it meant we were in Iraq, etc. etc.

    I would be estatic if he had received a painful disease & slowly expired & we had never gone into Iraq.

    Nuance there.

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