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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 DougJ|  April 6, 20135:35 pm| 130 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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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.

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Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    liberal

    April 6, 2013 at 5:38 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 5:39 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 5:40 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 5:41 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 5:42 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 5:43 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 5:44 pm

    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.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    April 6, 2013 at 5:46 pm

    Link from previous thread:

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2013/04/a-stupid-death-in-a-stupid-war-remembering-michael-kelly.php

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 5:49 pm

    @eemom: Even if it is a ten year old grave?

  10. 10.

    c u n d gulag

    April 6, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 5:54 pm

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

  13. 13.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 5:57 pm

    @quannlace: Yeah, he went as a war correspondent.

  14. 14.

    Warren Terra

    April 6, 2013 at 5:58 pm

    Some peoples’ headstones really could more usefully be fashioned in the shape of a urinal.

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    April 6, 2013 at 5:58 pm

    @raven:

    Final Four

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

  16. 16.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 5:59 pm

    @Corner Stone: I loves it.

  17. 17.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 6, 2013 at 6:01 pm

    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.

  18. 18.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:03 pm

    I never hoid of da bum.

  19. 19.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:05 pm

    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.

  20. 20.

    Maude

    April 6, 2013 at 6:07 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Hey, leave that horse alone.

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 6:10 pm

    @Maude: It was an imperative statement. I won’t be doing anything, but someone better get busy.

  22. 22.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:19 pm

    SHOCKING!

  23. 23.

    MattF

    April 6, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:24 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:25 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:26 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:28 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:29 pm

    @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.

  30. 30.

    Citizen_X

    April 6, 2013 at 6:34 pm

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

  31. 31.

    Bruce S

    April 6, 2013 at 6:36 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:38 pm

    @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.

  33. 33.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:39 pm

    @eemom: Concentrate on the Final Four comments!

  34. 34.

    Bruce S

    April 6, 2013 at 6:40 pm

    @eemom:

    Perhaps he’ll choke on a crouton at the Applebee’s salad bar. Hope springs eternal!

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 6:41 pm

    @Bruce S: TNC isn’t vying for a Moore Award, now is he?

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    April 6, 2013 at 6:41 pm

    @raven:

    How in the fuck do they play these games in domes?

    Very very large video screens.

  37. 37.

    MattF

    April 6, 2013 at 6:41 pm

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

  38. 38.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:42 pm

    @different-church-lady: In Texas yes, in the Georgia Dome, not so much.

  39. 39.

    YellowJournalism

    April 6, 2013 at 6:42 pm

    @eemom: Grave dancing burns more calories. Gleeful energy.

  40. 40.

    Bruce S

    April 6, 2013 at 6:44 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    More like a Pulitzer.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 6, 2013 at 6:44 pm

    @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.

  42. 42.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:46 pm

    Still Shocking!

  43. 43.

    Hungry Joe

    April 6, 2013 at 6:47 pm

    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.

  44. 44.

    wrb

    April 6, 2013 at 6:47 pm

    I’m glad I never registered Michael Kelly’s existence

  45. 45.

    wrb

    April 6, 2013 at 6:49 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:52 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:52 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:53 pm

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

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

  49. 49.

    MikeJ

    April 6, 2013 at 6:53 pm

    @raven: Two in the pink, one in the stink.

  50. 50.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    @Ben Franklin: I’m not, I’m going to talk about the games and I don’t give a fuck who likes it!

  51. 51.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:55 pm

    And off Pat Lang while I’m at it!

  52. 52.

    arguingwithsignposts

    April 6, 2013 at 6:55 pm

    @smintheus: I think it was at Lawyers Guns and Money someone linked to a Tom Scocca piece at Gawker that was similar to this. It’s worth a read. In the comments, one of Kelly’s former colleagues mentions the driver’s name and background.

    The problem with the village is there is no accountability for being horribly wrong about everything (cf., Bill Kristol).

  53. 53.

    BArry

    April 6, 2013 at 6:56 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:58 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 6:58 pm

    Here’s one that’ll bake your noodle:

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

  56. 56.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 6:59 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: Rick Pitino?

  57. 57.

    Bruce S

    April 6, 2013 at 6:59 pm

    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.

  58. 58.

    Slaughter

    April 6, 2013 at 6:59 pm

    @Derelict: As if someone like Kelly would admit to being wrong …

  59. 59.

    greenergood

    April 6, 2013 at 7:01 pm

    Just glad to think that Kelly and Ebert are not in the same afterlife space.

  60. 60.

    Bruce S

    April 6, 2013 at 7:02 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Saddam Hussein. Who also, like Kelly, had the courage of his convictions and died as a result of the Iraq war. I am not aware, however, of Kelly ever wearing a moustache.

  61. 61.

    Napoleon

    April 6, 2013 at 7:02 pm

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

  62. 62.

    different-church-lady

    April 6, 2013 at 7:04 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: I dunno, the horrible stuff that other guy did was pretty damn complex…

  63. 63.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:05 pm

    The Shockers up one at the half!

  64. 64.

    Jim C

    April 6, 2013 at 7:06 pm

    But … Hank Azaria was so cool playing him in Shattered Glass!

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 7:09 pm

    @Jim C: Look how that turned out with Charles Lane/Peter Sarsgaard.

  66. 66.

    Jim C

    April 6, 2013 at 7:15 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was thinking about him as I typed it; I didn’t care much for Sarsgaard’s Chuck Lane.

  67. 67.

    Jamey

    April 6, 2013 at 7:17 pm

    @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.

  68. 68.

    Ben Franklin

    April 6, 2013 at 7:18 pm

    @raven:

    At ease. Carry on.

  69. 69.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 7:19 pm

    @Jim C: I vastly prefer Sargaard’s Lane to Lane’s Lane.

  70. 70.

    LanceThruster

    April 6, 2013 at 7:19 pm

    …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

  71. 71.

    Jamey

    April 6, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Throw in some self awareness and maybe Bush’s curse of long life makes sense.

  72. 72.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:21 pm

    @LanceThruster: 2nd most popular. FTA was still #1!

  73. 73.

    Linda

    April 6, 2013 at 7:22 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 7:24 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 7:30 pm

    David Broder

    Bob Novak

    Michael Kelly

    Andrew Breitbart

    Christopher Hitchens

    Charles Lane

    Bobo

  76. 76.

    pokeyblow

    April 6, 2013 at 7:31 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 7:32 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 7:32 pm

    “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?

  79. 79.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:34 pm

    @eemom: Funny, I was thinking of Richard Corey.

  80. 80.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 7:35 pm

    @eemom: A most peculiar man.

  81. 81.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:37 pm

    The Shockers are not fucking around.

  82. 82.

    eemom

    April 6, 2013 at 7:37 pm

    @raven:

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

  83. 83.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:38 pm

    @eemom: Ignore your A&R man proly.

  84. 84.

    Citizen_X

    April 6, 2013 at 7:39 pm

    @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.)

  85. 85.

    Jamey

    April 6, 2013 at 7:41 pm

    @David Koch: @David Koch: You forgot Sullivan.

  86. 86.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:42 pm

    I misspelled Cory.

  87. 87.

    eemom

    April 6, 2013 at 7:42 pm

    @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.)

  88. 88.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:43 pm

    Shockers by 11. This would be major.

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 7:43 pm

    @eemom: I was just going ask where my m-f-ing credit was.

  90. 90.

    BGinCHI

    April 6, 2013 at 7:45 pm

    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.

  91. 91.

    Narcissus

    April 6, 2013 at 7:45 pm

    @Jamey: Friedman, too

  92. 92.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:48 pm

    @BGinCHI: Shit this is epic!

  93. 93.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    April 6, 2013 at 7:50 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 7:50 pm

    @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.

  95. 95.

    JPL

    April 6, 2013 at 7:50 pm

    @raven: I just checked the score and now I’m tempted to watch.

  96. 96.

    Publius39

    April 6, 2013 at 7:52 pm

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

  97. 97.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 7:53 pm

    @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.

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 7:54 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

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

    I am not prepared to take that chance. Also too, imagine the shame with which the horse must live everyday.

  99. 99.

    Corner Stone

    April 6, 2013 at 7:55 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 7:55 pm

    @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.

  101. 101.

    Mark B.

    April 6, 2013 at 7:56 pm

    @eemom: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=pj98pr2DbSo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dpj98pr2DbSo

    From an obscure Austin punk band called The Huns. The lead singer went on to be a street preacher, or so I heard.

  102. 102.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    April 6, 2013 at 7:57 pm

    @raven: Mike Rice?

  103. 103.

    Keith G

    April 6, 2013 at 7:58 pm

    @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

    April 6, 2013 at 7:59 pm

    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

    April 6, 2013 at 8:01 pm

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

  106. 106.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 8:02 pm

    @chopper: It’s not that bad.

  107. 107.

    BGinCHI

    April 6, 2013 at 8:03 pm

    @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.

  108. 108.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 8:04 pm

    @BGinCHI: Nothin to do with da hoop.

  109. 109.

    BGinCHI

    April 6, 2013 at 8:05 pm

    @raven: I know but I’m ornery like that.

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

  110. 110.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 8:07 pm

    @BGinCHI: Well, I HATE Bill Self!

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 6, 2013 at 8:07 pm

    @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.

  112. 112.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 8:08 pm

    And Bruce Weber is a classless asshole. Better?

  113. 113.

    Chris

    April 6, 2013 at 8:13 pm

    @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.

  114. 114.

    raven

    April 6, 2013 at 8:14 pm

    CONTITUATION!

  115. 115.

    the Conster

    April 6, 2013 at 8:59 pm

    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.

  116. 116.

    Bird Dog

    April 6, 2013 at 9:41 pm

    Classy.

  117. 117.

    LanceThruster

    April 6, 2013 at 9:57 pm

    @raven:

    xD

  118. 118.

    Cheap Jim

    April 6, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    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.

  119. 119.

    LanceThruster

    April 6, 2013 at 10:11 pm

    “I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” ~ not-Mark Twain

  120. 120.

    LanceThruster

    April 6, 2013 at 10:14 pm

    @Citizen_X:

    Nobody could have predicted…

  121. 121.

    Joel

    April 6, 2013 at 10:32 pm

    Note that the quoted is entirely from Tom Scocca’s column in Gawker.

  122. 122.

    Ella in New Mexico

    April 6, 2013 at 11:35 pm

    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

    April 7, 2013 at 3:09 am

    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

    April 7, 2013 at 6:43 am

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

  125. 125.

    Bob h

    April 7, 2013 at 6:46 am

    @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.

  126. 126.

    Elizabelle

    April 7, 2013 at 9:01 am

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    Agreed.

  127. 127.

    ottercliff

    April 7, 2013 at 9:19 am

    I’m not glad he’s dead but I would be happy to pee on his grave.

  128. 128.

    Emperor of Icecream

    April 7, 2013 at 12:21 pm

    @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

    April 8, 2013 at 9:51 am

    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.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. From The Political Campaign | Poison Your Mind says:
    April 8, 2013 at 8:34 am

    […] Yesterday, DougJ wrote, in a post called “I Am Glad Michael Kelly Is Dead”: […]

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