Le roi est mort/viva le roi

[legalmoose]

I'm torn about this story about Washington Post columnist Michael Kelly's accidental death in Iraq. Mr. Kelly's columns always annoyed the hell out of me, and I shan't miss him in the pages of the Post. I always found his presence there to be a very odd one among the generally more liberal voice of the Post, much as I find George Will's columns to be an oddity in the Post's editorial section. I suppose it's part of the left's pretense at "fairness" and "balance" - something the right knows is a farce and avoids entirely.

He constantly attacked the Clinton/Gore administration in a merciless fashion, like many conservatives who just couldn't get enough of every little misstep made by the C/G team. It even got him fired from one job as editor because the owner, a friend of Gore's, finally had enough of his senseless, knee-jerk diatribes.

I say torn because I am, of course, never happy to hear of the untimely death of another human being. I'm sure his family is grieving now, and I hope their religious beliefs give them some comfort in thinking/knowing that he's somewhere calmer now.

But I shan't miss his columns. I hope the Post finds someone more suitable to the overall leftward tone of the paper to replace him.