MICHAEL KELLY WAS KILLED IN IRAQ while traveling with the 3rd Infantry. Here’s a link to his last column, from yesterday. I’m devastated.

The Indymedia folks, though, are happy, writing “WP Nazi columnist bites the Iraqi dust.”

So typical. So pathetic. This, by Jonah Golberg, is much better.

UPDATE: Ana Marie Cox emails:

I am writing to beg that you point out, somewhere, that plenty of lefties are mad about Indymedia’s smear on Michael Kelly. I am one of them — I blogged a bit about it, I posted on their comment board.

I’m on a one-woman campaign to not let Indymedia off the hook — if they think criticism of their malice is coming mainly from pro-war people, I just don’t think they’ll listen.

I’m not sure they’ll listen in any event, Ana, but I’m listening, and I’m glad to hear it. (There’s more on Ana’s blog.) Unfortunately, it’s not just IndyMedia — check out the posts here on DemocraticUnderground, a site that’s not affiliated with the actual Democratic Party, to the undoubted relief of the latter. And these guys wonder why they’re the butt of cartoons like this one?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a statement from The Atlantic Monthly.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: This Dan Kennedy obit is well worth reading.

STILL MORE: John Hawkins has been wading through the Democratic Underground posts, and has some highlights.

LAST UPDATE: David Levy sends this more heartening story:

didn’t hear it this morning, but there is a rebroadcast of the local NPR “DC Politics Hour” in the evening. DC politics are fun to talk about … scandal and vouchers. The discussion was broken by a call telling the news from Iraq.

The reaction was so different than what’s been going around the fever swamps of the left. I think one of the participants started to cry. Said she not only knew him but she knows his mom and dad. Someone — I was driving and didn’t take notes — said that war losses are now personal. This is the first “home town boy” who had been lost.

These are folks on DC NPR. If you called them liberal, they might correct you and ask to be called leftist. Nothing was said about his politics, as if that would matter at a time like this to people of character. I thought you would like to know, given the ghastly reaction of those who have perhaps not reflected upon the possibility that reciprocity is deeper than tolerance.

Yes, I’m happy to hear this.