Steve Gilliard of The News Blog was the blogger who most inspired me to get active with blogging both here and on my own site. I still miss reading him and grieve that he didn't get to see both Barack Obama elected and Michael Steele's comedy routine as an RNC chair. Steve died three years ago this week.
Gilliard was a proud "fighting liberal" who was loudly pro-veteran, knew politics from the precinct level as an organizer in New York and New Jersey and did not apologize for being who he was or saying what he thought. His blog pulled no punches, nor did his early work here as a front-pager back when DKos was tiny and obscure.
Gilliard could be severe when attacking hypocrisy. He achieved notoriety for his brutal satires of Maryland GOP gubernatorial candidate (and later RNC chair) Michael Steele. His critiques of the Iraq War from early 2003 seem hauntingly prophetic.
Perhaps Gilliard's perspective, drawn through his prodigious volume of work over four years of blogging, can be summed up best this way from an early post, back before a lot of us had the courage to be FIGHTING liberals:
It is time to stop looking for an accomodation with the right. They want none for us. They want to win, at any price. So, you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?
A brief personal note. When I learned three years ago that Steve Gilliard had died, I shut my Crablaw blog dark for 24 hours out of respect. I never met him, never heard his voice, but he was a hero of mine and I am disinclined ever to make heroes. Perhaps others can offer here more personal recollections from Steve's blog and his life.
RIP.
UPDATE: From BOHICA in the comments below, Steve was a strong Mets fan and had the good moral character not only to hate, but truly to despise, the New York Yankees. For this moral merit alone, he deserves an eternity in Paradise.