I’m as thrilled as anyone that the country rejected the GOP’s army of what James Wolcott calls “rape philosophers” and birth-control McCarthyites. But let’s also remember what that means: in the 21st century, one of our two political parties mounted a serious national campaign, and came damn near close to winning, on the basis of a medieval ideology that we thought we had overcome a half-century ago. That we won this battle is good news; that we had to fight it is not.

I wrote a longer piece on Alexander Cockburn for Al Jazeera. Here are some other reminiscences, remembrances, and reflections: One of the most thoughtful and comprehensive assessments from Kathy Geier, who also includes some great links. Dennis Perrin on, among other things, Cockburn’s darker side. I linked to this in my earlier piece, but here again is Jeffrey St. Clair, Cockburn’s comrade and writing partner. More on Hitchens versus Cockburn from Jeff Sparrow. An interesting appreciation from National Review‘s John Fund, who had once been Cockburn’s editor at the Wall Street Journal. And another appreciation from the right: libertarian Jesse Walker. Some tweets from his niece actress Olivia Wilde: “He taught me how to make coffee in a jar, how […]