[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 59 (Friday, April 11, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5392-S5393]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING MICHAEL KELLY

  Mr. SUNUNU. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 121, which was 
submitted earlier today by Senator McConnell.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 121) honoring the life of Washington 
     Post columnist and Atlantic Monthly editor Michael Kelly in 
     expressing deepest condolences of the Senate to his family on 
     his death.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Michael Kelly died nearly a week ago 
while covering the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division's march to 
liberate Baghdad. It is difficult for me to believe that he was only 46 
years old. Michael Kelly's contributions to American journalism and 
American politics were not the contributions of a young man but those 
of a witty, political observer whose love of his country and delight in 
the pastime of American politics was as boundless as the American dream 
itself. Michael Kelly, so deeply committed to preserving freedom and 
liberty, should be in Baghdad right now relishing in the awakening of 
the Iraqi people to their new lease on life, liberty, and freedom from 
fear.
  I did not fully realize the extent of his contribution to the 
American political discourse until I opened the Washington Post 
yesterday and noticed that his Wednesday column was dark. At that 
moment, I realized how gaping a void Michael Kelly's death has left in 
the pages of newspapers throughout the country, and in the hearts and 
minds of his countless readers.
  He was in life, and will remain in death, an icon for all who shared 
his interest and obvious passion for the theatre of American politics. 
His bemused commentary and good-natured derision from the balcony of 
our political arena--and his delight in watching political virtuosi and 
vaudevillians march across the stage--place him in my book among the 
great political commentators of our time.
  Although I did not know Michael Kelly, his writings reminded me of 
the satisfaction and glory that accompanies fighting for just causes 
and deeply held beliefs, however unpopular they may be in certain 
circles. His life and work stand as reminders of why partisanship--even 
bitter partisanship--can be often an immensely positive contribution to 
American politics. Like that of my former colleague and friend, the 
late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Michael Kelly's style of partisanship 
made an eloquent and thoughtful contribution to the important debates 
about the future of our country.
  Michael Kelly's style--witty, acerbic, curmudgeonly, and 
independent--invited obvious comparisons to another famous American 
journalist: H.L. Mencken. Like Mencken, Kelly relished the opportunity 
to fire rhetorical grapeshot across the bow of his political 
adversaries. His refusal to mute his criticism of liberal politicians 
while he was serving as the editor of the left-leaning New Republic is 
reminiscent of Mencken's long-running feud with President Roosevelt. 
There is also a superficial connection, too, as Kelly spent an early 
part of his career as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, a newspaper 
made famous under the stewardship of its iconic reporter and editor.
  More substantively, Michael Kelly, like Mencken, was much more than a 
newspaperman. He was a man of letters, and a powerful political voice.

[[Page S5393]]

Kelly's most recent endeavors stand as testament to his immense 
intellect and lasting impact. His tenure as editor of The Atlantic 
Monthly has resulted in dramatic success for that venerable magazine. 
And for whatever informal polling is worth, I can attest that members 
of my staff routinely compete for copies of The Atlantic when they 
arrive in my office mailroad each month.

  He left the comfort of his editor's desk recently to join the U.S. 
Army's Third Infantry Division as an embedded journalist. Having 
doggedly defended the moral and security justifications for disarming 
Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, Michael Kelly risked his life to bear 
witness to the liberation of the Iraqi people.
  Michael Kelly was an eloquent advocate of the moral arguments for 
regime change in Iraq. Regarding the liberation of the Iraqi people, 
Kelly wrote in February:

       There are 24 million of them, and they have been living 
     (those who have not been slaughtered or forced into exile) 
     for decades under one of the cruelest and bloodiest tyrannies 
     on earth. It must be assumed that, being human, they would 
     prefer to be rescued from a hell where more than a million 
     lives have been sacrificed to the dreams of a megalomaniac, 
     where rape is a sanctioned instrument of state policy, and 
     where the removal of the tongue is the prescribed punishment 
     for uttering an offense against the Great Leader.
       These people could be liberated from this horror--
     relatively easily and quickly. There is every reason to think 
     that a U.S. invasion would swiftly vanquish the few elite 
     units that can be counted on to defend the detested Saddam 
     Hussein; and that the victory would come at the cost of a 
     few--likely hundreds, not thousands--Iraqi and American 
     lives. There is risk; and if things go terribly wrong it is a 
     risk that could result in terrible suffering. But that is an 
     equation that is present in any just war, and in this case 
     any rational expectation has to consider the probable cost to 
     humanity to be low and the probable benefit to be tremendous. 
     To choose perpetuation of tyranny over rescue from tyranny, 
     where rescue may be achieved, is immoral.

  His predictions have proven accurate, and it is a heartbreaking 
tragedy that he did not survive the march to Baghdad, where he would 
have witnessed a new birth of freedom in a land strangled for so long 
by tyranny and oppression.
  Michael Kelly is survived by his wife, Madelyn, his young sons Tom 
and Jack--whose endeavors he recorded lovingly and amusingly in his 
columns--and his parents, Thomas and Marguerite Kelly. My prayers and 
deepest condolences go out to them for their loss.
  So today I ask my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to Michael 
Kelly's life and recognizing his lasting contribution to the twin 
worlds of American journalism and American politics. I hope my 
colleagues will support this resolution
  Mr. SUNUNU. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to this 
matter appear in the Record as if read.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 121) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 121

       Whereas the Senate has learned with sadness of the death of 
     columnist and editor Michael Kelly;
       Whereas Michael Kelly, a native of Washington, D.C., 
     greatly distinguished himself as a newspaper reporter, 
     political columnist, writer, and magazine editor;
       Whereas Michael Kelly was embedded with the Third Infantry 
     Division of the United States Army in Iraq to record history 
     from the perspective of the soldiers on the field of battle;
       Whereas Michael Kelly distinguished himself early in his 
     career as a reporter for the Cincinnati Post, Baltimore Sun, 
     New York Times, and the New Yorker;
       Whereas Michael Kelly served as editor of the National 
     Journal and New Republic;
       Whereas Michael Kelly was most recently a columnist for the 
     Washington Post and the editor of the Atlantic Monthly, which 
     under his stewardship was awarded three National Magazine 
     Awards last year;
       Whereas Michael Kelly's political columns represent a major 
     contribution to American political discourse;
       Whereas Michael Kelly's reporting during the Persian Gulf 
     War of 1991 was published as a book entitled ``Martyr's 
     Day'';
       Whereas Michael Kelly was a devoted husband to his wife, 
     Madelyn, a proud father to his sons, Tom and Jack, and a 
     dutiful son to his parents, Thomas and Marguerite Kelly; and
       Whereas Michael Kelly's wit, acumen, intellect, patriotism, 
     and passion will be forever remembered by his friends, 
     colleagues, and the countless strangers whose lives he 
     touched with his powerful writings: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) pays tribute to the outstanding career and memorable 
     writings of Michael Kelly;
       (2) expresses its deepest condolences to his family; and
       (3) directs the Secretary of the Senate to direct an 
     enrolled copy of this resolution to the family of Michael 
     Kelly.

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