I haven't seen his obit on DailyKos, so on the occasion of his untimely death, I'm proud to say Alan Colmes -- formerly of Fox News "Hannity and Colmes" -- was a friend of mine.
One of the thousand friends of this decent man and liberal voice.
(Before you comment, please read to the end of this diary.)
I first met Alan in the 1970s in New York City when I was working in magazines, he in local radio, and we both had an interest in the then burgeoning comedy club scene.
Kind, smart and funny: that was the Alan I knew.
As it turned out, Alan's sense of humor didn't translate into a standup career.
But my last memory of him before I left New York, would give us both a laugh 20 years later.
At an open mike: Alan Colmes' impression of a bad Vegas performer festooned with gold necklaces, shirt open to the waist.
Imagine THAT, if you will.
However, we lost track of each other after I moved to Los Angeles.
Until about a dozen years ago when a mutual friend, the writer Toni Hart, asked if I'd seen Alan's show.
"What show?" I asked, obliviously.
I'd long ago lost the ability to listen to Republicans, never watched Fox, and or connected Hannity and Colmes with the comedy buff Alan I known.
But here's the kind of friend Alan was: the next time I travelled to New York he made time to have coffee with us and catch up.
It was good news that Alan was happily married to Dr. Jocelyn Elise Crowley, a Rutgers University professor and the liberal sister of a Fox commentator.
Alan also served up some interesting insight from personal political access: Bill Clinton's charisma reached across a room, and then President George W. Bush was "dangerously charming" in person.
But Alan also discussed his qualms about being Hannity's liberal foil, admitting it wasn't in him to shout back or react in that mean Conservative media style.
Both Toni and I had to agree: that simply wasn't who Alan was, or could be.
Which is probably why Hannity hired him in the first place.
But Alan also felt he had a duty to speak truth to power as the lone liberal voice crying in the wilderness of Fox, on his radio show, and in his books.
For which Alan also suffered through death threats and countless other abuse.
At that point, he'd been sent enough poisonous emails to fill a book, but they were too disenheartening for his publisher to consider.
I read Alan's 2003 book “Red, White & Liberal: How Left is Right and Right is Wrong." (And then sent it off to our troups in Iraq, so his liberal voice made it halfway round the world.)
But I could never bring myself to watch Hannity possibly abuse my friend Alan, or hear radio call-in listeners do the same.
Over the years, I've also read some horrible trolls here taking Alan to task.
I know, because Alan also provided a link on his website to dailykos.com and other progressive media: which helped preserve my sanity during the Bush administration -- and again, now.
I don't know if all that poisonous criticism -- mostly from the Right, and some from the Left -- had anything to do with Alan's early demise at 66.
But for my sake, and that of his wife's, for his liberal voice in the media, I ask you not to speak ill of the dead here.
"Colmes was remembered by news colleagues – including those who didn’t agree with him politically – as a rare beacon of civility in a political climate that’s grown increasingly ugly."
"...He was a great guy, brilliant, hysterical, and moral. He was fiercely loyal, and the only thing he loved more than his work was his life with Jocelyn."
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