Today, we lost another fine liberal. R.I.P. Alan Colmes (9/24/1950-2/23/2017)

Alan Colmes was a friend and a mentor to me. I actually found Crooks and Liars thanks to Alan who taught me so much about writing and journalism. I must divulge that I was also a contributor to his site, Liberaland for a few months, under the handle VegasJessie.

He was an incredibly decent man who often served as a punching bag for pernicious conservative liars, but he always held his ground. I don't care what anyone may have thought about Alan, he was a principled, progressive fighter who stood up for the marginalized, the downtrodden and most importantly, the TRUTH. He battled a brief illness and has passed away far too young; he was only 66.

Alan is survived by his wife, Jocelyn Elise Crowley, and yes, she is Monica Crowley's sister. However, Jocelyn is a liberal and I imagine Thanksgivings were tough at the in-laws for both Alan and Jocelyn. His family asks for privacy and respect during this difficult time.

I wonder if family dinners went a little something like one of their on-air encounters, where Alan summarily destroys Monica's flawed gun logic.

I would often cover "Versus," one of the last projects Alan undertook for FoxNews.com. He would battle some of the most, fanatically dishonest people, yet always treated them with dignity and respect, no matter how ugly they were towards him. There were quite a few that I covered, click here for the list.

One of Trump's inner-circle foreign policy hawks, Sebastian Gorka, revealed exactly the kind of Nationalist warmonger he is in this interview with Colmes. He's the one who is obsessed with the idea of Radical Islamic Terrorism, as if that's the only 'terrorism' we need to concern ourselves with. Eh Gorka?

I know that despite many efforts on my part, and a few by some of my progressive friends who knew Alan, he never divulged a single bit of dirt on the goings on at Fox "News." He was fiercely loyal and understood his purpose in that festering sea of dishonesty. Someone's got to speak up for what's right. Alan Colmes knew very well that the "Right" was almost always WRONG.

We will miss you Alan.

Karoli adds: I second everything LeftofCenter says here about Alan. I first encountered him in 2009 when I appeared on his radio show with Floyd Brown, who had just started an effort to impeach Barack Obama less than six months into his term. Over the years, we'd touch base to chat about how he could build up his website, and often how he managed to tolerate so many haters without losing his cool. He was a gentleman and an amazing interviewer.

My thoughts, prayers and sympathies go to his family, who lost him far too soon.