The McGill Report has a moving tribute to Washington Post editor Michael Kelly who was killed in Iraq in a humvee accident last night. Kelly is the first journalist killed in the war.

Michael Kelly’s death is one of those moments where you simply stop, your jaw hangs open, tears fall out of your eyes, you feel a rush of existential rage, maybe you look up to the skies, and all you can think to ask is “Why him?" Jesus, the guy was good. A beautiful writer. A thinker. A journalist of ideas and yet also a journalist with eyes, and a heart, and political passion. I loved him best because he stood outside the conventional categories and it bothered him not a bit. His loyalty was to the ideas that he wrote about and not to any categories of left or right; or to beltway friendships or political alliances. The beneficiaries were his readers. His dispatches from Iraq were models of analytical reporting mixed with sensory details that let readers know at every moment that this is a war … policies have human consequences … like death …

You can read Kelly's last dispatch from Iraq here. Washington Post Coverage is here.