RIP, Gore Vidal

There are three definite things you could say about Gore Vidal.  First, he was a tremendous writer; second, he was brilliant; third, and most importantly perhaps, he was interesting.

Author, playwright, politician and commentator Gore Vidal, whose vast and sharpened range of published works and public remarks were stamped by his immodest wit and unconventional wisdom, died Tuesday at age 86 in Los Angeles.

He was also a voice well-ahead of this time -- which would have been well suited for this one:

Vidal made his living — a very good living — from challenging power, not holding it. He was wealthy and famous and committed to exposing a system often led by men he knew firsthand. During the days of Franklin Roosevelt, one of the few leaders whom Vidal admired, he might have been called a "traitor to his class." The real traitors, Vidal would respond, were the upholders of his class.

And then there was this.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]