AP
Presidential candidate Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., left, and his wife, Abigail, celebrate in Portland, Ore., in this May 29, 1968, file photo after the senator's victory in the Oregon Democratic presidential primary was forecast. McCarthy, whose insurgent campaign toppled a sitting president in 1968 and forced the Democratic Party to take seriously his message against the Vietnam War, died Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005. He was 89.

Bloggers on his passing:

Gene McCarthy's death

For many of us who became lifelong political junkies because of our involvement, however small (I did canvassing, but couldn't bring myself to cut my hair & shave to get "clean for Gene") in his quixotic '68 campaign, the death of Eugene McCarthy is a sad reminder of how so few of today's politicians (thinking particularly of the Bay State's jr. senator, who was gutless in 2004, but now seems to think we owe him another chance...) have the moral fiber of the George McGoverns, Wayne Morses, Shirley Chisolms, George Aitkens, of our youth. Thanks, Senator, for speaking truth to power!

-- W. David Stephenson

Eugene McCarthy Dead

"There is only one thing to do - take it to the country!" an angry Senator McCarthy declared in a Capitol corridor 15 months before the 1968 election, after hearing the Johnson administration bullishly defend its right to reinterpret the Constitutional war-making powers of Congress.

No, Clean Gene never won the presidency, but I want some of that spirit back again.

-- A Brooklyn Bridge

Gene McCarthy — Richard Pryor R.I.P.

We could use more guys like them nowadays, couldn’t we?

-- MarcCooper.com

Obits and photos: Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Washington Post, NYT.

Richard Pryor came up when a comic had just stopped meaning Milton Berle and started meaning the "buttoned-down" Bob Newhart or the hot JFK impersonator Vaughn Meader.

He was brilliantly funny, honest, edgy and real. Here's his obit at the L.A. Times.

Peace at last for both of them, I hope. For us, not yet.