One of the oddities of the internet age is making friends with people you haven’t met IRL. I’ve lost one of those friends, Tommy Stewart. He was known to First Draft readers as Tommy T. The T was for Texas. When I dedicated some recent Texas tunes posts to Lone Star state liberals, Tommy was foremost on my mind.

Tommy was willing to go where other First Draft writers wouldn’t go, into the muck and mire of the right-wing blogosphere, which was a dark and creepy place long before MAGA.

His long running series Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati was a weekly highlight at First Draft. When I first joined the blog in 2009, I asked him how he did it. His answer: I always wear a virtual hazmat suit.

That’s just a small sample of the wit and wisdom of Tommy T.

I learned of Our Tommy’s passing on social media from former First Draft publisher, Allison Hantschel aka Athenae.

This is a tough one. Hey, First Draft/OG blog friends. I'm sorry to have to tell you all that Tommy Stewart (Tommy T), valued colleague and friend and hilarious writer for FD for years, passed away on Sept. 3rd after several months of illness.

— Allison Hantschel (@allisonhantschel.com) 2026-09-08T14:31:28.379Z

To read more of Allison’s thread, click on the top of the skeet or here.

Tommy was a kind and thoughtful man. He held my virtual hand after Athenae’s departure from First Draft. He told me I could do it, which helped ease some of my unease about the change.

Tommy inevitably burned out from writing about the Free Republic wingnuts. One of my proudest moments as publisher was convincing him to write about his life in his other series, Tommy T’s Obsession with Random Ruminations. Like a first class film director, Tommy liked having his name above the title. He deserved it too.

We spent at least a decade scheming about meeting up IRL but it never happened, alas. As I joked with him after a meetup plan went awry:

I posted that in meme form because Tommy loved memes. I often stumble upon his massive meme collection backstage at First Draft. They still make me laugh.

The featured image is one of the few pictures of Tommy in First Draft’s media library. Playing bass guitar was something we had in common. I gave it up long ago but Tommy never did. He teased me about being a bass slacker a few times but I never minded. I don’t mind being kidded by a fellow kidder.

I’d like to express my sincerest condolences to Tommy’s wife Barbara and the Stewart family. Our loss is nothing compared to yours.

Rest in peace, friend.

I can’t stage a New Orleans style second line for Tommy T but I can give Louis Armstrong the last word: