I met Dean Barnett in 2006. By that time we’d been friends for almost five years.

I first encountered Dean a few weeks after we’d launched weeklystandard.com in the fall of 2001. I was editing the website back then and all emails to the editor were routed through me. Dean sent an email about some piece we had run. It was funny and thoughtful. I can’t be certain, but it may have involved a reference to Randy “Macho Man” Savage, the great professional wrestler from the 1980s. In any event, I sent him a note back. One thing led to another and we became regular correspondents.