Posted on 06/03/2005 8:09:30 AM PDT by Borges
Wikipedia is reporting that he passed away yesterday. They had the scoop on Andrea Dworkin so I'm inclined to believe them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Proxmire
Proxmire had a continual press release of the pork barrel project of the week.
That was amazing too because he was a Democrat.
He also ran his re-election campaigns dirt cheap as well. In his last campaign in 1982, I think he spent a whopping $800...or something close to that amount.
He loved hanging around outside Green Bay Packers games, shaking hands and meeting with constituents. He rarely missed one.
On a side note, he replaced Senator Joseph McCarthy after the latter died in office sometime in 1957.
Wasn't Proxmire that senator that originated the annual "golden fleece" awards to his colleagues? The person who most fleeced the general public of taxpayer funds was the recipient.
Ah! One of the great anti-science villains of recent history finally goes to his wormy reward! My day just got a little bit brighter.
Yes, he was. I was living in Wisconsin at the time and was proud to have him as my Senator. One of the last good Democrats, at least where the public pursestrings were concerned.
At least he apologized when he was wrong.
Some of the anti-NASA people (you know, the whole "We only got Tang" crowd) could take a lesson from that - science seems simple enough to judge, but sometimes requires distance.
Interesting. I'm in Milwaukee (yes, poor me) and there is nothing in the local media.
Not entirely amazing; in Proxmire's day, many democRats were honorable people, like Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia. Not so today, of course; the radical 60s hippie freak element has almost saturated the democRatic party.
I can't find anything else either. He's be almost 90 now. Again Wikipedia has been about stuff like this before.
Proxmire seemed like a decent guy, despite being a liberal. He was very anti space though, so I hold that against him.
should be 'has been right about stuff like this'
The Golden Fleece Award, I believe. He was my senator at the time.
Some of the anti-NASA people [silently implying anti-science]
I guess this means that taxpayers can now begin to save the money they were spending on his pension, health care...
> Federal bureaucracy hadn't monopolized all the money?
Heeheeheee! NASA consumed all the money in the US? BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
No, I can't. Neither can I predict what any private investment would have done. Investors have been free at any time to create a private space program. The initial costs are obviously something of a hinderance, and therefore maybe this is one of those rare things that the government does indeed have a proper role in.
I do think that there is a symbolic benefit to our space program, in terms of inspiring science education in our children, and that is worthwhile as well.
I implied nothing. You may infer what you like.
One the most liberal anti-science guys in the Senate. I was in Wisconsin during his term. The Other Senator was Gaylord Nelson.
Pretty good fellow - even though he went a bit far in some of his Golden Fleece awards. I have not seen any confirming information on his passing - but it shouldn't be a surprise, given that the last time I read anything about him it was a piece indicating he was battling Alzheimer's and spending time each day at the Library of Congress doing "research".
Two things that speak volumes about him and the time in which he served: 1) it's true that he spent next to nothing on campaigns - and his most effective campaign technique was his presence a large events - simply shaking hands with people entering Milwaukee County Stadium, Camp Randall or Lambeau Field; 2) his senate biography in the Congressional Record was one line long - whereas blowhard egomaniacs like "B-1" Bob Dornan had 4-6 pages of every trivial non-accomplishment they could claim.
He was our senator too. My parents had a country western band at the time, and we played for a fundraiser for the Democratic Party in Juneau County. I got to meet him - very nice person. But this wasn't too long after his hair transplant, and my eyes were drawn to the "plugs" in his scalp. (Like rows of corn or something!)
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