Posted on 09/27/2012 8:21:18 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
William Bennett, a onetime student of Dr. Silber’s who served as US secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, praised his mentor’s pedagogic style in a 1986 Globe interview.
“It wasn’t intimidating; it was quickening,” Bennett said. “Silber is frank and manly and direct. There isn’t enough of that these days. He believes human beings should be spoken to as if they were human beings, not as if they were flowers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Wow. He was a great man. BU was nothing when he took it over. Now it’s a first class school.
He was fantastic when he ran for governor.
” He was a great man. BU was nothing when he took it over. Now it’s a first class school.”
Yes, and he was vilified by the left, who wanted a left wing diploma factory, not scholarship.
Fiery individual for sure, RIP Dr Silber. If my memory is correct he got into some hot water for taking out life insurance policies on all kids in his college. Naturally some would die of natural causes etc, and in theory they had insurable interest, but the benefactor was the school. That got changed real quick...
He actually was the Dem nominee for governor in Massachusetts back in the ‘80s. A horrible shame that sub-RINO piece of slime William Weld defeated him.
One of the last decent Democrats (along with Zell Miller and Glenn Poshard).
Howie Carr is talking about Silber right now. He was up by 9 points, but lost the election because an interview went wrong.
I was thinking about John Silber a little while back. Weld, the Republican, ran to Silber's left and won, picking up a lot of very liberal Democrats. Romney followed that strategy in his race against Kennedy four years later. It didn't work for him.
“In Texas, Dr. Silber was considered a liberal, because of his opposition to the death penalty and support for civil rights. He liked to recount how the John Birch Society would tape his lectures to send to the FBI as evidence he was a communist.”
I think John Birch had a point here. If he’s in Texas and doesn’t like the Death Penalty, then he should KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT. Civil Rights is debatable, depending on how it’s defined and whether one cares about the outcome of the movement.
‘A son, David, died in 1994.”
He died of AIDS. I remember the obituary, even from that long ago. Dr. Silber may have been a hard-core social conservative, but he let his kid down - probably too busy for ‘trivial family matters’.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/01/obituaries/david-j-silber-theater-actor-41.html
Free country. Free speech.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said the new name for Sherborn St. was "fitting" as an honor for Silber. "Was there any other way?" Menino quipped, referring to Silber's four decades of influence on the B.U. campus.
I guess the book The Wit and Wisdom" of Tom Menino will have at least one page after all.
“Free country. Free speech.”
You’re right, of course. I was somewhat jumpy - what I really meant is that if he wants to be looked at as a REAL conservative, he shouldn’t go to Texas and spout off his problems with the Death Penalty.
Silber was never what a lot of people would call a “real conservative.” That may be why he remained a Democrat. By Massachusetts standards, though, he was conservative enough.
RIP. This is the man that should’ve beaten the execrable William Weld.
He ever officially leave the rats?
I don’t believe so, but it really didn’t matter much as he never won office. Ed King switched, but the MA GOP never utilized him. Such a worthless state party.
Silber reminds me of John Jay Hooker in TN, one of the few Democrats I would vote for, because he is so militantly pro-Constitution that he puts many Republicans to shame (yet 42 years ago when he first ran for Governor, he was a JFK Democrat). Both would’ve made good Governors (well, Hooker in 1998, not 1970).
Speaking of the execrable Weld, I recall reading he has switched from being an open Democrat for Zero and is supporting Willard. Maybe he thinks he’ll get an appointment.
Yeah a lot of skeevey jerks some of them not even that liberal (Pressler!) endorsed Obama content to sit at the “cool kid’s table” and let him in but I think most of them hopped off the train or are at least keeping damn quiet.
Weld would make a swell pick for RNC chair, I’m sure the democrats would agree.
One super rino for McCain was Connie Morella, she’s whined about the “big tent” this year but I’m shocked she’s stayed fairly loyal to the party.
I retroactivally back Poshard for IL governor in 1998, but by default only, if was old enough to vote in that election I’d have been highly reticent over redistricting to vote for a D. I forestall that as a possibility for the future. I will never vote for anyone who associates with that party in the year 2012 or beyond save city elections that are only between democrats on a non-partisan ballot. I especially don’t trust these so called conservative democrats who’ve run for Senate in SC and against Corker this year. I did hope the regular rat would beat that pus bag Bloomberg , but that’s D/D.
Zell, that son of a gun was a chameleon. Racist dem to Carter liberal to Clinton new dem to conservative dem to conservative Republican yet still officially a dem. It’s like he went with whatever was in vogue in Georgia. This is the guy that served a million terms as LT Governor after campaigning to eliminate the office.
I’d take Silber out of those 3 hands down.
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