Rest in peace Mr. Safire.
Posted on 09/27/2009 11:19:38 AM PDT by fours
Edited on 09/27/2009 12:39:50 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
William Safire, a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon and a Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for The New York Times who also wrote novels, books on politics and a Malaprop’s treasury of articles on language, died at a hospice in Rockville, Md. on Sunday. He was 79.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Martin Tolchin, a friend of the family.
There may be many sides in a genteel debate, but in the Safire world of politics and journalism it was simpler: there was his own unambiguous wit and wisdom on one hand and, on the other, the blubber of fools he called “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”
He was a college dropout and proud of it, a public relations go-getter who set up the famous Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate” in Moscow, and a White House wordsmith in the tumultuous era of war in Vietnam, Nixon’s visit to China and the gathering storm of the Watergate scandal that drove the president from office.
Then, from 1973 to 2005, Mr. Safire wrote his twice weekly “Essay” for the Op-Ed Page of The Times, a forceful conservative voice in the liberal chorus. Unlike most Washington columnists who offer judgments with Olympian detachment, Mr. Safire was a pugnacious contrarian who did much of his own reporting, called people liars in print and laced his opinions with outrageous wordplay.
Critics initially dismissed him as an apologist for the disgraced Nixon coterie. But he won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, and for 32 years tenaciously attacked and defended foreign and domestic policies, and the foibles, of seven administrations. Along the way, he incurred enmity and admiration, and made a lot of powerful people squirm.
RIP. I used to enjoy his “On Language” columns in the NYT magazine.
I’ll second that.
His writing was precise and lucid. His politics, not so much. It’ll be a long time before there is another like him.
And usually not the ones we’d care to see go.
R.I.P. Bill.
You’re gonna miss the coming festivities.
bookmark
Very sad. May he rest in peace.
RIP Mr. Safire. See you on the other side.
ping
RIP Mr. Safire.
I love your language columns and books.
RIP, Mr. Safire. I have his book “I Stand Corrected,” a treasure on usage, words and spelling, making me the grammar nazi that I am today :-)
Thanks for posting that, DFU- I actually remember reading it at the time and cheering for Safire.
He was from a different generation- and I’m sure he’ll be dumped on here by some for being a rino- but he was very effective at his peak and did some superb work. Further- he was able to write clear sentences that developed his theme while keeping the reader interested enough to keep reading. Reading a piece by Safire was always educational.
We don’t see that much anymore.
He will be missed. Is there an epidemic of Pancreatic Cancer?
May he rest in God's eternal peace.
Years later, Mr. Safire called Hillary Clinton a “congenital liar” in print. Mrs. Clinton said she was offended only for her mother’s sake. But a White House aide said that Bill Clinton, “if he were not president, would have delivered a more forceful response on the bridge of Mr. Safire’s nose.”
Mr. Safire was delighted, especially with the proper use of the conditional.
And no doubt was intended as such.
The pen, the sword--advantage pen.
Bravo, William Safire.
there are many deaths in this world on each and every day
may white light go up into his widow and fill her till she screams with godly pleasure
jesus be with his family on this most horrible day, my dog died recently so i know how his family must feel
pray for sarah and our troops
Bob Novak gone, now Safire.
RIP, good man. You will be missed.
May God bless his family and bring them comfort.
Bill Safire gave liberals Hell (and sometimes conservatives too, when appropriate), and that makes him a good guy in my book.
Rest in Peace Sir.
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