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William Safire, Nixon Speechwriter and Times Columnist, Is Dead at 79
New York Times ^ | 9/28/2009 | ROBERT D. McFADDEN

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.

Excerpt


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: journalist; nixon; obituary; safire; warecorrespondent; williamsafire
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To: fours

RIP, Mr Safire. You were one of a kind. Your wisdom, wit and love of linguistics will be missed.


81 posted on 09/28/2009 4:28:02 AM PDT by cake_crumb (86 44! (Impeach Obama!))
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To: chuck_the_tv_out
"If he was on Nixon’s team, the odds are pretty good he was a plant."

Oh for Pete's sake, he was a speech writer, not an advisor.

Welcome to FR.

82 posted on 09/28/2009 4:32:36 AM PDT by cake_crumb (86 44! (Impeach Obama!))
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To: Vaquero

Clattering cacophony of cogs and camshafts.


83 posted on 09/28/2009 4:35:18 AM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: cake_crumb
"he was a speech writer, not an advisor"

Because there's no advice implicit in speechwriting, of course. There's no power in speechwriting.

Purely perfunctory role. Could be done by a computer.



84 posted on 09/28/2009 5:05:08 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: Vaquero

Is he sitting, or standing with his leg cocked?


85 posted on 09/28/2009 5:06:10 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: fours
a public relations go-getter who set up the famous Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate” in Moscow

Wow - I did not know that. An amazing point in history.

RIP, Mr. Safire.
86 posted on 09/28/2009 5:08:05 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Hope....Change...Bullsh*t)
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To: rbg81

He always struck me as a RHINO.
*************
Paul or John was The Rhino. Coo, coo kee choo.
Safire, on the other hand, was a RINO.


87 posted on 09/28/2009 5:15:19 AM PDT by ExiledChicagoan (I see a red door and I want it painted black. But that's just me.)
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To: doug from upland

So sad that the true conservative leaders and columnists are passing away. Let us pray there are more to come on the horizon. RIP Mr. Safire.


88 posted on 09/28/2009 7:23:24 AM PDT by ohiogrammy (12)
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To: fours

They go and die just when we need them the most...


89 posted on 09/28/2009 8:17:28 AM PDT by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: fours

I emailed him once, commenting about a quote from a Sherlock Holmes story (”the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime”). He actually replied to me, and as you would imagine, he was the very soul of courtesy. I had always been a fan, but from that day on, I was a rabid fan. He will be sorely missed.


90 posted on 09/28/2009 11:27:39 AM PDT by MissNomer
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To: fours

RIP.


91 posted on 09/28/2009 12:20:48 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: A.A. Cunningham

Nixon always lived by the code that a Republican could not win WITH only conservatives but could not win WITHOUT conservatives. Therefore, conservatives got the rhetoric, and liberals the action. John Newton Mitchell said as much.


92 posted on 09/28/2009 8:55:06 PM PDT by Theodore R.
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To: cake_crumb

P.S - I wonder if he wrote “I am not a crook”


93 posted on 09/29/2009 6:29:21 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: Theodore R.

“conservatives got the rhetoric, and liberals the action”

We’ve partially wised up to that since then.


94 posted on 09/29/2009 6:30:14 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: fours

I used to love to read his wordsmith columns. Great stuff


95 posted on 09/29/2009 8:51:29 AM PDT by cowtowney
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