William Safire's reception by fellow journalists at Tne New York Times in 1973 was as controversial as it was in my parents' house, where we read the Times daily and were not amused when a Nixonite was made a columnist.
Yes, William Safire was a Republican and a Nixon man.
But he rose above it.
Safire won a Pulitzer Prize for his investigation of Bert Lance, OMB Director for President Carter. He supported Bill Clinton in 1992. He was a wit who had a way with words. He used invective and alliteration and other literary devices. He famously ghost-wrote Vice President Spiro T. Agnew's culture war speeches, including the inimitable "nattering nabobs of negativism" and other lines about the "liberal media."
I loved Safire's columns and books on language. Like William F. Buckley, Jr., he was conservative while retaining a sense of humor -- a thinking person's conservative, as opposed to the kind they have on FOX. In fact, thanks to reading William F. Buckley, Jr. and William Safire, I have always been ready to understand conservatives' Weltanschauugs and to discuss issues with them (if they are civil).
Safire was a conservative Republican with libertarian values, one who respects debate and knows the English language.
William Safire will be sorely missed in a world gone mad, full of nutsos and screamers and FOX NEWS.
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