Conservative icon William Safire died today, according to the New York Times. My condolences to his friends and family. William Safire hardly ever said anything I agreed with, but his wit and style makes him stand out. Safire coined the phrase “nattering nabobs of negativism” among others and had a long-running column on language and grammar. He is certainly from the generation of great conservative thinkers, unlike this era of wingnut welfare recipients.
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.