Columnist who outraged Clinton hangs up hatchet

[emad]

Times
From James Bone in New York

WILLIAM SAFIRE, when he was a speechwriter in the Nixon White House, once famously described journalists as the “nattering nabobs of negativism”. Yet for more than three decades, the right-wing pundit has thrived among them as the token conservative columnist on the liberal opinion page of The New York Times.

“I get a lot of mail — now a lot of e-mail — from people saying, ‘How come you’re at The New York Times? You stick out like a sore thumb’,” he says. “Well, I was hired to be the sore thumb.”

Now, after almost 32 years as a conservative controversialist, Mr Safire, 74, has announced that it is “time to hang up my hatchet”. When he pens his final twice-weekly political column on January 24, he will bring to an end a colourful career that once saw Bill Clinton threaten to punch him on the nose for calling his wife, Hillary, a “congenital liar”. Arthur Sulzberger Jr, publisher of The New York Times, said: “The New York Times without Bill Safire is all but unimaginable. Bill’s provocative and insightful commentary has held our readers captive since he first graced our oped page in 1973.”

With his own love of alliteration, Mr Safire could well be described as a “neocon neologist”. His column has been marked both by his outspoken support for the Bush Administration’s neoconservative foreign policy and his delight in the innovative use of language.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1361983,00.html

[ET Awful]

1. With any luck, one of these days as he walks by that hung up hatchet,

it'll fall and bury itself in his head.

[redstateblues]

3. Good Riddance-tho I shudder to think who will replace him

[bunkerbuster1]

5. It will speak volumes about the NYTimes.

I'd like for them to find someone obscure who advocates on behalf of conservative causes. An up-and-comer, a "farm-team" kinda guy/gal.

yeah, right.

[jdj]

2. who? I though Safire was a women's R&B group.

[RubyDuby in GA]

4. Goodbye

and good riddance! Are you sure you don't want to go any sooner than that Bill?? Like today???

[Maeve]

6. Not LBN--locking

reported days ago