SAFIRE GONE - AT 4:53 P.M. ET:  William Safire has died at 79.  He was a superb conservative columnist for The New York Times op-ed page, who could state the conservative position clearly and elegantly.  He was also an expert on the English language.

I recall when Safire was hired by The Times in the early 70s.  There was a mini-revolt among some of the staff because he had written speeches for Richard Nixon.  The purity of The Times was being threatened!  To his credit, the publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, known as "Punch," refused to heed the revolutionaries.  The result was an excellent association between a liberal paper and a conservative columnist. 

September 27, 2009