Safire to Retire from 'NYT' Op-Ed Column

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000719411

William Safire, the conservative voice on the New York Times Op-Ed page for more than three decades, will end his regular column in early 2005, a Times spokeswoman said Monday.

"He's written it for a long time and has been talking to Arthur about this for a year and a half," said spokeswoman Catherine Mathis. "His last column will be Jan. 24."

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. I hope the door hits you on the way out!

[trotsky]

2. Good riddance, SafLIAR.

What a jerk.

[otohara]

3. This Is Better News Than Powell

and the others resigning today from Bush cabal.

[Eurobabe]

4. good riddance, the guy is a jerk

SEE YA!!! :hi:

[Proud2BAmurkin]

5. no more senile drool

.

[musette_sf]

6. Good riddance!

If only he could take that hump Brooks with him too.

[CityDem]

42. Frog March Mo Dowd out with him

She is a worthless hack. The Times needs to clean house.

[NashVegas]

7. Will He Now Become an Official GOP Propagandist?

just curious

[JHB]

38. That's where he got his start, writing speeches for Spiro Agnew

Thankfully, the nabob shall natter no more!

[DuaneBidoux]

8. I'll take whatever good news I can get

[demnan]

Another Bush Cabinet member resigns!

n/t

[Kool Kitty]

9. Buh-bye, Billy.

[Rose Siding]

10. The replacement will be worse

That's a safe bet, huh? Til then I'll fantasize about Bill Moyer wanting to fill up an afternoon or two a week.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

14. Ann Coulter

slated to be his replacement. She will start with a nine part series on how to more effectively behead liberals.

[AP]

15. Ain't that the truth. Tucker Carlson? David Brooks?

It'll definitely be someone picked by the NYT's advertisers and business partners.

[AspenRose]

11. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.....THEY'RE ALL LEAVING!!!!

UNbelievable!!!!

Edit: So, who's next? Here's a thought:

"Tucker Carlson to leave CNN's 'Crossfire'"

*muahahahahahahahahahahaha!*

[BlueEyedSon]

12. Another "Douchebag for Liberty"! BUH-BYE!!!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

13. Now when is George Will

going to retire his smarmy ass? He's got ONE style of column: make an assertion that is right wing, then give us poor uneducated peons a long convoluted history lesson, then conclude that the history lesson proved the assertion at the beginning of the column.

Bonus: sometimes he'll throw in a baseball analogy that has NOTHING TO DO with the subject he is writing about.

GET a different style, Will! Yours sucks!

Anywho. Glad to see Safire retiring, are they going to put Ann Coulter in his place?

[asjr]

16. Best news I have heard in ages. I have said before

that he is just an old nag that needs to be put out to pasture.

[Misskittycat]

17. Good riddance. eom

[Octafish]

18. Spiro Agnew's speechwriter -- the turd did lambaste Bush re BNL/Iraq-gate

Best phrase: "Effete corps of impudent snobs."

Best column:

THE ADMINISTRATION'S IRAQ GATE SCANDAL

BY WILLIAM SAFIRE)

Washington: Americans now know that the war in the Persian Gulf was brought about by a colossal foreign-policy blunder: George Bush's decision, after the Iran-Iraq war ended, to entrust regional security to Saddam Hussein.

What is not yet widely understood is how that benighted policy led to the Bush Administration's fraudulent use of public funds, its sustained deception of Congress and its obstruction of justice.

As the Saudi Ambassador, Prince Bandar, was urging Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker to buy the friendship of the Iraqi dictator in August 1989, the F.B.I. uncovered a huge scam at the Atlanta branch of the Lavoro Bank to finance the buildup of Iraq's war machine by diverting U.S.-guaranteed grain loans.

Instead of pressing the investigation or curbing the appeasement, the President turned a blind eye to lawbreaking and directed another billion dollars to Iraq. Our State and Agriculture Department's complicity in Iraq's duplicity transformed what could have been dealt with as `Saddam's Lavoro scandal' into George Bush's Iraqgate.

The first element of corruption is the wrongful application of U.S. credit guarantees. Neither the Commodity Credit Corporation nor the Export-Import Bank runs a foreign-aid program; their purpose is to stimulate U.S. exports. High-risk loan guarantees to achieve foreign-policy goals unlawful endanger that purpose.

Yet we now know that George Bush personally leaned on Ex-Im to subvert its charter--not to promote our exports but to promote relations with the dictator. And we have evidence that James Baker overrode worries in Agriculture and O.M.B. that the law was being perverted: Mr. Baker's closest aid, Robert Kimmett, wrote triumphantly, `your call to . . . Yeutter . . . paid off.' Former Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter is now under White House protection.

Second element of corruption is the misleading of Congress. When the charge was made two years ago in this space that State was improperly intervening in this case, Mr. Baker's top Middle East aide denied it to Senate Foreign Relations; meanwhile, Yeutter aides deceived Senator Leahy's Agriculture Committee about the real foreign-policy purpose of the C.C.C. guarantees. To carry out Mr. Bush's infamous National Security Directive 26, lawful oversight was systematically blinded.

Third area of Iraqgate corruption is the obstruction of justice. Atlanta's assistant U.S. Attorney Gail McKenzie, long blamed here for foot-dragging, would not withhold from a grand jury what she has already told friends: that indictment of Lavoro officials was held up for nearly a year by the Bush Criminal Division. The long delay in prosecution enabled James Baker to shake credits for Saddam out of malfeasant Agriculture appointees.

When House Banking Chairman Henry Gonzalez gathered documents marked `secret' showing this pattern of corruption, he put them in the Congressional Record. Two months later, as the media awakened, Mr. Bush gave the familiar `gate' order; stonewall.

`Public disclosure of classified information harms the national security,' Attorney General William Barr instructed the House Banking Committee last week. `. . . in light of your recent disclosures, the executive branch will not provide any more classified information'--unless the wrongdoing is kept secret.

`Your threat to withhold documents,' responded Chairman Gonzalez, `has all the earmarks of a classic effort to obstruct a proper and legitimate investigation . . . none of the documents compromise, in any fashion whatsoever, the national security or intelligence sources and methods.'

Mr. Barr, in personal jeopardy, has flung down the gauntlet. Chairman Gonzalez tells me he plans to present his obstruction case this week to House Judiciary Chairman Jack Brooks, probably flanked by Representatives Charles Schumer and Barney Frank, members of both committees.

`I will recommend that Judiciary consider requiring the appointment of an independent counsel,' says Mr. Gonzalez, who has been given reason to believe that Judiciary--capable of triggering the Ethics in Government Act--will be persuaded to act.

Policy blunders are not crimes. But perverting the purpose of appropriated funds is a crime; lying to Congress compounds that crime; and obstructing justice to cover up the original crime is a criminal conspiracy

MODS: There shouldn't be any copyright problems, as this is from Congressional Record, a public document.

Source:

http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920519l.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Another Repub who plans on spending more time with the family?

I thought they all ran away from home?

[Danmel]

20. I won't miss him

Now if he'll give up his "On Languange" column too....no more nitpicking on Sunday mornings!

[Maat]

21. I once read a column on a right-wing website that talked about..

how brilliant he was. Made me gag. Don't the door hit your behind on the way out - and stay out of my face.

[TXDemGal]

22. Great news

but I'm afraid this will give the New Whore Times a reason to run that shill David Brooks every single fucking day of the week!

[DrZeeLit]

28. Yep, that's exactly my first thought. Well, my second thought.

My first was THANK GOODNESS ... ding dong the witch is dead!

[The Stranger]

23. If Bill Safire were to print a column claiming that the sky is blue,

I would still have to stop reading and go outside and check two or three times, maybe four times to make sure.

[CTyankee]

24. that old fart

was so embarrassing to the NYT. He also hasn't been getting as many TV talking head gigs as he used to, because he's definitely going senile. As for David Brooks, I think he is nuts. He goes on and on about how wonderful Bush is with that goofy smile on his face when he shills for BushCo on TV. And he's supposed to be so "moderate."

I think the Times should get Ann Coulter and watch the numbers of subscriptions go away fast!

[Plaid Adder]

25. Break out the champagne and caviar!

Boy was that exit long overdue.

Maybe I should send them a resume...

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Catfight]

26. He can take David Brooks with him as well..they both suck. n/t

[Chicago Democrat]

27. Hurrah! I never read his drivel....

anyway... but he pisses me off!

[indepat]

29. His loss will be immeasurable: I'm inconsolable

[Anakin Skywalker]

30. Good Riddence, You Sack of Sh*t!

[BlueStatesForever]

31. Good riddance, William Satire!

[RamboLiberal]

32. Now when can we send Nofacts Novak off to prison?

:evilgrin:

[turbo_satan]

33. In his own words...

... the man is a congenital liar.

Despite his deftness with the English language, I've seldom seen a scribe with such an obvious and gaping ideological blind spot. His loss is the NYT's gain; it's a far better paper without him.

Now if only they could find a way to make Brooks disappear.

[number6]

34. Good Riddance .....W.S.

buh-by

[Isere]

35. I quit reading his column

on the day he called Hillary Clinton "a congenital liar."

Even though I subscribe to the NYTimes, I shun his op-ed column and refuse to even read his pieces in the magazine section on language.

He is a vile person and I will be glad the see him gone!

David Brooks sucks but he isn't as mean-spirited as Safire...at least not yet. But quite frankly, I don't know why either of them need to be featured in the NYTimes!

They would find a much better fit at The Washington (Moonie) Times.

[ReadTomPaine]

36. Wonder if he's considering a cabinet position with Bush.

[Zorra]

37. Yeah, his part in destroying the US is finished now. n/t

[spanone]

39. nOT sOON eNOUGH

[Dora]

40. What took so long? eom

[Lizzie Borden]

41. Bye-Bye Billy!