William Safire
William L. Safire (born December 17, 1929) writes syndicated op-ed pieces, generally with a conservative viewpoint. Since 1979, he has written "On Language," a weekly column in the New York Times Magazine covering grammar, etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics.
Safire was one of the leading critics of the Bill Clinton administration. Hillary Clinton in particular was often the target of his ire. He caused a mild tempest when he called her a "congenital liar"; Hillary responding that she didn't feel offended for herself, but for her mother's sake.
He is also a consistent and avowed partisan in the defence of the state of Israel.
In 1978, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary.
Before he became a journalist, Safire was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew; he wrote Agnew's phrase "nattering nabobs of negativism." Earlier still, he was a public relations executive.
Safire was one of the most insistent supporters of the preemptive strike on Iraq in 2003. His columns consistently alleged a widespread WMD program in existence in Iraq. Even in the months after the invasion of Iraq when no weapons were being uncovered, Safire kept on insisting with utter conviction that weapons of mass destruction would eventually be found. Only after the congressional inquiries have revealed that it is extremely unlikely that stockpiles of such weapons were in Iraq at any time in the last few years did Safire's columns drop the subject. He has never apologized for his contribution to propagating this error, unlike some other commentators such as Bill O'Reilly.
Safire also insinuated that Iraq was involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks, his evidence being the supposed meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta and an officer of Iraqi intelligence. His columns kept on pushing this idea despite accumulating contradictory evidence. After congressional inquiries concluded that this meeting never took place, Safire again dropped the subject, without any apology to his readers.
Writings of Safire
Language
- The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time: Wit and Wisdom from the Popular Language Column in the New York Times Magazine (2008) ISBN 0743242440
- No Uncertain Terms: More Writing from the Popular "On Language" Column in The New York Times Magazine (2003) ISBN 0743242432
Novels
Selections
Socio-political works
- Safire's Political Dictionary, 3rd edition, Random House, NY, l968,l972,l978.
- The Relations Explosion,
- Plunging into Politics,
- Before the Fall,
