William Proxmire, RIP

Jesse Walker | December 15, 2005

Last Saturday I described the late Eugene McCarthy as one of the few politicians I admired. Another one just joined Gene in the grave: William Proxmire, the esteemed porkbuster from Wisconsin. He wasn't always consistent in his war on waste -- as the Associated Press's obit notes, he never did turn his guns on his constituents' beloved milk program -- but as senators go, he was better than most. And I hope we can all agree that he was an improvement over his predecessor in office.