William Proxmire, RIP

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.