Howard Phillips, Conservative Icon, Dead at 72

Founded the Constitution Party

Howard Phillips was a magnificent anomaly in the worlds of politics and personal life.

During his 72 years, he went from being a Harvard-educated, unsuccessful Jewish Democratic candidate for public office to an evangelical Protestant Republican who founded the Conservative Caucus and led a decades-long crusade to end the government funding of the left that was taking place under GOP and Democratic administrations alike.

When President Nixon named him to head the federal Office of Economic Opportunity, the brainchild of Lyndon B. Jonson's 1964 War on Poverty, and then asked Congress for more OEO money, Howie Phillips left, slamming the White House door behind him, citing principles over politics.