Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Casper Weinberger dies at 88
AP Reports on the Death of Kap Weinberger
Caspar W. Weinberger, who served in the Cabinets of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and was central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, died Tuesday at 88.
Weinberger had been hospitalized for about a week with a high fever and pneumonia brought on by old age, according to his son, Caspar Weinberger Jr. Weinberger's wife of 63 years, Jane, was by his side when he died, the son said.
"He gave everything to his country, to public office and to his family," Caspar Weinberger Jr. said.
As Richard Nixon's budget director, Weinberger was such a zealous economizer he earned the nickname "Cap the Knife" for his efforts to slash government spending, largely by cutting or curtailing many of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society social programs.
Later, he became the consummate Cold Warrior as Ronald Reagan's secretary of defense and presided over $2 trillion in military spending - the biggest peacetime increase in U.S. history.
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Weinberger was NOT a big fan of the ner-do-wells in the press and for that he will always be one of my favorite Reaganites. They called him "Kap the knife" for his efforts to cut Lyndon Johnson's Great society nonsense, too. He was a solid conservative and will be missed.
-WTH
# posted by Publius @ 3/28/2006 08:10:00 PM 
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