Safire Watch: Nixon in Purgatory

One of Safire's clever little tropes is conversing with Nixon in Purgatory. It's funny, and it takes the edge off Safire's partisanship. It also allows him to be conversational, and Safire's conversational quality takes the edge off his lunatic mendacity, which tends to crop up rather more often than one might like.

But doesn't he always say Nixon is in purgatory for imposing wage and price controls? That's such a lovely way of (among other things) teasing those of us still frothing over Nixon's own lunatic mendacity and then veering away. It's stable irony: Point is that the price controls were the worst thing Nixon did.

But Safire usually explains Nixon's current address. Interesting omission. Here's the link.

Nixon in Purgatory