R.I.P. Casper Weinburger

[Kevin]

Weinberger died about 5 a.m. in a hospital near his home in Mount Desert, Maine.

He had recently been treated for pneumonia.

"He was just a worn-out guy," his son, Caspar Weinberger Jr., told Reuters.

"He should be remembered as a world statesman, a great American patriot," the son said.

"What he did with Reagan really brought down the Soviet Union. They stuck to their plan and simply outspent the Soviets despite all sorts of doubts here."

Weinberger, who presided over an unprecedented peacetime military buildup costing more than $1 trillion, began his government career as a cost-cutter.

When he took the defense post in January 1981, Weinberger soon erased the nickname -- "Cap the Knife" -- critics had pinned on him in his penny-pinching days as federal budget director under President Richard Nixon.

Weinberger performed with gusto the task of persuading Congress to spend over $1 trillion on arms in Reagan's first term and billions more after that.

He also steadfastly opposed concessions to Moscow in arms control negotiations advocated by Secretary of State George Shultz and other more moderate members of the Cabinet.

He made himself unpopular with many lawmakers by his unbending, often contentious push for funds for arms and for Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative -- a program, commonly known as "Star Wars," to develop a land- and space-based shield against incoming ballistic missiles.

A longtime member of Reagan's inner circle of California friends, Weinberger was one of the president's strongest supporters in the Cabinet.

He called "absurd" a White House decision in 1985 to sell arms to Iran but supported Reagan a year later after the president decided to send missiles and spare parts to Tehran.

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Kevin]

This article is from CNN.com.

[ATFFL]

How I love to watch the morn with golden sun that shines,
up above to nicely warm these frosty toes of mine

The wind doth taste of bittersweet,
Like jasper wine and sugar.
I bet it's blown through others' feet,
like those of...Caspar Weinberger.

--Opus the Penguin (Berkely Breathed)


After seeing that in the paper, Mr. Weinberger wrote the following letter:

    Dear Mr. Breathed,

    Many a morn I've longed to see
    A comic strip be kind to me.
    On 30 March, before my eyes
    A penguin watched a warm sunrise.
    In this land of so much bouty
    Could I have that great Bloom County?

    Sincerely,

    Caspar Weinberger.

[MODU]

He was fun.  A big budget cutter one year, and leader of the biggest military budget increase the next.    Only in DC.  hehehe

[Kevin]

I had a book by him but I lost it, He was a very good writer to say the least in my view.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Freedom Fighter...........R.I.P

[dazzleman]

Freedom Fighter...........R.I.P

Caspar Weinberger was a freedom fighter of the highest order.  The country owes him a great debt of gratitude.  He was a great man.