RIP Bill Safire

I just saw this Reuters article on my home page.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/ ... ews&rpc=69

William Safire passed away in a hospice over this weekend. Along with William F. Buckley, here was an erudite, learned, and highly literate exponent of conservative causes. In a movement currently dominated by Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and Seig Heil Barbie, reason and thoughtful analysis is sorely missed.

While I always enjoyed Safire's columns on politics and his hilarious [and very troubling] documentation of the irrevocable descent of the English language, there's always been one signature column that I think of whenever I hear or read his name. It used to be published in The Times every February 12, and perhaps it still is, and just isn't carried out here in the Hearst Hinterlands. I've been trying for an hour to find it via Google, and I can't find it. If there's anyone who is better at this than I am, see if you can lay hands on a column Safire wrote about why Abraham Lincoln is our greatest president. And, if you find it on line, will you post it on this thread?

RIP, Bill; your life made a difference.