Paul Weyrich, RIP

On a day when cultural politics is Story A, it is fitting to ruminate about the life and influence of Paul Weyrich, who died this morning at the age of 66. He was the co-founder, with Jerry Falwell, of the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation's first president, a founder of the Council for National Policy, a leading yoda for Beltway social conservatives, a bugbear to the left and a hero to the right. Virtually every conservative of import has noted his passing, his endearing peculiarities, and his decency.

However -- he had a visceral disdain for secular humanists; he considered gay people to be hyper-sexualized deviants. He was not very nice to those with whom he worked, although his orneriness can probably be attributed to the physical pain resulting from severe spinal trauma he suffered in 1996. He lost both of his legs in 2005 and worked mostly from his home near Washington. D.C.   The public's response to Bill Clinton's Oval Office infidelity discouraged Weyrich to the point where he suggested that evangelicals disengage with politics. He recanted that position, somewhat, but his abdication of a life's work made room for ambitious evangelicals like James Dobson to move in.

In his latter years, as his influence within the Republican Party declined, his willingness to find common cause with others increased. He joined with civil libertarians in 2002 to protest the Patriot Act and opposed the Bush Administration's terrorist surveillance program.