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He can still zap, as when he refers to Press Secretary Jody Powell's replying "with the same trustworthiness he displayed as an Air Force Academy cadet." counting on the reader to supply the memory. Safire says he does this only when a fellow fails to return his calls or makes "a deliberate effort to deceive." Safire's politics haven't changed: he says that when he and his liberal colleague on the Times Op-Ed page, Anthony Lewis, agree on anything, they both reconsider to see where they went wrong. The libertarian Lewis and the unforgiving Safire do have as common enemies Henry Kissinger, who in the Nixon days wanted Safire's phone tapped, and General Alexander Haig, who, Safire says, got it done.
As a kind of truculent watchdog on the right, Safire has the freshest voice coming out of Washington. (The best? There is no current best in Washington columning.) The grudging praise he once got from his colleagues has generally turned to ungrudged praise. Reviewing his fine new Safire's Political Dictionary, bipartisan in its pursuit of cant and memorable phrases. Robert Sherrill, White House correspondent of the leftward Nation, referred to Safire as "perhaps the best political columnist at work today." Safire's own sideline fascination with words—plain, sharp, evasive or handy—has led him to take on a new column on words, soon to start in the Sunday New York Times. The extra load shouldn't bother him; his productivity already exceeds presidential guidelines.