Former Senator Howard Metzenbaum dead at 90.

As I mentioned in my previous post I was literally off-line for a bit over 24 hours. A lot can happen in a day, apparently, with the 1st thing up for me being that former Senator from Ohio Howard Metzenbaum has died.

Former Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, an Ohio Democrat who was a feisty self-made millionaire before he began a long career fighting big business in the Senate, died Wednesday night. He was 90.

Metzenbaum died at his home near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Joel Johnson, his former chief of staff. No cause was given.

During 18 years on Capitol Hill, until his retirement in 1995, Metzenbaum came to be known as “Senator No” and “Headline Howard” for his abilities to block legislation and get publicity for himself.

He was a cantankerous firebrand who didn’t need a microphone to hold a full auditorium spellbound while dropping rhetorical bombs on big oil companies, the insurance industry, savings and loans, and the National Rifle Association, to name just a few favorite targets.

I lived in Ohio for much of his career. His name was, literally, a household world. There is much he and I would disagree on, politically. Today, I offer my sympathies to his family and friends.

Eternal light shed upon him, O Lord…