Legendary Wisconsin Democrat Sen. William Proxmire died this morning. Didn’t agree with everything he stood for, but he was the original Porkbuster–a crusader against government waste who issued “Golden Fleece Awards” to expose taxpayer-funded boondoggles. Via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

He became the scourge of defense-industry lobbyists, pork-barrel public works projects and seekers of tax loopholes.

“It was a radical notion that he would stand up and criticize other members’ projects,” said U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a former Proxmire intern.

…Proxmire’s signature device was his Golden Fleece Awards, a brilliant anti-spending publicity stunt that drew raves and rants depending on whose ox was being gored.

The senator’s staff researched and wrote the “awards” highlighting what they felt were extravagant, wasteful or downright silly expenditures. They also issued merit awards for efficiency moves.

Proxmire typically sharpened up the first few paragraphs of the Fleece news releases, former staffers recall. In March 1975, the senator gave his first Golden Fleece Award to the National Science Foundation for conducting an $84,000 study about why people fall in love.

“Proxmire had a genius for writing the lead,” Shuman said.

Those in academia, including researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, saw the Fleeces as cartoonish, unfair and fodder for enemies of social science research.

Fellow Democrat Kastenmeier strongly objected to attacks on UW research, but he loved it when Proxmire went after military boondoggles.

Defenders of the awards said Proxmire curtailed or killed many wasteful programs - and there was no doubt they put the bureaucracy on notice.

Would that we had more like him…in both parties.

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