Nice. Best thing he ever wrote was a fiction novel about the Civil War.
I liked that novel, but the best things he ever wrote were, in no order of preference:
* His regular political columns. (I've always lamented that
Safire's Washington was the only known anthology of them.
*
Safire's Political Dictionary.
* His "On Language" column and the books collected therefrom, including (but not limited to)
What's the Good Word,
No Uncertain Terms,
Quoth the Maven,
In Love with Norma Loquendi, and more.
Damn, I miss him.