Conservative Writer Samuel T. Francis

Samuel T. Francis, 57, a columnist and former editorial writer for the Washington Times and an outspoken voice of American conservatism, died Feb. 15 at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly after unsuccessful surgery to repair an aneurysm in his aorta. An area resident for 28 years, he lived in Seabrook.

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He wasn’t just conservative but proudly “paleoconservative” — certainly not neoconservative.

Franklin Foer, writing in the New York Times in the fall, noted that paleocons and neocons have been locked in mortal combat for years, with Mr. Francis as one of the influential paleocon voices.

“Paleocons fought neocons over whom Ronald Reagan should appoint to head the National Endowment for the Humanities, angrily denouncing them as closet liberals — or worse, crypto-Trotskyists,” Foer wrote. “Even their self-selected name, paleocon, suggests disdain for the neocons and their muscular interventionism.”

In his final column, published Jan. 27, Mr. Francis’s principled disdain was on vivid display. He took issue with President Bush’s second inaugural address, accusing the president of embracing “pop utopianism.”

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