Milestones Dec. 26, 2005

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DIED. JACK ANDERSON, 83, Pulitzer prizewinning journalist whose muckraking columns terrified Beltway politicians for more than a half-century; in Bethesda, Md. A devout Mormon who viewed his work as a calling, Anderson often enraged his powerful subjects with his syndicated "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column, which broke stories like the Reagan Administration's arms-for-hostages deal with Iran and the secret transcripts of the Watergate grand jury. Richard Nixon put Anderson on his "enemies" list, prompting Nixon aide G. Gordon Liddy to devise a plan to murder him. Still, when Anderson's work on Watergate resulted in arrests, he provided financial assistance to the affected families. "I don't like to hurt people," he said. "But in order to get a red light at the intersection, you sometimes have to have an accident."

DIED. WILLIAM PROXMIRE, 90, fiery Wisconsin Senator who during 31 years in office remained a tenacious critic of Washington's status quo; in Sykesville, Md. Over 19 years, the maverick Democrat, elected in 1957 following the death of Senator Joseph McCarthy, gave more than 3,000 speeches on the floor in support of an international treaty banning genocide until it was finally approved in 1986. He spent little on his campaigns--in his last two elections, he accepted no contributions--and in 1975 instituted Congress's monthly Golden Fleece awards to highlight wasteful spending by the government. Among the winners: an alcohol-abuse agency's $102,000 tab to determine whether drunk fish were more aggressive than sober ones; and a law-enforcement group's $27,000 study to find out why inmates try to escape from prison.