Ex-Senator Metzenbaum, 90, Dies

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Associated Press
Thursday, March 13, 2008

Former senator 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 late yesterday. 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 did not need a microphone to hold a full auditorium spellbound while dropping rhetorical bombs on big oil companies, the insurance industry, savings and loans or the National Rifle Association.

Unabashedly liberal, the former labor lawyer and union lobbyist considered himself a champion of workers and was a driving force behind the law requiring 60-day notice of plant closings.

Born June 4, 1917, Metzenbaum grew up a child of poverty and prejudice on Cleveland's east side.

He was the Senate's prime sponsor of the Brady Act, seeking a waiting period for handgun purchases.

Metzenbaum is survived by his wife, Shirley, and four daughters.