Speechwriter Richard Cross III dies

• Speechwriter Richard Cross III died last week at 51. No cause of death has been determined. Cross, who wrote for Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, was remembered as “a Republican one could talk with in comfort and security that he didn’t believe Democrats were the spawn of Satan,” according to McDaniel College political science professor Herbert Smith, quoted in The Baltimore Sun. “Reasoned political discourse is indeed lessened by his loss.”

I prefer the quote—and I bet that somewhere, Cross does too—from former Governor Ehrlich, who Cross criticized after leaving his employ. “Richard was a good writer and played an important role in the Ehrlich administration. Richard had a very quirky personality but will be missed.”

The standard speechwriter’s epitaph. —DM