Yesterday the conservative world, and I, received two bits of bad news. First, yesterday morning I heard the news that Tony Snow was diagnosed with colon cancer and second, thanks to Paul Chesser’s Locker Room post, I found out that one of the founders of what some refer to as the ?paleo-conservative? movement, Sam Francis, had passed away. As it turns out I have a common history with both of these men. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when I was living in the Washington, D.C. area, I had the honor and privilege of being a regular participant in a supper club/discussion group known as ?the Clarendon Club,? a name that came about as a result of the fact that we met in a small Vietnamese restaurant in the Clarendon section of Arlington, VA. The club was originally organized by Jeff Tucker of the Mises Instittue, which at the time had an office in Fairfax, VA. The group consisted of anywhere from 6 to 10 people, depending on the week, and we ate Vietnamese food and talked politics, economics, philosophy, religion, literature, you name it. The point here is that both Sam and Tony were members of the club. Sam attended semi-regularly and Tony attended occasionally. At the time, Tony was editorial page editor for the Washington Times and Sam was a regular columnist for the Times’ famous ?Commentary? section. Other members included Joe Sobran, Tom Bethell, Sheldon Richman, and several others. For me this was an amazing experience and the kind of opportunity I will probably never have again.
by Locker Room contributor