Vic Gold

Victor Gold (born September 25, 1928 in East St Louis, Illinois; died June 5, 2017 in Alexandria, Virginia) was an attorney, political spokesman and author.

Gold grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and attended Tulane University. He graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1951. Throughout his colleges years he contributed to campus publications and was also active in theater productions. He also worked as a reporter for the Birmingham News. During the Korean War he served in the U.S. Army, then returned to Birmingham to practice as an attorney. He gained experience working in Democratic campaigns in Alabama before moving to Washington D.C. as a political consultant with the firm of Selvage & Lee in 1958.

Gold lost faith with the Democratic party after the Bay of Pigs and served as deputy press secretary for conservative candidate Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential campaign. He opened his own consulting firm in 1965 and counted Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, and Shirley Temple Black among his clients. In 1970 Gold accepted the job of press secretary for Vice President Spiro Agnew. He began writing books in that decade, beginning with stories from his years as a consultant. He later wrote speeches for George H. W. Bush and co-wrote his 1987 biography. Bush appointed Gold to a delegation overseeing free elections in Romania following the ouster of Nicolae Ceauşescu and also appointed him to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting . He also co-authored a thriller with Lynne Cheney.

In retirement, Gold continued to write, as a national correspondent for the Washingtonian magazine. He eventually became disillusioned with the Republican party as well, criticizing President George W. Bush in his 2007 book Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Neo-Cons and Holy Rollers Destroyed the GOP. He announced his departure from the Republican party on his weblog, "The Wayward Lemming". Shortly before his death, he used the blog to criticize the Trump presidency as turning the United States into an "oligarchical banana republic."

Gold died in 2017 in Virginia. He was survived by his wife, Dale, and three children: Paige, Jamie and Stephen, along with two grandchildren and a great-grandson.

Publications

• Gold, Vic (1975) I Don't Need You When I'm Right: The Confessions of a Washington PR Man. Morrow ISBN 0688029094
• Gold, Vic (1977) P-R as in President. Doubleday ISBN 0385123345
• Bush, George H. W. with Vic Gold (1987) Looking Forward Doubleday
• Gold, Victor and Lynne V. Cheney (1988) The Body Politic. Macmillan ISBN 0312021712
• Gold, Vic (2004) Liberwocky: What Liberals Say and What They Really Mean. Thomas Nelson ISBN 0785260579
• Gold, Vic (2007) Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Neo-Cons and Holy Rollers Destroyed the GOP. Sourcebooks Trade ISBN 1402208413

References

• Abramowitz, Michael (April 2, 2007) "Rightist Indignation: GOP Insider Vic Gold Launches a Broadside at the State of the Party." The Washington Post
• Schudel, Matt (June 7, 2017) "Vic Gold, GOP consultant and writer who reveled in political theater, dies at 88". The Washington Post