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Political cartoonist Paul Conrad dies By James Rainey | 12:52 p.m. His fiercely confrontational cartoons made him one of the leading political provocateurs of the second half of the 20th century and helped push the Times to national prominence. He was 86. ' Paul Conrad dies at 86; Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist helped bring The Los Angeles Times to national prominence http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-paul-conrad-20100905,0,3650589,full… . PART ONE… By James Rainey, Los Angeles Times September 4, 2010|12:52 p.m. Paul Conrad, whose fiercely confrontational editorial cartoons made him one of the leading political provocateurs of the second half of the 20th century and who helped push the Los Angeles Times to national prominence, has died. He was 86. Conrad died early Saturday of natural causes, surrounded by his family at his home in Rancho Palos Verdes, said his son David. Conrad won three Pulitzer Prizes, a feat matched by only two other cartoonists in the post- World War II era, while both thrilling and infuriating readers for more than 50 years with an unyielding liberal stance, rendered in savage black and white. Mayors, governors and presidents cringed at the prospect of being on the business end of Conrad's searing pen, while many Southern Californians made him their first stop as they sifted through The Times, the newspaper that was his principal home for nearly 30 years. While many other cartoonists angled for whimsy or the easy one-off, Conrad “specialized in hair shirts and jeremiads and harpoons to the heart,” former Times Editor Shelby Coffey III once wrote. The cartoonist, loud and often profane in person, viewed himself as a champion of the common man and relished combat with those he saw as protectors of the rich and privileged. His most prominent and enduring foils came in the person of two California politicians who rose to the presidency, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The scandal-plagued Nixon named Conrad to his “enemies list” — a designation the cartoonist described as one of his greatest honors. Former Times Publisher Otis Chandler became accustomed to his breakfast being interrupted by either Reagan or wife Nancy, furious that the then-governor had been depicted, again, as dimwitted, mean-spirited or out of touch. “Conrad is … more than a legend in cartooning and an institution in American journalism,” Doug Marlette, one of many cartoonists inspired by that work, once said. “He is a force of nature; you measure Conrad on the Richter scale.” The author and essayist Pete Hamill called Conrad “a voice. And the voice is his alone: alternately savage, compassionate, brutal and ironic.” Conrad rose to prominence in a post-World War II era when many newspapers were at the height of their power and when he and other widely syndicated editorial cartoonists — including Herbert L. Block (Herblock), Bill Mauldin and Pat Oliphant—held a particular grip on the American psyche. Just before his death in 2007, the onetime editor of The Times' editorial pages, Anthony Day, worried that the skittish and contracting newspaper industry would no longer support a “genius” like Conrad. “It's easier to not make trouble,” Day said, “than to make trouble.” And Conrad loved making trouble. His righteous indignation was guided by a modest Midwestern upbringing, an abiding Catholic faith and what one chronicler called “a fanatic heart.” Many journalists like to talk of the imperative of afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. Conrad embraced the credo with abandon. “Don't ever accuse me,” he liked to say, “of being objective.” CONTINUED… added by: EthicalVegan