Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Rago Died of Natural Causes at Age 34

Dead of natural causes.

For the record.

Joseph Rago, The Wall Street Journal Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer, died of natural causes in July, according to the New York City medical examiner, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Julie Bolcer, the spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said Rago suffered from the inflammatory disease sarcoidosis, which affected his lungs, heart, spleen, hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes. “The manner of death is natural,”  Bolcer said.

Rago, 34 years old, was found by police in his Manhattan home on July 20 with no obvious signs of trauma.

His last editorial was titled “The ObamaCare Republicans.”

From the editorial:

If the ObamaCare Republicans now get primary opponents, they have earned them. In two weeks nobody will recall this or that grievance about the Senate bill, but GOP voters will wonder about the bill of goods they were sold.

The damage to the GOP’s political image will radiate in ways that are hard to predict. If Republicans can’t be trusted to fulfill a core commitment to voters—whether repeal and replace, or simply to reduce the burden of government—then what is the point of electing Republicans?

 -RW