Barely Relevant Notes on Bill Buckley

• He never wasted a minute. One night at the Buckleys, Bill rose from the dinner table, patted his breast pockets absently and excused himself, saying he had to find his cigars. When he returned seven or eight minutes later (cigarless), it seemed clear he had batted out a column at warp speed. He and Pat were leaving early the next morning for Gstaad. Why not use that downtime between entrée and dessert?
• He had a phenomenal ability to convert critics into friends. As a snotty young liberal, editing a liberal Catholic paper in Iowa, I once wrote that Buckley's attempt to generate an army of young conservatives was an illusion, since this alleged army could convene comfortably in the back of a Volkwagen. This unastute judgment drew a thunderous printed retort from WFB, who for some reason had been reading the Catholic Messenger of Davenport rather closely. An invitation to meet him duly followed and we became friends.
• He taught a generation of debaters and polemicists that adversaries were to be opposed, but not loathed or hated. (Gore Vidal was the understandable exception.) His style was to fight tooth and nail, then invite his opponent out for a drink or dinner afterwards. His detractors saw this as a ploy to unsettle opponents. Occasionally it was. But debate was about ideas. It wasn't personal.
• In the early debates, I regularly made money betting someone that Bill would use at least two of these three terms: "paradigm," "charismatic" and "mutatis mutandis." When audiences caught on to these words, he dropped the first two. But he loved the rhythm of "mutatis mutandis" too much to let go.
• Until about the mid-60s, he occasionally would descend into slippery rhetoric, such as "mincing" and "epicene" for protestors of the Vietnam War, and "tribal" for the black caucus. He seemed astounded by this accusation of unpleasant meta-messages, and as far as I could see, he dropped them.
• In 1965, when he ran for mayor of New York City, with no danger of winning, he tossed out a number of ideas that were clearly ahead of their time (bike lanes, for instance, and charging drivers a dollar to enter Manhattan during the day). He drew 341,000 votes and may have put John Lindsay in office. Lindsay won by 102,000 votes.
• The key to serving fresh seafood on his boat was simple--he pulled up somebody's lobster trap, removed several lobsters, put way too many dollar bills in a bottle to pay for them and placed the corked bottle in the trap. Shopping made simple.

Comments

[SamThornton]

Bill Buckley never met a contrarian he didn't copy, figuring out early in life how to make money promoting other peoples' bad ideas.

If Washington, D.C. is where good ideas go to die, Bill's magazine, the Weekly Standard, was where bad ideas went to be fruitful and multiply.

Although Bill was of the right, he was never right, a proud tradition carried on by his acolytes in what are today amusingly called "think tanks."

[nicho]

Let's see, WFB became irrelevant somewhere around 1972 or something like that. He was kind of the Bob Hope of pundits -- no one enjoyed his material as much as he did.

Buckley was a troll before trolls were invented by the Internet. He loved big words, and could tie an argument into knots -- but always missed the larger point of what was being discussed.

[Puller58]

Not to defend WFB's name calling with Vidal, but there's an example of him looking past sexual preferences when it was convenient for him. In his book, "On The Firing Line", he wrote about the aftermath of a show he did with the author James Baldwin. (An African-American gay) Someone used the episode and Baldwin contacted WFB about them taking legal action on it. WFB agreed and they took action. Were he a hardcore homophobe, I doubt he would have entered into any action in partnership with a gay man. Of course it was about money in the end, and that may have been his true sexual preference.

[Nutcase]

Mark Twain's comment comes to mind.

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."

cognito ergo populistae

[Grulg]

Oh Buckley was great. I can't say I found him to be that interesting to listen to after awhile(the man did drone), and I didn't agree w/ him much after my mid 20's, but so? Trying to deny his place in talking head punditry land is frankly stoopid. I applaud the kind words and retrospectives being put out there for him, he deserves no less seems to me.

And hate him or not, point is-the guy was Very influential. You know I'm right.

[antaeus]

"Until about the mid-60s, he occasionally would descend into slippery rhetoric, such as 'mincing' and 'epicene' for protestors of the Vietnam War, and 'tribal' for the black caucus. He seemed astounded by this accusation of unpleasant meta-messages . . . "

Oh, that's the blithe and bonny Buckley we all loved! Golly, you just couldn't stay mad at a war mongering, racist homophobe when he'd look at you all wide eyed and ask, "Who, me?" Thanks for keeping it all in perspective, Mr. Leo!

[BushBites]

I particularly enjoyed this relatively recent piece, in which Buckley appeared to be somewhat lost on a National Review cruise, having to gently disagree with one Fox News Conservative after another over Iraq.

http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/sloth/2007-07-01.html

[bbbbmer]

I've noticed something about extreme right wing zealots -- as they approach the age when they're about to meet their maker, they somehow 'get religion' and make amends for their prior excesses. Goldwater did. Lee Atwater did. Reagan was too senile to, and probably was 'seeing God' whilst he still breathed.

Bill Buckley finally realized that "I am my brother's keeper" might also apply to public policy, as opposed to his earlier Malthusian, Adam Smithian, Ayn Randian, greed-is-good-based political economic views.

I was not a fan of his.

I found him to be a pontificating boob spewing cooly hyperbolic argot that made very little sense either in terms of the day to day lives of those of us of modest means and origins, as well as to those of us for whom the gifts of education had brightened our world views, in a sort of acceptance and unchallenging "bad things happen to good people" manner. I believe later in life, as infirmities and realities struck, he became one of 'us', and found just how bankrupt his prior ethos was.

When I was at university I used to delight in watching FIRING LINE episodes where he would be actually challenged by other far better debaters who verbally filleted his strained use of English, especially when they did so with aplomb, as did Germaine Greer, Jerry Brown, who both could recite Latin legal maxims at will, to his garbled attempts to reply in kind. I remember the great civil rights lawyer, Harriet Pilpel, who would simply, but gently, eviscerate Buckley as he railed against freedom for marginalized populations. And then there was a female black poet who so effortlessly challenged his 19th century mind with 20th century dialectics.

Most telling about WFB were his attempts at public performance on the harpsichord playing not terribly difficult Bach Brandenberg pieces. His fingers seemed to flail about the keyboard bearing little resemblance to Bach's intentions. And this is what I believe formed the most decriptive element of the quality of his thinking, and proved revelatory.

Hence, his expoundings, social, political, and economic, were similarly mediocre, easy enough to ram a Mack truck through, asserting ethics and values and even morals at times that he himself could not possibly have adhered to, if born into a more common, less rarified, existence.

He was, at times, affable -- I'll grant him that.....

[MerlinJames]

"I've noticed something about extreme right wing zealots -- as they approach the age when they're about to meet their maker, they somehow 'get religion' and make amends for their prior excesses."

What a coincidence...I see the same thing in left wing zealots......

[rroy]

I still have this vivid memory of briefly (because it was neither interesting or entertaining),watching Buckley struggling with a Bach piece on the harpsicord while accompanied by a symphonic orchestra-name unknown.

It occured to me at the time,How appropriate!The whole fiasco would have been more amusing if he was wearing a wig,white knee length hose,buckled black shoes and the other attire popular in the 18th century.Oh yes,not to exclude lace cuffs!

It also seemed quite fitting he should be enamored of the Harpsicord!
All acutrements of 18th century elitism ,where his mind and pesonality dwelled!!

[OlongapoEd]

HuffPost's Pick

It's refreshing to see something about the unpleasant reality of Buckley. I never cease to be amazed at the people who ought to know better, but still strain themselves mightily to say something "nice" about him. I am convinced that what got him a reputation as an intellectual was, in all likelihood, nothing more than glibness, an excellent memory for flowery rhetoric, and a supercilious manner. He may have been influential at one time, but in recent years he has been nothing but a footnote to American political history. Also, I strongly suspect that his supposed change in attitudes in recent years was due to his realization that the conservative movement in general, and now the nation, has been taken over by people who probably reach for their revolvers whenever they hear the word "culture". That must have been galling to a high-culture conservative like Buckley. Unfortunately, I don't have a citation, but I remember that back when the anti-gay emendment to the Colorado constitution was big news, Buckley rather mildly opposed the amendment on the grounds that you shouldn't legislate agains mortal sins. Anyone who considers homosexuality a "mortal sin" is indeed a bigot (religious belief cannot justify bigotry), even if that bigotry is figuratively cloaked in a white tie and tails and has impeccable manners.

[americansheep]

o.k.... the thing that bothered me most about Buckley was his PATRICIAN way of speaking, so condescending, so stilted, so exhaulted. I'm I mistaken or did his Dad came from Texas and his Mom from Louisiana? Maybe he was from another planet, say Cambridge, well above our mortal plane.

[paulfromportland]

Yes, Mr Leo, by all means, when defending apartheid, one must be gentlemanly.

However, the Ackroyd and Curtain parody on SNL was taken from the James Kilpatrick-Shana Alexander "Point-Counterpoint" segment of 60 minutes.

Funny thing that; Both Kilpatrick and Buckley supported segregation and abhored the civil rights movement, but, they both understood the English language so well. Not really much different from Dr Carl McIntyre; just more erudite.

[Quixotic1]

An unwavering defender of power and privilege -- never a right wing dictatorship he didn't embrace -- never an indigenous third world democratic movement he didn't oppose. He once warned us of a "fetishistic attachment to the forms of democracy." Not exactly a legacy to be proud of.

[desmirl]

William F. Buckley was the prototype all-American CHICKENHAWK.

[kingofscotts]

Why do you do that? Do you think you are being controversial? All you are doing is proving how ignorant you are in terms of the topic about which you post.

W. F. Buckley was against the Iraq war!

W.F. Buckley served his country in the Army.

Do you even know what chickenhawk means?

You owe an apology not to Buckley but to the world for subjecting it to your ignorance.

[Nutcase]

He served on Long Island.

cognito ergo populistae

[PartyPartyParty]

"He taught a generation of debaters and polemicists that adversaries were to be opposed, but not loathed or hated. (Gore Vidal was the understandable exception.) "

Mr. Leo,

If, by the above, you mean that Gore Vidal is such a brilliant mind and a champion debater that anyone who goes up against him is bound to get flummoxed and lose all common sense, then I take no exeception to your remark. To say that only Mr. Vidal could ruffle Mr. B*ckley's feathers is the highest compliment to Mr. Vidal, who is, IMHO, the gold standard to which all debaters should aspire.

If, however, you are inferring that Mr. Vidal deserved the load of bigoted, reactionary, intemperate vitriol that Mr. Buckley spewed at him when they were exchanging opinions on the Vietnam war against the United States, then your opinion carries no weight whatsoever.

[Covenant]

Vidal certainly deserved better than that--and the only justification for Buckley's blowup is that Vidal was sniping at him and Buckley couldn't take it. The preening self-absorbed nature of his sprawling debate form is completely at-odds with his vicious attack and it exposes the kind of thuggish mindset that was under the rationale. Buckley was a complicated man and had many complicated ideas, but if you want to praise someone for their rationality and their intellectualism, one would generally presume some rational intellect would have shown through in the opinions expressed as well as the manner of expression.

[Giordano Bruno]

I guess my reaction to WFB's passing is similar to that of John Donne in "For Whom the Bell Tolls." I am saddened not because I loved him, or even liked him. He was a human who spent (perhaps way too much) time in our living rooms. A chap whose eloquence far exceeded his logic. He was exasperating and entertaining, he was erudite and irritating, he was an institution. And to his credit he felt Nixon should resign from the Presidency, and that the Iraq war was a mistake. He distanced himself from the Evangelical nut cases.

I loved the debates with Gore Vidal. They are so much a like in many ways, although Gore was by far the more literary. I remember when GV called him a crypto Nazi, and Buckley who typically was quite phlegmatic came unhinged and called him a fag. I will miss WFB. It is a shame that those who remain to carry the standard are neither as intelligent nor as classy. He was wrong on almost everything he said, but he said it well and logically. Just goes to show you, if you start out with the wrong premise, the wrong assumption, no matter how meticulously logical your arguments end up bull shit. He was rarely right, and always arrogant, but there was still something appealing about him.

I wonder if Gore Vidal will go to the funeral.

[unitron]

"...when GV called him a crypto Nazi..."

Wasn't the actual phrase "crypto-fascist"?

[antaeus]

I've always remembered it as "Nazi."

[calpubserv]

"He taught a generation of debaters and polemicists that adversaries were to be opposed, but not loathed or hated. (Gore Vidal was the understandable exception.)"

Mr. Leo,

Buckley calling Vidal a "queer" on national television is as "understandable" to me as his call to have aids victims forced to get mandatory tattoos.

[PartyPartyParty]

Hear-hear!!!

[kingofscotts]

Buckley called Vidal a "queer"

Vidal called Buckley a "crypto-nazi"

Get over it!