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

[Snowball]

I really don't get this "Mr. Buckley was a gentleman" stuff. He had the calm demeanor of a serial killer and a political philosophy just as bad. His pretentious blue-blood accent was a cultivated and irritating affect that has long been extinct in America except for the very few who insist on lording their inherited superiority and wealth over others. Just as Ted Bundy was affable, gentlemanly, well liked and charming, it was all carefully crafted window dressing to hide the inner sociopath.

Good riddance Mr. Buckley, may your political philosophy and it's adherents follow closely behind you. May the damage you have wrought upon so many innocent lives with your recklessly destructive ideas and words follow you into eternity.

Sorry concern trolls, you'll get no apologies from me. Gore Vidal was right and three times the intellect, man, human being and writer than Bill Buckley ever was.

[Ellis Weiner - Huffpost Blogger]

I don't doubt Buckley was gracious in private life, but many of his positions were atrocious and he defended the authoritarian scum of the earth.

As for industriously "batting out" a column in seven minutes, in so doing he insulted both his guests and his readers. John Leo should know that no column written in seven minutes, by anyone, is worth reading.

Buckley only looks saintly today because his intellectual and ideological descendants are some of the most horrific mutants ever seen in American intellectual life. When "conservatism" is--as it should be--equated with the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, Kristol, and Coulter, anyone can look good in comparison.

Come back, WFB. All--well, most; well, some--is forgiven.

[wmbear]

I'LL NEVER USE...

"Mutatis mutandis" again!

[starboymikey]

A friend just reminded me of a bit of William F. Buckley trivia I'd completely forgotten: He hosted the brilliant BBC series adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, based on the Evelyn Waugh novel, which was shown on PBS some twenty years ago. It starred the young Jeremy Irons and the young Anthony Andrews, both great actors.

Buckley, a huge fan of the Catholic writer Waugh, supplied some great background material on Waugh's life, his involvement with the church and the general period in British history (the time leading up to WW II) Unfortunately, when they re-ran the series, Buckley's spot was left out, and I don't believe it's in the DVD collection either.

It's unfortunate, because it provides a great example of Buckley's tremendous erudition in the fields of literature and religion, and is free of any political pontification.

[an]

its strange to me how when someone dies, no matter what they stand for, people turn to praise them. i guess its polite. it was the same with nixon. no matter that he was literally the only american president to leave the white house for criminal activity, when he died he was suddenly a hero. anyway i'm sure louis the XVI was also a gentelmen, but he starved his people. the idea that civil manners balance an elitist agenda, seems to me a bit ridiculous. early issues of his magazine were pro segregation. he was anti union, anti labor rights, anti enviroment, he assaulted education, didn't want to pay taxes for anything but building and dropping bombs. its funny i read a few places, where people said he attacked religion in politics. maybe in some discussion he did that i haven't read, but i have read and seen on numerous occasions him stating that he wanted more christian doctrine in government. and did i meniton early issues the national review were pro segregation? wanna see a great debate see him verses chomsky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYlMEVTa-PI

[nunzia]

an - well said!

[Chuckwheat]

Any bets on how high, or how scant, praise will be when the Decider passes?

[HeadScratcher]

"His style was to fight tooth and nail, then invite his opponent out for a drink or dinner afterwards­....But debate was about ideas. It wasn't personal."

This, in a nutshell, is what separated the old conservatives from the neocons. To be factual, this describes the old style liberals as well.

I've spent 40 years in politics and legislative government. The first 20 years were exhilarating as both sides of the aisle debated with great speeches, great ideas, and the ability to sit down and get things done when the time came. We never stared across the aisle at strangers, we knew these people as, well, people. Boy, have times changed. Now, the D or R next to your name either makes you the devil or someone to be dismissed.

What most people consider moderate Republicans today were considered conservative Republicans back then. The neocons of today were John Birchers back then.

[Brgotn]

"His style was to fight tooth and nail, then invite his opponent out for a drink or dinner afterwards­....But debate was about ideas. It wasn't personal."

Both sides need to learn to respect each other. This outright hatred to the point of celebration when a Republican dies or falls and gets hurt is disgusting and only discredits the progressive movement.

We are all Americans first and Democrats, etc. second.

I can't remember who first said it but you never put your political party before the country.

[nats]

Buckley was in public interchanges a snob and a bully. He was the origin of the "60 minutes" program's Point-Counter Point segment later parodied by SNL by Jane Curtain and Dan Ackroyd. Buckley gloried in losing the common listener in rhetoric and vocabulary and asinuations and then claiming victory in consequence. He was merely Goldwater with a dictionary.

[humanoid]

Actually, Point-Counter Point featured James Kilpatrick and Shana Alexander.

And, mutatis mutandis, I'd rather have one Gore Vidal than a hundred John Leos. So there.

[waiguoren]

Mr. Buckley was, mutatis mutandis, the American Cato.

Cato is seldom recalled with favor by history.

[DLSteinhardt]

He was a class act, for sure. There were occasions, of course, when his columns veered into partisan hackery (I remember one in which he defended a $300 million boondoggle by saying the government "sneezes away" that much money every day). But he taught a generation of liberals, such as myself, what conservatism was all about. And that not all conservatives were right-wing nutjobs.

David Steinhardt
vidhardt.blogspot.com

[research]

I will never praise a person who used their skills to promote the authoritarian corporatist conservative agenda, not to mention his homophobia.

[mcostello]

While I never agreed with all of his views, WFB was a strong supporter of legalizing recreational drugs. That endeared me to him because I am a liberal who espouses some conservative dogma including keeping government out of our private lives. As it turns out the war on drugs has been one of the most destructive policies ever turned out on the citizens of this country.