Conservative Icon, William F. Buckley Jr, dead at 82

[downtown]

Is there seriously not a thread on this already? I figured Merk or Ama would be all over this.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- National Review founder and conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. was found dead Wednesday in the study of his Stamford, Connecticut, home, officials at the magazine said.


William F. Buckley Jr. founded the National Review in 1955.

He was 82.

"Buckley died while at work," said Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of the National Review Online, in a written statement. "If he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it. At home, still devoted to the war of ideas."

Buckley's assistant, Linda Bridges, said he had suffered from emphysema for a few years, but the exact cause of death is unknown. She said Buckley was found dead by his cook at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

"Even though he had been ailing, this took us completely by surprise," said Bridges, who worked with Buckley for nearly 40 years.

"He was a great hero of American conservatism -- a brilliant and exciting writer and public performer," she added. "And he was somebody I was very proud and glad to call a friend."

Buckley's writings are widely credited for supporting the growth of the U.S. conservative movement in the latter half of the 20th century.
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He achieved national attention in 1955, when he founded the National Review at age 29, and gained a following with "Firing Line," his Emmy-winning syndicated public television show, according to Contemporary Authors Online.

"America has lost one of its finest writers and thinkers," President Bush said in a statement issued Wednesday.

"Bill Buckley was one of the great founders of the modern conservative movement. He brought conservative thought into the political mainstream, and helped lay the intellectual foundation for America's victory in the Cold War and for the conservative movement that continues to this day."

President Ronald Reagan, a longtime reader of the National Review, paid tribute to Buckley's conservative reputation in 1985.

Speaking at the magazine's 30th anniversary celebration -- attended by such notables as Charlton Heston, Tom Selleck, Jack Kemp and Tom Wolfe -- Reagan remarked: "If any of you doubt the impact of National Review's verve and attractiveness, take a look around you this evening. The man standing before you now was a Democrat when he picked up his first issue in a plain brown wrapper; and even now, as an occupant of public housing, he awaits as anxiously as ever his biweekly edition -- without the wrapper."

News of Buckley's death was "deeply saddening to everyone in the conservative community," said Republican National Committee Chairman Robert Duncan.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio called Buckley "the architect of the modern conservative movement."

"America has lost a giant," Boehner said in a written statement. He lauded Buckley for taking a stance against socialism in his first issue of the National Review.

"As long as America honors the ideals of our Founding Fathers -- free speech, freedom of religion and limited, constitutional government -- his legacy will be cherished," he said.

The sixth of 11 children, Buckley was born in New York City in 1926. He gained public attention early in his career with a scathing attack against his alma mater, titled "God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of Academic Freedom."

The book, published a year after Buckley graduated, accused his alma mater of fostering secular and leftist beliefs, according to the National Review.

He served as the magazine's editor for 35 years, before stepping down in 1990 to become a contributing editor.

Buckley began a syndicated column, "On the Right," in 1962, covering subjects as diverse as political campaigns, changes in the tax code and celebrities.

He made an unsuccessful run for New York City mayor in 1965, describing it as a "paradigmatic campaign," according to the National Review.

A year later, he launched "Firing Line," drawing a wide array of guests, including Margaret Thatcher, Gerald Ford, Allen Ginsberg and Groucho Marx. The show ran until December 1999.

He wrote more than 50 books over his lifetime, managed to visit every continent and played harpsichord concertos, according to the magazine.

"Bill Buckley is indescribable. He's irreplaceable," conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said on his Wednesday show. "There will not be another one like him."

Buckley is survived by his son, novelist Christopher Taylor Buckley. His wife of 56 years, Patricia Taylor, died in April 200

 

[Mark1031]

I used to like his show on the liberal bias PBS. Don't agree with much that patrician schmuck had to say but his level of discourse was well above the current talking heads.

 

[amadeus]

patrician

That is so 2004...

 

[JollyRoger]

Didn't agree with much of what he said, but agreed with the way he said it. Rest in peace.

 

[The Yankee]

Rest in peace. I must say I hope some of today's commentators take some pointers from Buckley.

 

[Berzerker]

RIP Bill Buckley

 

[IglooDame]

Rest in peace. I must say I hope some of today's commentators take some pointers from Buckley.

At least when Buckley went low-road, he did it with balls: "Now, listen you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in the goddamn face, and you'll stay plastered."

Seriously, an insightful, witty, erudite, and genuinely friendly man - he'll be missed.

 

[.Shane.]

lol, great footage, ID. What was the context of that debate?

 

[IglooDame]

lol, great footage, ID. What was the context of that debate?

ABC brought the two together a few nights to discuss/debate the 1968 Democratic convention (and I think the Republican one, too). This wasn't the first in the series, and they'd each been getting under each others' skins pretty well - Vidal calling him a 'crypto-fascist' and him calling Vidal a 'queer'. He finally lost it, and thus the video. My dad remembers seeing it live.

It's not exactly fair of me to make hay of that blow-up, given that (as far as I know) Buckley was never anything other than gracious in any other debate/event/what-have-you he participated in, I'm really using it as the-exception-that-proves-the-rule. In fact it's difficult to conceive that his PBS show Firing Line is in many ways the precursor of the modern televised punditry, given that Sean Hannity is to WFB what our current president is to Ronald Reagan, or what John Kerry is to JFK.

 

[.Shane.]

Good info, ID.

Your analogy is good in terms of perceptual truth, but the real truth is that both Reagan and JFK are extremely over-rated, IMPO.

I may watch more of those clips, very interesting stuff.

 

[The Yankee]

At least when Buckley went low-road, he did it with balls: "Now, listen you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in the goddamn face, and you'll stay plastered."

I'll give you credit, since that was played on the Limbaugh show just now.

Yes, I know, the world comes to an end each time I choose to listen.

If you're going to be abrasive, at least be entertaining.

 

[sonorakitch]

An eloquent and tantalizingly intellectual man who will be missed.

Here is Buckley on the Panama Canal return...a genius

"What if...Jimmy Carter were not President...and Douglas MacArthur was? What if...our Secretary of State was indeed Theodore Roosevelt...


RIP

~Chris

 

[Alpine Trooper]

I bet he is in heaven with God and all of his friends and family that have died as well.

 

[Princeps]

Never has mass murder and aggression had such an advocate. What a savage little barbarian. I hope he fries.

But I suppose he has some redeeming qualities.

 

[amadeus]

If Princeps didn't like him, I suppose he had to be doing something right.

 

[amadeus]

Is there seriously not a thread on this already? I figured Merk or Ama would be all over this.

I was out at lunch when I heard about it, and doing some catch-up for my classes until about 5:30.

 

[CaptainF]

“Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I will sock you in your goddamn face, and you will stay plastered.”

-William F. Buckley Jr.

RIP

 

[Irish Caesar]

At least when Buckley went low-road, he did it with balls: "Now, listen you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in the goddamn face, and you'll stay plastered."

Seriously, an insightful, witty, erudite, and genuinely friendly man - he'll be missed.

Rather amusing that this is one of his most memorable statements...

He has been missed for quite some time, though; thoughtful words and clear communication of ideas have effectively disappeared from the political spectrum, and we are all the poorer for it.

He was, of course, "before my time," but the few of his columns that I read while they were current were far more enjoyable than the average editorial.

 

[IglooDame]

(other) WFB quotes:

"Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich."

"Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could."

"I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon."

"I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said."

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."

"One must bear in mind that the expansion of federal activity is a form of eating for politicians."

"The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry."

"Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive."

"The majority of the senior class of Vassar does not desire my company and I must confess, having read specimens of their thought and sentiments, that I do not desire the company of the majority of the senior class of Vassar."

"Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out."

 

[The Yankee]

That man was a genius.