William F. Buckley Jr. Dies at 82

[tekisui]

NEW YORK (AP) — William F. Buckley Jr., the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right's post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House, died Wednesday. He was 82.

His assistant Linda Bridges said Buckley was found dead by his cook at his home in Stamford, Conn. The cause of death was unknown, but he had been ill with emphysema, she said.

Editor, columnist, novelist, debater, TV talk show star of "Firing Line," harpsichordist, transoceanic sailor and even a good-natured loser in a New York mayor's race, Buckley worked at a daunting pace, taking as little as 20 minutes to write a column for his magazine, the National Review.

Yet on the platform, he was all handsome, reptilian languor, flexing his imposing vocabulary ever so slowly, accenting each point with an arched brow or rolling tongue and savoring an opponent's discomfort with wide-eyed glee.

"I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition," he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. "I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone."

After hearing the news, President Bush remembered Buckley as one of America's finest writers and thinkers.

"He influenced a lot of people, including me," Bush said in the Oval Office. "He captured the imagination of a lot of people."

link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5htj3BNDPQZfgo1Sjus7DBavzhHjQD8V2RQIG6

He lead to a lot of the shit we've dealt with the past 30 years. Adios, Bucky.

[YOY]

1. Bust out the two man pallbearer crew

Yeah, I went there...

[tekisui]

2. Thanks, I put it up for a little dancing.

[stellanoir]

3. I grew up listening to him.

I admired his intellect but agreed with few of his ideologies.

Still there are some intellectuals with whom I ardently disagree, but still find to be strangely stimulating.

He was one of them.

RIP

[kerstin]

9. Firing Line was one of my favorite programs growing up.

RIP indeed.

[Binka]

4. A Phenomenal ASSHOLE n/t

[anitar1]

14. Thanks, Binka. We share the same view. n/t

[meegbear]

5. Posts #3 and #4 sum up my feelings about him ...

not much more to say.

[LiberalinNC]

6. One less repug vote! n/t

[Bluestar]

7. Erudite? Unbelievable, he must have written this obit himself

All the old neocons are going to pass over or just fade away. This is just the first of many.

[Igel]

16. Paleocon, sure.

As far as I can tell, only the most extreme RWers put him in the neocon camp, making him sort of a crypto-neocon because he didn't diss the neocons more strongly early on.

I can't see him as a neoconservative, to be honest--either in the original sense of the word or its more modern meaning.

[lumpy]

8. Well he was a good sailer, even if he was intellectually on

the wrong side of the political fence.

[navarth]

10. I saw a debate once where Buckley argued for the legalization of pot!

It was amazing. Can't remember where I saw it, I think it was PBS. Buckley was for legalization and Charles Rangel was against. There were others involved too. It was a kind of 'mock' debate, Buckley argued very cogently for legalization, but you could tell he was kinda tongue-in-cheek about the whole thing.

And in case you're wondering, no I wasn't stoned when I saw it.

Anybody else remember this debate?

I dunno why, but I was always amused by his smarmy supercilious attitude. I guess I should hate him but I don't. RIP

[kerstin]

12. Apparently he was pro-decriminalization of pot and against the war in Iraq.

From the article posted:

He wrote the first of his successful spy thrillers, "Saving the Queen," in 1976, introducing Ivy League hero Blackford Oakes. Oakes was permitted a dash of sex — with the Queen of England, no less — and Buckley allowed himself to take at positions at odds with conservative orthodoxy. He advocated the decriminalization of marijuana, supported the treaty ceding control of the Panama Canal and came to oppose the Iraq war.

Buckley also took on the archconservative John Birch Society, a growing force in the 1950s and 1960s. "Buckley's articles cost the Birchers their respectability with conservatives," Richard Nixon once said. "I couldn't have accomplished that. Liberals couldn't have, either."

[navarth]

18. reason enough not to hate him

thanks for the info.

[Mojambo]

11. The movement he championed will be joining him shortly. n/t

[Igel]

17. His movement mostly died a decade or more ago. n/t

[Beregond2]

13. Buckley

Yes, he was wrong about everything. And yet...he had a wit and a style that were undeniable. I can't help but feel a twinge of regret at his passing. The last of a bygone era when a person could become a public figure entirely due to intelligence and eloquence. And oh, the fodder he provided to the nation's impressionists!

[Obamarama]

15. I never liked him, but not to the point that I'm dancing on his grave or anything.

I think he was a pompous ass to the Nth degree, and I think he was a big caricature of who and what conservatives are. He was a dianosaur and I hope his precious conservative movement follows him into extinction.