William F. Buckley Jr., author and conservative commentator and founder of the National Review, died today at his home in Stamford, Conn. He hosted the television show Firing Line from 1966 to 1999 and wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column.
Buckley is credited with laying the philosophical groundwork for contemporary American conservativism as espoused by President Ronald Reagan.
He was 82. And he was also enormously intelligent and witty. Even when I was still young and stupid enough to embrace a liberal political stance, I found him engaging and funny as hell.
My only personal encounter with Buckley was around 1967 or '68. To my surprise, he emerged from the elevator at The Indianapolis News, in town to visit editorial page editor M. Stanton Evans. Evans was at The News from 1960 until 1974.
My only clear recollection of the moment was that I was struck by how greasy his hair was. It looked like he hadn't washed it in days. Or maybe he was using Vitalis or some other hair preparation.
Whatever. He was a giant on the political commentary scene.
1 comment:
Maybe what you were observing and realizing was that your hero was a total greaseball.
Your conscious mind wouldn't register that because if it did then your conscious mind would have had to register something which would have been disagreeable to your ego.
Buckley was as careful and conscientious in his political thinking as he was in his own personal hygiene--in other words, not at all-- and now thanks to him, we're like a nation of snide greaseballs who think we're pretty damn smart and sophisticated.
Too bad when the *&^X hits the fan, we'll have a wakeup call. Buckley will too, because there's no way he's RIP...He won't get off that easy.
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