Posted on 07/22/2006 8:45:38 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
President Bush ran for office as a "compassionate conservative." And he continues to nurture his conservative base — even issuing his first veto this week against embryonic stem cell research.
But lately his foreign policy has come under fire from some conservatives — including the father of modern conservatism. CBS Evening News Saturday anchor Thalia Assuras sat down for an exclusive interview with William F. Buckley about his disagreements with President Bush.
William F. Buckley's Stamford, Conn., home is a tranquil place that allows Buckley to think and write, and spend time with his canine companion, Sebastian.
"He's practically always with me," Buckley says.
Buckley finds himself parting ways with President Bush, whom he praises as a decisive leader but admonishes for having strayed from true conservative principles in his foreign policy.
In particular, Buckley views the three-and-a-half-year Iraq War as a failure.
"If you had a European prime minister who experienced what we've experienced it would be expected that he would retire or resign," Buckley says.
Asked if the Bush administration has been distracted by Iraq, Buckley says "I think it has been engulfed by Iraq, by which I mean no other subject interests anybody other than Iraq. ... The continued tumult in Iraq has overwhelmed what perspectives one might otherwise have entertained with respect to, well, other parts of the Middle East with respect to Iran in particular."
Despite evidence that Iran is supplying weapons and expertise to Hezbollah in the conflict with Israel, Buckley rejects neo-conservatives who favor a more interventionist foreign policy than he does, including a pre-emptive air strike against Iran — and its nuclear facilities.
"If we find there is a warhead there that is poised, the range of it is tested, then we have no alternative. But pending that, we have to ask ourselves, 'What would the Iranian population do?'"
Buckley does support the administration's approach to the North Korea's nuclear weapons threat, believing that working with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea is the best way to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. But that's about where the agreement ends.
"Has Mr. Bush found himself in any different circumstances than any of the other presidents you've known in terms of these crises?" Assuras asks.
"I think Mr. Bush faces a singular problem best defined, I think, as the absence of effective conservative ideology — with the result that he ended up being very extravagant in domestic spending, extremely tolerant of excesses by Congress, and in respect of foreign policy, incapable of bringing together such forces as apparently were necessary to conclude the Iraq challenge," Buckley says.
Asked what President Bush's foreign policy legacy will be to his successor, Buckley says "There will be no legacy for Mr. Bush. I don't believe his successor would re-enunciate the words he used in his second inaugural address because they were too ambitious. … So therefore I think his legacy is indecipherable"
At 81, Mr. Buckley still continues to contribute a regular column to the National Review, the magazine he started 51 years ago.
LOL
The Daily Kos losers are ejaculating over this guy.
In regards to the war on terrorism and Judges (except for HArriet Miers which was a total disaster) , I will concede he's earned his conservative stripes. I would say that Bush is what JFK would be like if he was president today, minus the hookers and drugs in the White House.
GREAT POST!!!!
But, I disagree a bit. Unlike George Will, who has always been the leftist's favorite conservative and whose mil toast tone makes David Brooks seem like a fire breathing bad ass, Buckley once was not this way. He started the most significant conservative magazine in the world; he defended McCarthy when it counted. But Ronald Reagan left office, or maybe some time before that, he's changed.
I don't know why Buckley has grown disenchanted with conservatism, but he apparently has; perhaps the "fusionism" he believed in i.e. his "libertarian conservatism" was always unstable and he's simply turned to pure libertarianism, which (on account of "war being the health of the state") has always tended toward isolationism.
Ironic that he accuses President Bush of being wothout ideology; his firend Russell Kirk defined conservatism as the rejection of ideology.
President Bush has done a whole lot to weaken affirmative action for someone who supposedly supports it--- because of him Texas's university system has gotten rid of it.
I've also been threatening to write one of my soliloquies about what does conservatism actually mean, anymore? When being conservative became a good way to win elections, everybody became a conservative. Now we have huge swaths of people advocating diametrically opposed points of view, all claiming the conservative mantle. And don't even get me started on the people claiming to be "Reagan conservatives."
Stand corrected..I am sure it was an old saying..I always thought that President Nixon was fond of saying that..again..I could be wrong..
There you have it. A twenty-something purges WFB from the conservative ranks. WFB is now declared "fringe". Gore Vidal is vindicated, lol.
"I'm sure Bush gives a rat's *ss what Buckley thinks."
Buckley writes about History.
Bush is making it.
Buckley analysis is derived from talking to other individuals that write about History. What has he ever done except to add the discourse conservative reflections of what should have been done in world events rather then what they have contributed themselves? I guess this interview is supposed to mean something. Bush is a lame duck, so he doesn't care about the "reflections" on his presidency. Guys like Buckley wear me out. Theodore Roosevelt was right about the man in the arena.
And who gave that host credit for the astounding feat? Other than his awarding that distinction to himself, I mean.
In that fashion it's very much like the intense hatred liberals had for Richard Nixon.
Since he never bothered to vote until 1988, I'm not sure NR had much of an influence on him before that date.
What is he just figuring this out now? LOL!
A la Barry Goldwater.
That's news to me. If you read this recent article, he sure sounds like he wants to save it for appropriate cases. He didn't appreciate what damage that the unhinged prosecution of the death sentence for Zacarias Moussaoui in Virginia could cause for the death penalty in the future when its abolitionists might have more of the ear of public opinion.
"If they didn't execute Moussaoui, why should they execute me? One can hear this coming from the child murderer or serial killer."
--snip--
"Presumably if torture were permitted, the prosecution would have pleaded with the jury to let in a little of that to avenge the 40 lives lost on Flight 93."
That should have been a "Friendly Irresistable Malaprop Alert"
I am sure my time is coming.
Let us FReely FReep on!
Well it is nice to see the FREEPers falling for the stunt CBS has pulled by even doing this interview- let alone printing it.
Why on earth would they interview Buckley? I LOVE Buckley- great guy- so he disagrees with Bush on some things... big deal.
We ALL disagree with Bush on something or other.
This is just a pathetic attempt by CBS to try and exploit the conservative base against Bush.
Let's not fall for the tricks and start beating up each other.
Paleo-conservatism can't survive in a democracy because it is, at its dark core, essentially authoritarian. But hey, if by 'long view approach' you mean Thousand Year Reich, I'll grant you that point.
It's interesting that you would bring up the Nazis as a rebuttal. Socialism, whether of the national or international verities both gain power from a populist argument. It is less ironic than most people think that, given the particular ideologies of both, they claim to be democratic. As for your comment about authoritarianism; another similarity between the libs and the neo-cons I just realized is the tendency towards reductio ad hitlerum.
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