DITTO!
Posted on 02/27/2008 3:25:28 PM PST by Syncro
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY: R.I.P., ENFANT TERRIBLE
February 27, 2008
William F. Buckley was the original enfant terrible.
As with Ronald Reagan, everyone prefers to remember great men when they weren't being great, but later, when they were being admired. Having changed the world, there came a point when Buckley no longer needed to shock it.
But to call Buckley an "enfant terrible" and then to recall only his days as a grandee is like calling a liberal actress "courageous." Back in the day, Buckley truly was courageous. I prefer to remember the Buckley who scandalized to the bien-pensant.
Other tributes will contain the obvious quotes about demanding a recount if he won the New York mayoral election and trusting the first 100 names in the Boston telephone book more than the Harvard faculty. I shall revel in the "terrible" aspects of the enfant terrible.
Buckley's first book, "God and Man at Yale," was met with the usual thoughtful critiques of anyone who challenges the liberal establishment. Frank Ashburn wrote in the Saturday Review: "The book is one which has the glow and appeal of a fiery cross on a hillside at night. There will undoubtedly be robed figures who gather to it, but the hoods will not be academic. They will cover the face."
The president of Yale sent alumni thousands of copies of McGeorge Bundy's review of the book from the Atlantic Monthly calling Buckley a "twisted and ignorant young man." Other reviews bordered on the hyperbolic. One critic simply burst into tears, then transcribed his entire crying jag word for word.
Buckley's next book, "McCarthy and His Enemies," written with L. Brent Bozell, proved that normal people didn't have to wait for the Venona Papers to be declassified to see that the Democratic Party was collaborating with fascists. The book -- and the left's reaction thereto -- demonstrated that liberals could tolerate a communist sympathizer, but never a Joe McCarthy sympathizer.
Relevant to Republicans' predicament today, National Review did not endorse a candidate for president in 1956, correctly concluding that Dwight Eisenhower was not a conservative, however great a military leader he had been. In his defense, Ike never demanded that camps housing enemy detainees be closed down.
Nor would National Review endorse liberal Republican Richard Nixon, waiting until 1964 to enthusiastically support a candidate for president who had no hope of winning. Barry Goldwater, though given the right things to say -- often by Buckley or Bozell, who wrote Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative" -- was not particularly bright.
But the Goldwater candidacy, Buckley believed, would provide "the well-planted seeds of hope," eventually fulfilled by Ronald Reagan. Goldwater was sort of the army ant on whose body Reagan walked to greatness. Thanks, Barry. When later challenged on Reagan's intellectual stature, Buckley said: "Of course, he will always tend to reach first for an anecdote. But then, so does the New Testament."
With liberal Republicans still bothering everyone even after Reagan, Buckley went all out against liberal Republican Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. When Democrat Joe Lieberman challenged Weicker for the Senate in 1988, National Review ran an article subtly titled: "Does Lowell Weicker Make You Sick?"
Buckley started a political action committee to support Lieberman, explaining, "We want to pass the word that it's OK to vote for the other guy or stay at home." The good thing about Lieberman, Buckley said, was that he "doesn't have the tendency of appalling you every time he opens his mouth."
That same year, when the radical chic composer Leonard Bernstein complained about the smearing of the word "liberal," Buckley replied: "Lenny does not realize that one of the reasons the 'L' word is discredited is that it was handled by such as Leonard Bernstein." The composer was so unnerved by this remark that, just to cheer himself up, he invited several extra Black Panthers to his next cocktail party.
When Arthur Schlesinger Jr. objected to his words being used as a jacket-flap endorsement on one of Buckley's books in 1963, Buckley replied by telegram:
"MY OFFICE HAS COPY OF ORIGINAL TAPE. TELL ARTHUR THAT'LL TEACH HIM TO USE UNCTION IN POLITICAL DEBATE BUT NOT TO TAKE IT SO HARD: NO ONE BELIEVES ANYTHING HE SAYS ANYWAY."
In a famous exchange with Gore Vidal in 1968, Vidal said to Buckley: "As far as I am concerned, the only crypto Nazi I can think of is yourself."
Buckley replied: "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto Nazi, or I'll sock you in your goddamn face and you'll stay plastered."
Years later, in 1985, Buckley said of the incident: "We both acted irresponsibly. I'm not a Nazi, but he is, I suppose, a fag."
Read more at AnnCoulter.com
“We both acted irresponsibly. I’m not a Nazi, but he is, I suppose, a fag.”
ROFL!
Rest in peace Mr. Buckley.
I had the “Does Lowell Weicker Make You Sick” sticker on my 1974 Dodge Dart. On election day, I drove people to the polls for the Republican Party.
(The unhappy ending is that Weicker came back and ruined the state as a third party governor)
L'enfant terrible (Terrible child) (also spelled enfant terrible) is a French term for a child who is terrifyingly candid by saying embarrassing things to adults, especially parents. The Webster's Dictionary also defines a L'Enfant terrible as a usually successful person who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, or avant-garde.
I thought I knew (and I did) what L'enfant terrible meant. But I looked it up.
Ironic that Ann knows what L'enfant terrible means. Since her picture is in the dictionary next the the definition.
Buckley started a political action committee to support Lieberman, explaining, "We want to pass the word that it's OK to vote for the other guy or stay at home."Some good quotes in this piece. The one above is quite fitting for the situation of the coming election.
The good thing about Lieberman, Buckley said, was that he "doesn't have the tendency of appalling you every time he opens his mouth."
The passing of one of the greatest. RIP Mr. Buckley
LOL BUMP
Levin just played that exchange with Vidal. Too bad Bill didn’t deck him. And did I catch through the crosstalk that WFB was Infantry?
People haven’t grown less civil, just ridiculously hyper-sensitive.
“When asked if he had “referred to Jesse Jackson as an ignoramus,” Buckley said, “If I didn’t, I should have.”
LOL!
Coulter William F. Buckley eulogy ping.
ping!
GO Ann - R.I.P. Mr. Buckley you served our nation well.
We love our ANN!
Next time the scaredy-cats take after Ann Colter because her outrageous comments will “hurt the conservative cause”, we can remind them of the younger William F. Buckley.
Buckley started a political action committee to support Lieberman, explaining, "We want to pass the word that it's OK to vote for the other guy or stay at home." The good thing about Lieberman, Buckley said, was that he "doesn't have the tendency of appalling you every time he opens his mouth."
I'm not exactly planning to stay at home, but I'm not voting for McCain.
Just last night in talking politics with my college age daughter (a Conservative), I told her that my major
political influences when I was a teen were William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater.
Strange that the news of his passing would meet me this morning.
Today on my drive back to my house in NJ from NH home, I recalled how I used to watch “Firing Line” back in the mid 60’s on channel 13. Saving up my money to subscribe to National Review. Then joining the Conservative Book Club! Most of the books I got back then were by WFB.
Like any great intellect, he will only be truly appreciated decades after his passing, however, I was blessed that I came across him early in my life.
DITTO!
2nd Lieutenant, US Army.
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