Political writer/commentator William F Buckley died today. I lean to the Left, but I liked ol Bill Buckley. I'll take a smart conservative over a dumb conservative (see, e.g. Pat Buchanan or any Bush) any day. In fact, I'll take a smart conservative over a dumb liberal. At least when I'm picking TV shows.
And really he was more complicated than a knee-jerk right-winger. Buckley in the late 80s, reversed himself on the drug war and came out for legalization of drugs.
And he was a character. Once Buckley came to Boston U when I was there and taped a couple episodes of his show "Firing Line". At one point he was asking John Kenneth Galbraith a question and while he was speaking he picked a piece of lint off his leg and held up it and examined it and then flicked it away. He's taping a nationally broadcast show and talking to someone from the Kennedy administration and it could barely compete with his own pants. The pomposity cracked me and my buddy up and we ape the lint gesture from time to time to this very day. Yes, nerds. Obviously.
Another one that cracked me up: Once Buckley referred to Oprah Winfrey as "the black lady who is alternately fat and thin, I forget her name." Awful! And gorgeous!
The only time I know of where Buckley cracked was in a debate with Gore Vidal. Here it is from Buckley's bio:
With an estimated 10 million people watching... Vidal called Buckley a "pro-crypto-Nazi," .... Buckley snapped: "Now listen, you queer," he said, "stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in you goddamn face and you'll stay plastered."
Vidal responded, "How extraordinary!"
I only ever heard about this. I wish I'd seen it. Holy shit! I just checked and it's on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYymnxoQnf8
It's so strange to see Buckley lose it here because the rest of the time he was that suave, pretentious elitist who never got phased by anything. Kudos to Vidal for getting under his skin. But Kudos to Buckley too for living a life that made this incident a funny exception. It seems like more and more these days, all over the political spectrum, all we get are barkers. Today we lost a thinker.
I like sharp people, even if they are smug Republican country club pricks. And I liked Bill Buckley.
Anchors aweigh, old boy.