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A Liberal's Praise for William F. Buckley

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Some of his disciples felt betrayed. On a fund-raising cruise sponsored by the magazine, he got into a heated argument with ferocious neoconservative Norman Podhoretz about the wisdom of the Iraqi invasion. The movement had grown so large that it was now one not merely of many magazines (and subscription lists), but also of competing voting blocs and power centers.

The Nation was 90 years old when Buckley began National Review. As a young editor, he made no secret that he hoped his small magazine might be a conservative variation on The Nation. Today, with the circulations of the two magazines roughly equal, we find ourselves in a similar position—taking that principled stand athwart history, yelling "stop." In these times of unprecedented media consolidation, I believe, as Buckley did, that small magazines of ideas and opinion continue to have an outsized influence on our political discourse—nurturing not-ready-for-prime-time ideas, thrusting new issues onto the national agenda and nourishing young writers.

Buckley did all of these things, and he left us all, one suspects, in precisely the way he would have chosen: as an editor at his desk. It was an exit a liberal counterpart cannot help but admire and—let's admit it—envy.

Vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation.

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Posted By: votenic @ 03/05/2008 3:15:51 PM

Praise for William F. Buckley?
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Posted By: Tango @ 03/01/2008 6:30:58 PM

Katrina - you should read Mr. Buckley's article of September 13, 2007 in the National Review before you comment on Mr. Buckley's conclusions about Iraq.

By William F. Buckley Jr.
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Posted By: geneb5 @ 03/01/2008 5:46:03 PM

The mainstream press, seem determined to ignore the prominent role cigars played in Buckley's emphysema and untimely death, a role Buckley bitterly bemoaned in a widely-circulated column he wrote just 3 months ago:

"Half a year ago my wife died, technically from an infection, but manifestly, at least in part, from a body weakened by 60 years of nonstop smoking. I stayed off the cigarettes but went to the idiocy of cigars inhaled, and suffer now from emphysema, which seems determined to outpace heart disease as a human killer.

"Stick me in a confessional and ask the question: Sir, if you had the authority, would you forbid smoking in America? You'd get a solemn and contrite, Yes."

--Buckley, William F. Jr., "My Smoking Confession" NY Sun, Dec. 3, 2007.

http://www.nysun.com/article/67349