William F. Buckley Jr. Dead At 82

Author And Commentator Seen As Intellectual Father Of The Modern Conservative Movement Found Dead In Connecticut Home

(CBS/AP)  William F. Buckley Jr., the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right's post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House, died Wednesday. He was 82.

His assistant Linda Bridges said Buckley was found dead by his cook at his home in Stamford, Conn. The cause of death was unknown, but he had been ill with emphysema, she said.

Editor, columnist, novelist, debater, TV talk show star of "Firing Line," harpsichordist, trans-oceanic sailor and even a good-natured loser in a New York mayor's race, Buckley worked at a daunting pace, taking as little as 20 minutes to write a column for his magazine, the National Review.

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Photos: William F. Buckley
Blog: Goodnight, Mr. Buckley

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Yet on the platform he was all handsome, reptilian languor, flexing his imposing vocabulary ever so slowly, accenting each point with an arched brow or rolling tongue and savoring an opponent's discomfort with wide-eyed glee.

"I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition," he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. "I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone."

"Bill Buckley was one of the smartest people I've ever dealt with," said CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer. "Once, when I was a young reporter, I challenged something he had said during a Fred Friendly seminar. When I realized what I'd done, I was terrified. It suddenly dawned on me that I was in an argument with one of the best debaters in the world. But he kindly let me off the hook."

"He was a genuinely nice man," Schieffer added. "And one of the most interesting intellects of our time."

Buckley had for years been withdrawing from public life, starting in 1990 when he stepped down as top editor of the National Review. In December 1999, he closed down "Firing Line" after a 23-year run, when guests ranged from Richard Nixon to Allen Ginsberg. "You've got to end sometime and I'd just as soon not die onstage," he told the audience.

"I’ve always said that if you begin your TV life arguing with Bill Buckley, nothing will ever seem intimidating," said CBS News Senior Political Correspondent Jeff Greenfield, who appeared on "Firing Line."

"But beyond the fearsome intellect and intimidating demeanor lived a genial, convivial men, who loved spirited debate, and who loved life as well-food, wine, travel, books, cigars, music; his friendships with people of varied political and social views testifies to his embrace that transcended ideology," he said.

"For people of my generation, Bill Buckley was pretty much the first intelligent, witty, well-educated conservative one saw on television," fellow conservative William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, said at the time the show ended. "He legitimized conservatism as an intellectual movement and therefore as a political movement."

Fifty years earlier, few could have imagined such a triumph. Conservatives had been marginalized by a generation of discredited stands - from opposing Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to the isolationism which preceded the U.S. entry into World War II. Liberals so dominated intellectual thought that the critic Lionel Trilling claimed there were "no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation."

"Buckley was the intellectual father of the modern conservative movement," CBSNews.com Senior Political Editor Vaughn Ververs said. "And his prodigious work in his magazine, books and on television presaged the rise of political leaders like Goldwater and Ronald Reagan."

Buckley founded the biweekly magazine National Review in 1955, declaring that he proposed to stand "athwart history, yelling `Stop' at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who urge it." Not only did he help revive conservative ideology, especially unbending anti-Communism and free market economics, his persona was a dynamic break from such dour right-wing predecessors as Sen. Robert Taft.

"When he founded 'National Review,' conservatism seemed a spent force; it was the province of desiccated old fogies, or of holders of antiquarian, sometimes decided unappetizing, views about minorities," said Greenfield. "Buckley made conservatism intellectual respectable-reaching back to an older tradition while encouraging new, young voices-and made it 'cool' as well. Over the years, men and women who cut their teeth on 'National Review' became foot soldiers and generals in the conservative movement that conquered the Republican Party in 1964 and later became the governing philosophy in Washington."

[candide777]

What a bedwetting liberal. GWB''s SAT scoes were higher than your Lurch buddy John F-ing Kerry, and I believe his GPA was higher, as well.
Don''''t balame us because you''re too stupid to understand Buckley. Stick to ''Peanuts'' and ''Family Circle'' and you''ll do alright.
Posted by Infidel_US at 01:59 PM : Feb 28, 2008

LOL - this "bedwetting liberal" will kick your stupid cowardly conservative butt anytime, anywhere! Conservatives are afraid of a level playing field because they know they''d lose their shirts if they ever had to compete fairly. What a bunch of weak and pathetic cry babies you guys are. The only way GWB got higher scores on his SAT is if he had someone take the test for him, and we all know that conduct like that is not at all beneath this lying cheat of a president. If he legitimately got high scores on the SAT, then he clearly must have burned every last working brain cell up with cocaine because this man is barely fit to mind the store for a few minutes, much less the country for eight years. We''ll be paying for this collasal mistake for decades.

[iceman_1960]

Responded Buckley: "What would you do if I supported the snake?"
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And Buckley made a habit of doing that.

[iceman_1960]

Hillary Clinton graduated with departmental honors from Wellesley College, one of the top colleges/universities in the nation.

Barack Obama graduated in the top 1/5 of his graduating class from Harvard Law School, which is the best of the best.

Dubya isn"t qualified to act as chauffeur to either one of them.

[iceman_1960]

"What a bedwetting liberal. GWB"s SAT scoes were higher than your Lurch buddy John F-ing Kerry, and I believe his GPA was higher, as well."
- Posted by Infidel_US at 01:59 PM : Feb 28, 2008

This time we"re going with two academic stars, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, compared to either of whom, your beloved Dubya is but a re*****.

[infidel_us]

Yale (GWB) instead of their merit, which is generally lacking.
Posted by Candide777 at 12:46 PM : Feb 28, 2008

What a bedwetting liberal. GWB''s SAT scoes were higher than your Lurch buddy John F-ing Kerry, and I believe his GPA was higher, as well.

Don''t balame us because you''re too stupid to understand Buckley. Stick to ''Peanuts'' and ''Family Circle'' and you''ll do alright.

[candide777]

William F. Buckley''s great intellect, irrepressible wit, personal charm and unflinching philosophical honesty made him one of the true guiding lights of the second half of the 20th Century.
Posted by Severow at 12:05 PM : Feb 27, 2008

Yes, Buckley made an art out of passing off his overly simplistic rhetoric as pearls of wisdom, so that privileged and simpleminded fools could feel better about their complicity in an unjust society that rewards one for being born into wealth instead of rewarding hard work. But never fear, Rush Limbaugh will carry on the time-honored tradition of the feable-minded in this country whose inherited money gets them into Yale (GWB) instead of their merit, which is generally lacking.

[candide777]

but I so despise and detest your reprehensible, hate-filled, pathetically low-balled rants that I can only conclude that the people beind those rants are just as contemptible.
Posted by erichsh at 08:55 AM : Feb 28, 2008

LOL -- how ironic! -- Buckley was himself a reprehensible, hate-filled, pathetic, pompous arse! I guess it''s just karma. There''s a special place in hell for Buckley and his friends. Good riddance.

[infidel_us]

what caused the collapse of such a great and powerful nation ?
Posted by FuzzyBear9 at 09:24 AM : Feb 28, 2008

The answer is simple and you''re seeing it in action. Democrat politicians running around promising the mass uninformed cradle to grave care....in other words, punishing the achievers and rewarding the non achievers.

[iceman_1960]

"Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar?"
- Posted by FuzzyBear9 at 10:10 AM : Feb 28, 2008
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Festus never talked fancy like that.

Festus was plain spoken and frank, as in the following Scriptures:

Doc Adams: "Why don''t you take that money and invest it in something? Why don''t you do that?"

Festus: "Invest it in what?"

Doc: "There"s wonderful land values outside of Dodge. Now why don''t you go out there someplace, look around, and buy yourself a lot?"

Festus: "A lot of what?"

Doc: "A lot! A lot of land!"

Festus: "Well fiddle, I can"t afford to buy a lot of land. You probably could the way you''ve been a bilking and gouging..."

Doc: "Oh, hush up! I"m trying to help you, for heaven sakes. It don"t cost a whole lot to buy a little lot."

Festus: "What do you mean it don"t cost a whole lot to buy a little, or a whole lot to buy a lot, what do you mean?"

Doc: "Well, I mean... a little lot of land!"

Festus: "But there ain"t no such a thing. A little"s a little, and a lot"s a lot, there ain"t no little lot, or lot of little, don"t you see? Now you want that beer or don"t you?"

Doc: "No I''m... I"m all worn out."

Festus: "If you change your mind me and Newly will be over at the Longbranch having a whole lot of little beers."
[Chuckles and flips his silver dollar]
Festus Haggen: Now I''m buying.

[fuzzybear9]

Acts 24: 10 - 12

``
10. Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar`s judgment seat where I ought to be judged : to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest.

11. For if I be an offender, or have commited any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die : but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.

12. Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar?
unto Caesar shalt thou go.

rest in peace William F. Buckley