William F. Buckley: Final Tribute
This photo was taken after I bought and delivered a Big Mac to Bill and his sister Priscilla on our tour bus. It was their first experience with McDonald’s — and it was in Moscow.
Of the many fine obituaries and reminiscences, this one by my friend Rush Limbaugh is the most personally moving to me, because it describes for those who may be too young to know how important Bill was in the lives of once-young conservatives. Sidenote: Rush describes his thrill at being invited to Bill’s New York home for a National Review editorial dinner. I arranged that invitation. It was a fun evening — but then they were all fun evenings.
17 Comments to “William F. Buckley: Final Tribute”
Leave a Reply
All material copyright © 2008 D Magazine. All rights reserved.
I heard Rush’s show yesterday and his comments. They were extremely insightful and sincere. Conservatives owe so much to Mr. Buckley
Yeah, I’m going to trust a prescription drug-abusers take on anything.
I respect Mr. Buckley for his intellect and all the many things he accomplished during his remarkable life. In watching old clips of Firing Line on YouTube, though, as hard as I try I just can’t quite get past his insufferably. smug. tone.
You’re friends with Rush Limbaugh? Wow. I guess I was wrong in thinking that my opinion of you could never go any lower.
Yes, the words of Rush Limbaugh brought me to tears. How well I remember watching Bill Buckley and Tom Snyder discuss the world of conservative politics. What an incredible life Wick has had to surround himself with such fine folk as Limbaugh, Huckabee, Dobson, Robertson and Ralph Reed.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to these men for making certain the rights of conservatives are not taken away.
Posts like this are why I visit Frontburner less and less frequently these days. The pomposity is off-putting.
Here’s you’re pomposity. (Read with pinched, aloof, British accent.) “It was their first experience with McDonald’s — and it was in Moscow.” How droll. It’s only lacking a balloon that reads, “How quaint. We’re eating like proletarians.”
Name dropper.
If you posters don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
They don’t make conservatives like him anymore — I’ll certainly allow that much. And it’s a shame, too.
Yes, he was preposterously supercilious. That was his schtick, though, and it helped to make him iconic.
Edit: Maybe “arch” is more accurate than “supercilious.”
Thanks for the Buckley tributes. He was one of my dad’s heroes. I think he has every book WFB has ever written. He will be missed.
I took the high road regarding Buckley and his death. But calling Rush Limbaugh a ‘good friend’? Limbaugh is to WFB what Anna Nicole Smith was to Marilyn Monroe.
“The central question that emerges…is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas where it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes—the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.” in the August 24, 1957 edition of William Buckley’s National Review.
hmmm…and this is the father of modern conservatism.
Wick, why don’t you start your own blog so you (and we) don’t have to put up with the flotsom that your young liberal writers attract? No one is perfect, but WFB was a great man.
He’s already got one…it’s called Park Cities People.
Wick
I agree with Bee Mill although I don’t know what the word flotsom means. The last thing we need is to be subjected to views and opinions that are different than our own. While I find it fascinating that you had your first McDonalds experience in Moscow, some liberals might find it pretentious.
This is one of my favorite quotes by your friend and mine and proof positive that a conservative can be compassionate in trying to make certain that homosexuals are not victimized.
“Everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed in the upper forearm to prevent common needle users, and on the buttocks, to prevent the victimization of homosexuals.”