Posted on 07/22/2006 8:45:38 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
President Bush ran for office as a "compassionate conservative." And he continues to nurture his conservative base — even issuing his first veto this week against embryonic stem cell research.
But lately his foreign policy has come under fire from some conservatives — including the father of modern conservatism. CBS Evening News Saturday anchor Thalia Assuras sat down for an exclusive interview with William F. Buckley about his disagreements with President Bush.
William F. Buckley's Stamford, Conn., home is a tranquil place that allows Buckley to think and write, and spend time with his canine companion, Sebastian.
"He's practically always with me," Buckley says.
Buckley finds himself parting ways with President Bush, whom he praises as a decisive leader but admonishes for having strayed from true conservative principles in his foreign policy.
In particular, Buckley views the three-and-a-half-year Iraq War as a failure.
"If you had a European prime minister who experienced what we've experienced it would be expected that he would retire or resign," Buckley says.
Asked if the Bush administration has been distracted by Iraq, Buckley says "I think it has been engulfed by Iraq, by which I mean no other subject interests anybody other than Iraq. ... The continued tumult in Iraq has overwhelmed what perspectives one might otherwise have entertained with respect to, well, other parts of the Middle East with respect to Iran in particular."
Despite evidence that Iran is supplying weapons and expertise to Hezbollah in the conflict with Israel, Buckley rejects neo-conservatives who favor a more interventionist foreign policy than he does, including a pre-emptive air strike against Iran — and its nuclear facilities.
"If we find there is a warhead there that is poised, the range of it is tested, then we have no alternative. But pending that, we have to ask ourselves, 'What would the Iranian population do?'"
Buckley does support the administration's approach to the North Korea's nuclear weapons threat, believing that working with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea is the best way to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. But that's about where the agreement ends.
"Has Mr. Bush found himself in any different circumstances than any of the other presidents you've known in terms of these crises?" Assuras asks.
"I think Mr. Bush faces a singular problem best defined, I think, as the absence of effective conservative ideology — with the result that he ended up being very extravagant in domestic spending, extremely tolerant of excesses by Congress, and in respect of foreign policy, incapable of bringing together such forces as apparently were necessary to conclude the Iraq challenge," Buckley says.
Asked what President Bush's foreign policy legacy will be to his successor, Buckley says "There will be no legacy for Mr. Bush. I don't believe his successor would re-enunciate the words he used in his second inaugural address because they were too ambitious. … So therefore I think his legacy is indecipherable"
At 81, Mr. Buckley still continues to contribute a regular column to the National Review, the magazine he started 51 years ago.
Great.
Wouldn't America be such a great place if we did things just like Europe?
he's opposed to Capital Punishment.
If Mr. Buckley believes that the war in Iraq is the sum total of the Bush foreign policy, perhaps he should read Robert Kaplan's Imperial Grunts.
(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em, Down Hezbullies.)
Buckley is getting fuzzy in his old age. But, that's to be expected.
Me: Where have you been the last two years?
Actually..I have always liked Buckley..found him witty and funny..but looking back on his track record..when he was the "top conservative"..he didn't get a lot accomplished..I don't think he got Nixon or Reagan elected and re-elected..during his prime the dems controlled both chambers for the most part..actually..it was a radio host with little formal education that was credited with ending four decades of dem control of the congress..my two cents..
But I will not lower myself to insult the man as I have seen some other Freepers do.
I believe Pres. Bush has always referred to himself as a "compassionate conservative" and has never claimed to be a "true conservative".
Well stated. Why beat up on the old guy?
I'm sure Bush gives a rat's *ss what Buckley thinks.
A "Compassionate Conservative" is one who incessantly apologizes for proclaimed American ideals and rarely practices them.
Bush largely qualifies in this regard.
Buckley is traveling the Goldwater route: opposes capital punishment, opposes a war on terrorist enablers. When he drops his opposition to abortion, you'll know he's arrived!
...and he likes to smoke dope on his boat in international waters.
I've often wondered if Buckley is a true conservative.
You can hardly blame him for that.
It was a radio host with little formal education that was credited with ending four decades of dem control of the congress..my two cents..
Little formal eductaion? What do you define as "formal".
No, Buckley is true to his principles. And as we all know on the world stage in crisis it's easier said than done in these unconventional times of warfare.
Of course on spending and the Republican Congress penchant for spending along with Bush's signature, ole William is absolutely right. And of that there really isn't any excuse.
Certainly, we've made many mistakes and continue to err in Iraq, but the historians can debate the action. In that regard, I believe Bush will prove right.
Someone should have been fired for the strategy though. I'm not going to point fingers.
That is true, and I couldn't be prouder of the fact.
This just in... the Pope is Catholic!
Buckley and Buchanan...you can always count on them to be against Israel. The Euro-Arabist elitist way these geezers think is really out of date.
They are brilliant, articulate, but, could it be that "Jewish" thing?
Who does? That is, when you can even make out what the man is saying!
School. Rush completed HS & a semester of college at a small time U.
Buckley needs to leave his ivy covered ghetto once in awhile--see America.
Like so many GOP presidents (except RWR, perhaps) Mr Bush is pretty good internationally and weak on domestic.
Buckley is a great theoretician, and we owe him much for founding modern conservatism. But he is not a political strategist or tactician. Read and enjoy him, but remember his limits.
"... the only thing you have left is to b*tch, moan, and whine, on Internet forums."
Ahem. And just what are you doing, Mr. Mainstream?
and spend time with his canine companion, Sebastian.
"Buckley is getting fuzzy in his old age. But, that's to be expected."
I don't think it's that he's getting senile, I think most people reach a certain age beyond which their worldview can no longer be changed. People like Buckley sees the world through 20 year old lens. To him being conservative probably still means fighting communism. The USSR was the big enemy in his day, I don't think he sees Islamofacism as the same global fight, and I don't think he's capable of seeing it in the same light. That's why he's incapable of seeing its significance.
ok.. I am sure you know I am talking about Rush Limbaugh..I don't believe he has a college degree..yet in 1994..when the GOP took control of BOTH chambers of congress..Rush was made an honorary member of the rookie class that took over..for all of Buckley's funny and witty work..he could never do that..that is my point..I like William Buckley..but he just didn't sell "in Peoria"..as the saying goes...
You got Buchanan nailed but I don't know what you're talking about with Buckley.
They won't push a point, or back a liberal into a corner. They were the happy conservative minority when the Democrats controlled all branches of government, content to sigh and wearily shake their heads at the follies of the liberals, secure that things would be better if they were in charge, but secretly happy that they weren't.
Bush is right about the Iraq war.
Buckley? He brags about being the extreme left wing of the right wing. I think he was a bigger disaster than Bush Sr. and that is saying something.
He is a symbol of the power of the modern neo-conservative movement. Paleo-conservatism isn't an issue to libs, because paleo-conservatism doesn't adopt liberal stratagems for political gain. Bush and the neo-cons are a prime threat to the libs precisely because they are so much like the libs. Paleo-conservatism can't survive in a democracy, because it tries to take the long-view approach and shuns populism. Neo-conservatism is, however, totally populist and as such is closer to the leftists in form if not quite in ideology (although it seems to me that logically ideology will follow form eventually), which is why it's so dangerous to the left. Note the slow change in rhetoric, it's not conservative ideals which are bad it's neo-cons themselves, those idiot red staters.
That may be so, but in my opinion, the impact of their contributions to the conservative movement--which, for both, began in 1952--outweighs that of their forays off the reservation later in life.
Yeah, but that to him is history.
To him, the present will always be somewhere between 1950 and 1989. Not that he doesn't intellectually know the Cold War is over, but emotionally, he can never seen any other enemy the same way he viewed the USSR.
It's no different from some people who see everything through the Depression and the New Deal, or how most lefties see everything through the lens of Vietnam and the 1960's.
One's mindset gets stuck in a certain point in history, it happens.
Thank you.
You've said it perfectly.
If people have paid attention they'll note this is true of a number of Reagan era conservatives. Their approach to the world is the same as it was during another era. Events have changed, the enemy has changed, their capability for destruction has changed.
Buckley is certainly no "faux" conservative, nor an "unappeaseable" as some reflexively would label. he is neither George Will nor Pat Buchanon. He tried to support this war, to understand it. But I really don't think he can move beyond the approach taken to the biggest threat of his day. The Soviet Union, in which rather then boots on the ground...you fought the enemy by containment and outspending them producing a build up of nuclear arsenals to serve as a deterrant. Only deterrants don't work with nationless terrorists.
On domestic matters, I'll largely agree with him. A guiding conservative philosophy would have served this president Bush well in that arena. Foreign policy? Buckley's preferred strategy is no longer current to the threats of today. In this issue, he is out of step with most conservatives.
I thought Bush would have been more conservative (affirmative action, spending, Medicare, immigration). However, I wouldn't consider his father conservative. Wasn't there a study recently of the political attitudes of children aligning often with their parents? That said, Bush has been conservative in many ways: abortion, stem-cells, marriage, judges (probably MOST important way). It would have helped a great deal if the Reps had a bigger majority in the Senate.
He's as much as a conservative as Reagan, except that Bsuh's USSC nominees are more conservative than Reagan's (apart from Scalia).
Bush isn't a conservative. He never pretended to be one. WE just got blinded that he was the anti clinton. He told us he'd spend our tax money to enlarge existing gov agencies and create new entitlement but it didn't matter because he wasn't Clinton. No Bush has ever been a conservative. He has certain conservative tendencies but he hasn't governed as one. Call it the conservative crack up because he has so brilliantly fooled many to think he is a bonafide conservative. Reagan he is not. Big government republicans have hijacked the party. I would just love to see how you can spin that Bush is a conservative when he's outspent CLinton even when you take out military expenditures. Yeah, that's some conservative!
Yep.
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