ANN COULTER: WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY: R.I.P., ENFANT TERRIBLE

AnnCoulter.Com ^ | Feb 27, 2008 | Ann Coulter

[Arkady]

God bless William F. Buckley. Ann when you read this, you can write my eulogy too!

[Marysecretary]

His office looks like mine (LOL). I loved his sarcastic wit.

[Marysecretary]

Nah, that guy has a great bod.

[zipper]

Me too. I credit him with being the biggest influence in my political identity, along with my father.

I saw him at a lecture series when I was in college -- it's true that he had a persona that leaves audiences spellbound.

He was such a talented intellectual, but also enjoyed living. He was a prototypical Renaissance man.

[shezza]

Thanks for that great link. It’s enough to keep me busy reading for weeks. WFB and his wonderfully acerbic wit shall be sorely missed.

[exit82]

“When asked if he had “referred to Jesse Jackson as an ignoramus,” Buckley said, “If I didn’t, I should have.” “

I wish I was witty like that.

Kudos to Ann—the esteemed Mr. Buckley was found dead this morning, and she cranked out this column by this dinnertime.

[Theodore R.]

Was Weicker a conservative in 1964? He just learned how liberal CT is and what it takes to survive there.

[penelopesire]

No worries..wit has a way of rubbing off, especially if you hang around Freepers long enough. (grin)

No doubt, Mr. Buckley would have enjoyed Ann Coulter’s column today.

[GunnyB]

Indeed - WFB was one of the greatest influences of my life. I was always captivated by the exquisite tongue lashings he gave to inane liberals on Firing Line. WFB snatched Conservatism from the moderate miasma and left all of us with a rich legacy - starting with Ann Coulter.

[upsdriver]

Thank you, Ann! A nice tribute to a truly great man!

[ruthles]

LOLOL!!! I had a very, very liberal professor in college who referred to Buckley as “The Triumph of Style over Substance.” Needless to say, I never donate to my liberal, public alma matre.

I bought my husband a book on obsolete vocabulary Buckley had used over the years. I grew to really appreciate him, and his son’s movie “Thank you for Smoking” was funnier considering which family he came from.

[Bethaneidh]

“Cordially”...

Balderdash. My mother, a propah bostonian (rather than a Haavaadite) always signed “Cordially”. She never heard of WFB until rather late in life.

B.

[shove_it]

I recall watching incredulously that famous exchange between WFB and Vidal live on TV. Calling someone a queer on TV in those days was not done. I laughed my ass off.

[goldstategop]

Before William F. - there was no intellectual strand of thought that could be called "conservative" in America. The dominant mode of thought was liberal. This owed to the unique circumstance of America's creation and subsequent growth on a continent with no limits in which it always deemed possible to get more. Still, the fundamental idea behind the concept America was a nation that happened to have a government separated it from traditional European thought of the state as the head of people. In America, all authority derived from the people and moreover what government could do was of a limited nature. The American idea of happiness was in looking to oneself for the fulfillment of happiness rather waiting for the state to help you to fulfill it. From these three ideas, emerged a different kind of conservatism - that which while it was patriotic and believed in the sovereign nature of the individual, also believed in the universal promise of American values and in the Messianic optimism that America's best days where still ahead of her. That conservatism led William F. Buckley to define a philosophy that challenged the dominant intellectual tradition of liberalism in this country and helped to remake America into a fundamentally different kind of nation than in Europe and the rest of the world. That, in National Review may well be Buckley's greatest and most enduring legacy. We will never look upon his like again.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[upsdriver]

There is something about a blond, blue eyed girl in fur.........but I just can't put my finger on it.......

Ahhh!! But wouldn't you love to!!

[Army Air Corps]

William F. Buckley, Jr., may you rest in peace and amuse the saints with your wit and candor.

I, good sir, owe much to your humour and perspicacity.

[buffyt]

Neat photos of our Ann!

[buffyt]

Barbra Streisand!!!!!!

[Grow Fins]

“Ironic that Ann knows what L’enfant terrible means. Since her picture is in the dictionary next the the definition.” She also uses “bien-pensant.’ Dunno what that means. I’m too lazy to look it up.

Yes it is ironic; ironic too that some on the right hold AC up as some kind of fellow traveller in their war against the “elites.” When was the last time you heard “l’enfant terrible” and “bien-pensant” used in ordinary conversation outside of the dry-martini, cocktails-at-five, Beltway crowd?

[choirboy]

Once, when told that Teddy Kennedy, after someone praised him, said “I am humbled”, Buckley said with his impish grin, “He has much to be humble about.”