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Christopher Buckley Quits National Review, Scorns Them All

After Christopher Buckley insulted his dead father’s National Review magazine by endorsing a liberal black Maoist over the Crazyfarts McBombs and Sideshow Moosetits ticket, every editor at the National Review and every wingnut with an AOL account called him a traitor to his own family, Jesus, and The Cause. And so Buckley has now quit his columnist position at the magazine and written a rather brutal excoriation of Modern Conservatism on Tina Brown’s new Huffington Post, The British Space Cyclops.

Since my Obama endorsement, Kathleen [Parker] and I have become BFFs and now trade incoming hate-mails. No one has yet suggested my dear old Mum should have aborted me, but it’s pretty darned angry out there in Right Wing Land. One editor at National Review—a friend of 30 years—emailed me that he thought my opinions “cretinous.”

[...]

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

He mentions about 6,000 times that his father was William F. Buckley, in case you forgot!

Sorry, Dad, I Was Sacked [Daily Beast]


3:04 PM on Tue October 14 2008
By Jim Newell
9207 Views

  1. magic titty says at 3:09 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Wait - an angry conservative (pro-life) thinks his mother should have aborted him?
    I don’t understand these people.

  2. hockeymom says at 3:10 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Wankers, all.

  3. CivicHoliday says at 3:11 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Wrong, Bucko. Yurts are for pinko environmentalists. Outhouses are for the GOP.

  4. Oh, to be ‘fatwahed’ by fatheads. Let us hope the fatheads will fatwah us all.

  5. AngryBlakGuy says at 3:12 pm, October 14th, 2008

    …wow, he is really swinging for the fences on this rant!

  6. V572625694 says at 3:12 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Ol’ Bill would’ve fired those jerkwad Chimpy apologists years ago, and let himself be ruled by the first fifty signers of the Port Huron Statement instead. Because he was obscenely rich with oil money he never did a thing to earn and didn’t really give damn which obedient servant of the Ruling Class was executing his orders. But at least he could write, and so can his son.

  7. ihasasad says at 3:13 pm, October 14th, 2008

    I certainly hope that is how you spell fatwahed because I used it to win a license plate game on the way home the other day.

  8. Gopherit v2.0 says at 3:13 pm, October 14th, 2008

    If most neo-cons could both read and comprehend, I bet they would find this article devastating.

  9. petite brawnley says at 3:13 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Unfit to change a Lieberman diarrhea diaper!

  10. AngryBlakGuy says at 3:15 pm, October 14th, 2008

    magic titty: …a truly conservative statement would have been: “I wish your genetic material was wasted on a blowjob or anal sex”

  11. freakishlystrong says at 3:15 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Oh SNAP Bitch! Welcome to the yurt, where were you four years ago?

  12. Dammit, I’m tired of all of these conservatives trying to get into our tank.

  13. SayItWithWookies says at 3:17 pm, October 14th, 2008

    The conservative movement is now so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.

  14. Tommy Says Soooo says at 3:17 pm, October 14th, 2008

    If WFB were alive today, he’d disowned Christopher, or at random, one of his kids.

  15. StrangelyBrown says at 3:17 pm, October 14th, 2008

    The National Review: now 100% Buckley-free!

    It’s for the best, though. All those Buckleyan polysyllabic words were impeding its readership within the contemporary conservative milieu. Darn right! Also.

  16. Suppose you were a real, true Dodger fan, who believed in the Dodger Way and bled blue whether they won or lost because dem bums were your bums. Well, you maybe would have thought “Manny Ramirez? No thanks! Rather lose without him than win with him.” And Chris Buckly? He ain’t no Manny ramirez.

  17. sati demise says at 3:18 pm, October 14th, 2008

    He and Parker will have to start their own party.

    The grand new party? The the new republic party? The smart guys for Obama party?

  18. Deepthroat says at 3:19 pm, October 14th, 2008

    “yurt”

  19. HedonismBot says at 3:19 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Yes, yes… (sip my chardonnay, puff my pipe, chew thoughtfully on my designer glasses for a moment while I put my silk-stockinged feet upon an elegant chaise lounge in my yurt in the Hamptons…) indeed..
    (All said in a Thurston Howell III voice.)

  20. One of National Review’s earliest contributors, former Trotsky pal Max Eastman.

  21. Sussemilch says at 3:19 pm, October 14th, 2008

    “Dad, what’s a conservative?”

    “Well son, it’s a God-fearing and compassionate person who respects humanity and seeks to create a better world for peoples of all creeds where they can come together in the spirit of unity and respect and forge a bright future for us all.”

    “But I thought -”

    “SHUT YOUR FACE!”

  22. Cogito Ergo Bibo says at 3:20 pm, October 14th, 2008

    I intend to use “fatwahed” indiscriminitely and inappropriately forever more. Thanks, Chris!

  23. Tommy Says Soooo says at 3:23 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Maybe I’ll be famous if I said Michelle Malkin made me yurt my pants.

  24. Kev-O-Tron says at 3:26 pm, October 14th, 2008

    When McClennan published his book I said the same thing: this is like watching lion’s eat their young. And I like that.

  25. Hahaha… The Reagan coalition is crumbling… Buckley’s dad worked hard to keep the nutjobs out of the Republican party, then he died and they took their revenge by shitting all over it. Now there’s nothing left but a smoldering mound of dung and a failed presidential campaign. This is hilarious!

  26. Serolf Divad says at 3:28 pm, October 14th, 2008

    OMG, the National Review disowning the founder’s kid? That’d be like Wm. F. Buckley Jr. disowning his own grandchild.

  27. facehead says at 3:29 pm, October 14th, 2008

    In response to the conservative uproar, a spokesperson for Buckley has released this statement:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqn_fixp5ec

  28. Cogito Ergo Bibo: I concur it goes along with my other new favorite word “festooned”

  29. slappypaddy says at 3:32 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Turns out he’s the love-child of Katharine Graham and Gore Vidal, adopted by William F. in an absinthe-fueled spasm of compassionate conservatism.

  30. magic titty says at 3:32 pm, October 14th, 2008

    AngryBlakGuy: “You should’ve been a blowjob!” - perfect.

  31. Botswana Meat Commission FC says at 3:34 pm, October 14th, 2008

    but it’s pretty darned angry out there in Right Wing Land

    Up until a week ago, right wing politics were based on acceptance and understanding.

  32. shortsshortsshorts says at 3:35 pm, October 14th, 2008

    The commenters on Daily Beast aren’t wingnutty enough. Not even one death threat.

  33. MoonshineJoe says at 3:36 pm, October 14th, 2008

    2goats: When did you turn into George Will? Less baseballz!

  34. Botswana Meat Commission FC says at 3:37 pm, October 14th, 2008

    The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

    DAMN HOMEY. HE STRAIGHT WILDIN OUT UP IN THIS BITCH.

    haha. white people.

  35. HuskyMescan says at 3:37 pm, October 14th, 2008

    jesus sarah palin christ, the republican party is disintegrating before our very eyes.

  36. Kathleen Parker’s expulsion managed to make both the conservative movement and the rest of the world a little stupider.

  37. longjohnson says at 3:43 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Tommy Says Soooo: No, Bill would have tacked to the center, as he usually did, and pointed out McCain’s deficiencies. Buckley and his son, Christopher are gifted writers and thinkers and objected to the Hee-Haw-right-wing-nut-Jesus-freaks that were #ucking things up in catastrophic style.

  38. slappypaddy says at 3:48 pm, October 14th, 2008

    HuskyMescan: I’ll bring the popcorn.

  39. How is today’s GOP like a Mongolian yurt?

    It’s was once a big tent but now it’s low and has a wide stance.

    Also, it’s full of Mongoloids.

  40. Husky:

    Look for a hastily-assembled motorcade of ZILs to make an early morning dash from DC to the Paraguayan frontier in the next couple of weeks, laden with bullion and jumbo sized tins of caviar, which are better than cash.

  41. Tommy Says Soooo says at 3:53 pm, October 14th, 2008

    longjohnson: Sounds like a Bull Moose resurgence to me, and, uh, SP would shoot it.

  42. pdiddycornchips says at 3:54 pm, October 14th, 2008

    The chances that Buckley’s little tantrum will change any conservative minds is about the same as Jonah Goldberg contracting Sickle Cell.

  43. Itsjustme says at 3:54 pm, October 14th, 2008

    I love the way this commentor put it! Is this too much to put on a T-Shirt?

    bpai99
    “You do realize that conservatives are on God’s side and all others are not,
    conservatives know God’s will while all others do not, and that
    conservatives want to use the power of government to advance their
    understanding of God’s Kingdom. Finally, them being the only possessors of
    God’s wisdom gives them the right to ignore his teachings when dealing with
    others who do not see the light that they do.”

  44. Woodwards Friend says at 3:56 pm, October 14th, 2008

    GOP = the party of William Jennings Bryan

    Bryan was a vulgar and common man, a cad undiluted. He was ignorant, bigoted, self-seeking, blatant and dishonest. His career brought him into contact with the first men of his time; he preferred the company of rustic ignoramuses. It was hard to believe, watching him at Dayton, that he had traveled, that he had been received in civilized societies, that he had been a high officer of state. He seemed only a poor clod like those around him, deluded by a childish theology, full of an almost pathological hatred of all learning, all human dignity, all beauty, all fine and noble things. He was a peasant come home to the dung-pile. Imagine a gentleman, and you have imagined everything that he was not. - HL Mencken

  45. Cape Clod says at 3:57 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Another great conservative thinker, Ted Nugent, is still hoping for victory.

    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28990#continueA

  46. JadedDIssonance says at 3:58 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Growing up as a “Hee-Haw-right-wing-nut-Jesus-freak,” I believed that compromise was a useless and empty tool when compared to the power of an allmighty. Helping former wingnuts realize their useless and empty nature is my job now. It’s a shame that the people who want the government to dictate all things “moral” have wound up in the “states’ rights” small government party.

  47. StripesAndPlaids says at 3:59 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Poor Chris. They don’t like a race traitor at the National Review.

  48. slappypaddy says at 3:59 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Itsjustme: Game, set, match!

  49. Itsjustme says at 4:05 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Cape Clod: Ted Nugent is the substance you find whilst cleaning the Douchebag.

  50. pdiddycornchips says at 4:06 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Itsjustme:

    How about this….

    Conservatives think god is on their side because they get their religion from a guy on TV every Sunday morning. That guy would have been an Elvis impersonator but he discovered the business of spoon feeding religion and politics to morons paid much better.

  51. longjohnson says at 4:11 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Tommy Says Soooo: Your are partially correct . . . I believe Palin’s motto is suck it, then shoot it!

    Nevertheless, it essentially translates into what is known as a boner bender in the rougher regions Alaska . . .

  52. problemwithcaring says at 4:12 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Well, it’s not like conservatives give a good-god-damn about some washed-up ghey…unless its Chris Hitchens.

  53. brain meats says at 4:14 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Chris is pretty mavericky.

  54. Sad — his father would have known that it doesn’t matter how we spell it, since it’s a tranliteration of a non-English word, and we can spell it any old damn way we want. I propose “fatwad”, as in, “Daddums left me a fatwad of money, which I’m not sharing with any love children.”

  55. Schadenfried says at 4:23 pm, October 14th, 2008

    magic titty: I know, right. Even when Dennis Miller turned on the Left, nobody wished his mother aborted him (not in public anyway). In fact, I still hold a vigil that he’ll come to his senses.

  56. transliteration — not that I can spell, either.

  57. Schadenfried says at 4:25 pm, October 14th, 2008

    StrangelyBrown: They’ll be giving a column to Larry the Cable Guy.

  58. Schadenfried: My favorite Dennis Miller reference was in the Simpsons when the family gets a computer to run the house and one of the voices available is Miller’s and Bart asks Homer, “Isn’t that the guy who caused all those suicides?” And Homer says, “Murder-suicides.”

  59. HedonismBot says at 4:33 pm, October 14th, 2008

    He’s a pompous ass, but at least now he’s OUR pompous ass.

  60. Extra points to Christopher for using the word “yurt”.

  61. Accordion-o-rama says at 4:36 pm, October 14th, 2008

    While it’s always heartening to trumpet the turning of a conservative,
    Christopher Buckley is still a boob. His father wrote eloquently, sometimes humorously,
    carefully marshaling facts to support the smug, unreflective conservatism of the trust fund set.
    The younger adopted the smug, privileged attitude, toned down the eloquence, and infused a National Lampoonish “I’m an asshole, but I can get away with it because its funny” vibe. PJ O’Rourke does this shtick much better.

  62. Where are all the dyed-in-the-wool WFB haters? Maybe they all stayed on Gawker. In the old days, you couldn’t say a nice condescending word about the old buster without 1000 people calling you a Nazi.

  63. TexasCowGirl says at 4:47 pm, October 14th, 2008

    This and writing Thank You for Smoking makes two good things he’s done.

  64. Schadenfried says at 4:53 pm, October 14th, 2008

    I think Buckley the Younger should have handled this in Wonkette fashion

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LJBVgoUNzw&feature=related

  65. I just fatwahed and blew a yurt all over the couch. Time for a panty changin.

  66. Mista Eko says at 4:56 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Out with “In the tank!”, in with “In the Yurt!”

  67. StrangelyBrown says at 5:00 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Schadenfried: Wouldn’t that be a little redundant? I mean, they already have Jonah Goldberg.

  68. Mr Blifil says at 5:08 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Give the guy a break. His dead dad used to dream of playing Bach Concerti for 2 Cembalo with Rosalyn Tureck, who may have been a solid interpreter who ornamented tastefully, and posessed an excellent command of rubato, but who basically looked like a pig with arms and legs.

    William F. Buckley. Total fucking fag.

  69. bitchincamaro says at 5:17 pm, October 14th, 2008

    Kev-O-Tron: Haha! I like your new avatar. Is it a jug of headache juice? Now I’m thirsty. Must go to bottle shop.

  70. Mr. Buckley has inherited the honesty and forthrightness of his father. He is brave enough to admit that the ideas that drove the conservative revolution of the 80’s on up have pooped out. We really did the experiment, and it really did not work. OK. Time to go back to the drawing board while the rest of us try to sort thru the mess. Mr. Buckley is honest enough to say this in a room full of True Believers, which takes real courage.

  71. Barack Like Me says at 5:17 pm, October 14th, 2008

    TexasCowGirl: I picked up his “Boomsday” for a light summer read and then I come to find out he stole the idea lock, stock, and smoking gun barrel from The Onion:

    http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29507

    Republicans, even when they’re good, nobody calls them on it.

    I’m so disappointed.

  72. forgracie says at 5:20 pm, October 14th, 2008

    At first I was confused betweeen Kathleen Parker (kinda hot) and Kathryn Lopez (not hot) so I was worried Buckley Junior was BFF with Sasquatch.

    I’m better now.

  73. Crow T. Robot says at 5:32 pm, October 14th, 2008

    V572625694: That would be the original Port Huron Statement right, not the compromised second draft?

  74. bitchincamaro says at 5:35 pm, October 14th, 2008

    WFB spoke at my college commencement back in the 60’s. That took balls because the entire student body was composed of Bill Ayers clones. The next year it was Mr. Rogers. No shit.

  75. keepinitrealyo says at 5:59 pm, October 14th, 2008

    bofm: Well said, but next time more snark please.

  76. Christ, baby, who’s your daddy? Get with Oldfarts McBommy and his Moosetitsinkships mommy you’re gonna to be siberianized with ground wolf gizzards slathered on your Private Johnson.

  77. SayItWithWookies: And that would, indeed, be a pleasure to watch. I’d bring the popcorn.

  78. “Modern Conservatism”? Just one more oxymoron to add the list.

  79. Dr. Spaceman says at 11:24 pm, October 14th, 2008

    SayItWithWookies: Well played.

  80. TexasCowGirl says at 11:56 pm, October 14th, 2008

    S.Luggo: Unless it now means conserving the crazy.

  81. Jukesgrrl says at 4:42 am, October 15th, 2008

    Schadenfried: Regarding that vigil for Dennis Miller, hon, save your candles. Dennis doesn’t have any senses to come to. He’s a son of Castle Shannon, a close-in suburb of Pittsburgh created by white flight, and the origin of that “I’m outta here” accent. If McCain-Palin signs are in short supply anywhere, it’s because they’re in every other yard in Castle Shannon, the home Dennis will embody no matter how many models he marries.

  82. brown_recluse says at 9:47 am, October 15th, 2008

    This reminds me of high school, when I wore Docs before all the cheerleaders decided to go ‘grunge.’ I liked Hopey before it was cool dammit!

  83. Schadenfried says at 9:49 am, October 15th, 2008

    Jukesgrrl: Jesus, he from my home state (PA) too? This has not been a good week.
    :::takes one last look at the candles, slowly puts them away:::

  84. thefrontpage says at 12:20 pm, October 15th, 2008

    In the real world, now, and being direct and honest and straightforward but not meaning to be disrespectful to the recently-departed: The National Review and William Buckley were a big stinking pile of crap, they often did not deal with facts or reality, they often existed in some bizarro, unexplainable political twilight zone world, they often literally did not make any sense, they were closeted bigots and racists (yes, they were), and they just did not deal with reality-based political intelligence and common sense. They were blowards, hotheads and snobs. That’s the truth, and everyone knows it. Congratulations to Christopher Buckley for joining the real world, and for finally seeing the light. Welcome to reality.

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