William F. Buckley vs. Coulter

Ann Coulter's column has been dropped by two newspapers and a Shreveport paper is considering dropping her. Now, a weekly in Greensboro, N.C., has decided to drop Ann Coulter's regular column, distributed by Universal.

"Yes! Weekly", which has carried the Coultergeist conservative firebrand since last August, announced the move after polling its readers. She will be replaced by another conservative, William F. Buckley.

I don't know how much longer Buckley will be around.... he's in his early 80s. Speaking of early 80s, I was an avid watcher of Buckley on Firing Line back then. The whole red state/blue state nonsense had not entered our lexicon yet, although the seeds were being sown, as they were for the cultural divide, (until 2000, televised coverage of national elections often used blue for Republican states and red for Democratic states) and there wasn't yet a strong statewide Republican movement in Arkansas where I had grown up. I was enamored of his political positions and how articulate he was.

Now that I have moved to the other end of the political spectrum I still have some respect for the guy even if I don't agree with him on most issues. (And I'm probably cutting him some slack due to his age, experience, and intellect.)

Here is a snippet from a recent CBS News piece online.

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.

I always had a special place in my heart for this old codger: a conservative Republican with a brain. Always refreshing and what a contrast against Coulter's insane asshattery vitriol. (Interestingly, he was also a member of the Skull & Bones society.)

SignOnSan Diego has a related article.

"The purpose of an open mind is to close it, on particular subjects. If you never do — you've simply abdicated the responsibility to think".

---William F. Buckley