Christopher Buckley leaves National Review-“been effectively fatwahed by the conservative movement”

[AlCzervik]

for endorsing Obama.

October 14, 2008, 2:16 PM
Buckley’s Son Leaves National Review
By PATRICIA COHEN
Christopher Buckley, the author and son of the late conservative mainstay William F. Buckley, said in a telephone interview that he has resigned from the National Review, the political journal his father founded in 1955.

Mr. Buckley said he had “been effectively fatwahed by the conservative movement” after endorsing Barack Obama in a blog posting on TheDailyBeast.com; since then, he said he has been blanketed with hate mail at the blog and at the National Review, where he has written a column.

As a result, he wrote to Richard Lowry, the editor of the National Review, and
its publisher, Jack Fowler, offering to resign, and “this offer was rather
briskly accepted,” Mr. Buckley said.

Mr. Buckley said he did not understand the sense of betrayal that some of his conservative colleagues felt, but said that the fury and ugly comments his endorsement generated is “part of
the calcification of modern discourse. It’s so angry.” Quoting Ronald Reagan, he added, “I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.”

Mr. Buckley has joined a growing list of conservatives who have either endorsed Mr. Obama or questioned whether McCain now stands any chance of being elected. On Monday, the writer Christopher Hitchens also endorsed the Democratic ticket.

NYT

[yardwork]

1. Come over to the light, Chris. Leave the dark side behind.

[AlCzervik]

2. his books are excellent and really funny.

[nichomachus]

3. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. n/t

[roguevalley]

18. it always amazes me that they are amazed

[nichomachus]

20. At least the Mafia folks now

that when they get whacked, "it's just business -- nothing personal."

The right-wingers remind me of the women who are the younger, perkier "other woman" for a married man and then are shocked when they get dumped for yet another younger, perkier model.

[RTFirefly]

27. Leave McCain's marital history out of this!

:rofl:

[chicagoexpat]

4. He ain't the only conservative/republican to leave a sinking ship

http://loomisnews.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/more-republicans-for-obama-john-mccain-is-not-a-principled-man/#comment-2295

tho I'm not suer I'd call Hitchens a "conservative" -- is "fatuous ass" a political ideology?

[yardwork]

6. Hitchens is a party of one.

[thenam]

5. Even his father was alienated by Neo-Cons and such

...in his later years. The Neo-Cons have damaged the GOP to such an extent that it will take years to put things back together.

[torbird]

7. Gee, Chris: Sow, meet Reap.

[Essene]

8. expect many months of total meltdown in the competing "conservative" ranks

[Arugula Latte]

9. I'm hoping the Republican party will soon be a fringe, regional party.

And, actually, it might not even be regional to the South since the South is looking more friendly to our side these days. Well, I guess it can be the party of the western plains states and Idaho and Utah.

[XemaSab]

29. I could see the Libertarian party supplanting the Republican party in the West

leaving the Republican party the prevailing political party at Bob's Burger Barn in Springfield, MO and noplace else. :shrug:

[4lbs]

10. That NR editor, Richard Lowry, is the one who "creamed" his pants on TV when talking about Palin.

"Unnngghh... It was like she was talking directly to me. And when she winked, it was like a thousand starbursts."

:puke:





Richard Lowry:

[firedupdem]

13. He's one sick bastard. n/t

[CakeGrrl]

15. No wonder he fatwa-ed Buckley...

He wants to keep his masturbatory fantasy girl on TV as long as possible.

Ew.

[sharp_stick]

14. A thousand starbursts?

I think Todd Palin may be warming up his skidoo to come after this loser.

[Cha]

11. So what's a former National Review columnist

who endorsed Obama to do? Wonder where he'll go from here? This is pure patriotism at work..Country before before fucking party that turned dirty. :patriot:

[4lbs]

12. He'll end up writing a book about his NR years and how the current Conservatives aren't the ones he

knows anymore.

[Cha]

23. Yay for

us!

[formercia]

41. He's pretty good at cleaning boat bottoms

I knew Christopher back in the 60's when he worked in a marina cleaning boat bottoms using SCUBA gear.
He's no stranger to hard work.
It doesn't surprise me in the least that he endorsed Obama.

[ErinBerin84]

16. ha

He says that he trades his hate mail with Kathleen Parker now.

[Jennicut]

17. Many old style Rethugs have felt their party has left them

Lincoln Chafee is another one. I don't have any problem with these type of Republicans. To have different points of view on free market, for instance is okay with me. We live in America and we have been arguing over liberalism vs conservatism since the days of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. However, the ugliness of the fascist neocons and their right wing fundie nut job "value voters" makes me and everyone else at DU want to puke. When did this crappy part of the Rethug party start? Under Ronnie? Earlier, after Roe vs. Wade? Or was it in 1992 after the "culture wars" of Pat Buchanan and Dan Quayle? During Clinton and all the ugliness towards him and Hillary by Rush and others? Maybe after 9/11 and lots of people went wacky and started with the "support the president or you are unAmerican crap"? I don't know, maybe the Rethug party has always sucked and it needs to either start from scratch or it needs to fold.

[FatDave]

24. It slowly built, but each event you mention was a milestone.

The criminality goes back at least to Nixon, but the modern conservative movement really got under way with Reagan. It's it's gotten worse and worse over time at the hands of the many you named.

I hope the brewing battle between the Goldwater conservatives and the fundies rips the party to fucking shreds.

(edit: I gotta get the habit of using spell check.)

[theothersnippywshrub]

34. "When did this crappy part of the Rethug party start?"

I think it started with Goldwater and so many other conservative republicans, including Christopher Buckley's father, opposing the civil rights laws in the 1960's. That was soon followed by the racist dixiecrats switching parties and the launching of the GOP Southern Strategy. And that was soon followed by the Reagan Revolution which united the racist wing, the economic conservative wing, the Religious Reich wing and the evil communists (now terrorists) are hiding under my bed wing of the modern republican party. Then Gingrich took over GOPAC and taught republicans to recite the infamous list of divisive and hateful words. And the republican party reached its peak.

But its power was born of the evil it embraced over all those years and now it is becoming progressively weaker as that evil has driven away decent Americans. And the weakness now grows even more, like a cancer, as a result of the various GOP hate groups blaming not only decent Americans, but also other GOP hate groups for the growing weakness.

[Laelth]

37. Their party has left them ...

... but it did so in 1980 or 1984. Why did it take them all 20+ years to figure that out?

No sympathy here.

-Laelth

[Supersedeas]

19. the 'Big' Tent of the Holy Oil Oligarchy is getting smaller and smaller and smaller

Loyalty has its benefits....and costs

[Mz Pip]

21. I heard an interview with him

a few weeks ago. He seems like a smart guy. He was asked about the election and at that time he said he was really undecided. I was surprised enough by that. His endorsement of Obama is really a pretty big deal in conservative circles.

[steve2470]

22. k and r nt

[Bucky]

25. Buckley, like his father, is so gifted in the way he tap dances around his core contradiction

It's not easy being a "thinking conservative." Not easy at all.

[WallStreetNobody]

26. All the true conservatives are leaving the party

The true conservatives and whatever intellectuals they have are walking away from the party, it has been taken over by the uneducated and uninformed inbreds because of people like Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, etc. They have destroyed the Republican party by turning it into a party of whining, bitter, uneducated illiterate inbreds. We should thank them for destroying the GOP.

[Barack_America]

28. Best thing that could have happened to him.

And he's got good company in George Will and, now, Matthew Dowd.

http://washingtonindependent.com/12459/gop-strategist-mccain-put-country-at-risk-with-palin

[Overseas]

30. K&R to shine light on conservative extremism. ///nt

[stillcool]

31. I love seeing these people..

outing themselves. Singleness of purpose, and it is not to inform. No diversity accepted. Either spout the company line or you're out.

[Best_man23]

32. As a writer, the best form of revenge

Would be to write for the left. He should talk to David Brock.

[AspenRose]

33. He should join forces with David Brock

[Laelth]

35. I am always angered by former-right-wingers crying about how mean their own kind are.

I have no sympathy for them. Those of us on the left are the targets of that same blind hatred 24-7. Now, at least, another smug, enabling shill can feel what it's like.

Glad Mr. Buckley has endorsed Obama, but for many years, Mr. Buckley helped to create the very hate he's now crying about. He's not getting my sympathy. Like most on the right, he loves to cry "victim" when, in reality, he's the victimizer.

-Laelth

[AlCzervik]

36. he really didn't seem too broken up about it, he still owns a big chunk of the Review

so f he really is upset he can cry in to his millions.

[anonymous171]

38. Looks like he finally got tired of the neocons. Even his father couldn't stand them.

[Paladin]

39. Bad, Bad Mistake, Rich Lowry

I guess you forgot LBJ's famous saying (if you ever knew it to begin with) that it's much better to have somebody inside your tent pissing out, than it is to have somebody outside your tent, pissing in. Typically smooth move, Lowry---Chris Buckley's going to be pissing on you and your dreadful little magazine, in the most public ways possible, for years to come. My guess is that his next novel will feature the hilarious downfall of an arrogant, clueless, talent-free editor of a fascist periodical. Happy reading....

[WillyT]

40. Sweet, Sweet, Schadenfreude... K & R !!!

:evilgrin: