February
27 William F. Buckley

The conservative writer, talk show host and consummate intellect died today at 82.

He founded the conservative journal National Review, and hosted PBS's "The Firing Line," and was an especially prolific writer, regularly churning out his newspaper column and more than 45 books.

Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote on the National Review website, "He died while at work; if he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it. At home, still devoted to the war of ideas."

Buckley will be remembered as the public face of conservatism, long before its ascendancy on the national political stage. But he also commanded a genuine presence on TV, and one of his most memorable appearances was as a commentator with Gore Vidal at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Their confrontation ---a prelude to the crossfire of 24 cable TV news networks --- had Vidal labelling Buckley as a "proto- or crypto- Nazi" and Buckley responding, "Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I will sock you in your goddamn face, and you will stay plastered.”

But unlike the red-meat, social conservative to come --- which could be a war against intellectuals --- Buckley was a man "of style, flair, intellectual honesty, manners," in the words of Andrew Sullivan. Here's a clip from a debate with Noam Chomsky.