It’s entirely possible that Liberal actually knew Buckley. I would have liked to, but I’m of a different generation on a different coast and not the sort of person Buckley would have hung out with.
The list does read like satire, but Barnes is dead serious.
Agreed. This is a wonderful achievement and I do need to be reminded of it, because I like to think that everyone has some redeeming features.
Not to belabor the point, but ya isn’t this great. “Enhanced interrogation”, aka torture, has really been beneficial.
Col. Crawford (a retired judge who was appointed convening authority of military commissions in February 2007) said recently:
Fred Barnes thinks NCLB and the medicare expansions were good things?
Not in the Pit. In GD he can spread his bullshit without being called what he is for spreading it.
That’s insane. He left out the two actual good things that the Bush administration accomplished!
PEPFAR
Creating a massive maritime monument.
I guess protecting the environment and saving the lives of millions of people in impoverished countries doesn’t quite compare with torturing terror suspects and preventing the US from participating in the Kyoto Protocol.
sigh They don’t make conservatives like Bill Buckley any more. In 1965, when he was running for mayor of New York, someone asked him the first thing he’d do if elected. His answer: “Demand a recount.”
I did meet his brother at a campaign rally when Jim was running for senator. That was back when I was young, stupid, and conservative.
Yes, which is why TomnDebbs “Liars, lying, and lies in Great Debates” rules suck.
Y’know, I can remember watching The Capitol Gang back in the mid-80s (I was a weird politically-aware kid) and for some reason I seem to remember Fred Barnes as being one of the more moderate of the conservatives on that show. Did he change, or did all the people around him change?
#1 I’m amazed as under Bush and despite his stonewalling in the beginning, the US Government acknowledges the need to fight anthropogenic climate change. I guess like a few others Fred Barnes thinks consensus means unanimous.
#2 and #3 are just frightening that they could be thought of as achievements. No true conservative would consider #3 a positive achievement.
#4 was a failure. Israel is less secure today than it was in 2000.
#5 is still open to debate. But I’ll give him that one as I don’t know enough to debate it.
#6 A wonderful thing to say. How’s that going so far?
#7 Why? Seriously, I don’t see why this was so great. Was it?
#8 OK, I get this. In fact though more conservative than I like they both appear to be qualified for the job.
#9 WTF?
#10 The surge was only needed as he so royally screwed up in the first place in both getting us into an war without reason and then mishandling. But yes, the surge appears to be helping correct the second mistake years later.
It’s a lot easier to admire Buckley in retrospect, given the kind of “conservatives” we seem to have coming out of the woodwork today. He actually had an intellectual philosophy of conservatism, which I disagree with but recognize as being superior to the kneejerk “conservatism” of modern Republicanism.
But, really, I just could not get past the essential priggishness of the man. It made listening to him (on radio or TV) or reading him a chore.
I believe David Icke named Buckley as one of the extraterrestrial “reptilian humanoids” who can transform into a lizard. In Buckley’s case I could actually believe it. I saw him give a university lecture once; dude just had this reptilian quality to him.
I used to like Freddy “the Beatle” (or was it “Beetle?”) Barnes, but that was a long time ago.
The shape-shifting alien reptiles thing is actually David Icke’s less crazy theory.
Anyway, Bush’s greatest achievement was to raise awareness of the choking hazard presented by the evil pretzel.
Y’know, today I read that a poll has Bush’s popularity going UP in the past month (by like 20 percent among conservatives/Republicans - I can’t remember which - and something like 10-15% overall).
I guess those who disagree with Obama’s policies are entering the “I remember what I used to like about Bush” phase.
Buckley also felt that conservatives should have standards. If some conservative did something foolish or unsavory, Buckley would chastise them and tell them they were letting down the movement. Nowadays, too often conservatives just close ranks, deny everything, and say it’s someone else’s fault.
Then you’ve not read the steaming sex scenes in his Blackford Oakes spy novels. Its like porno written by an adding machine.
Hear hear. It’s the one good spot on a depressing eight years. Hopefully history will reward him for what he’s done.