Is there anybody else out there who’d love to watch a 35th Anniversary debate between Vidal and Buckley? Vidal (though pushing 80 and recently widowed) has still got it and Buckley seems to be the same bright but arrogant ass he always was, so it’d be cool to see them go at it again in the era of brainless hacks like Limbaugh and Moore.
I’d very much like to see it. I’ve always found both these guys too funny to take all that seriously, but perhaps that’s more my failing than theirs. At any rate, it would be great if they would get together for a debate.
My vague impression though is that Vidal (and perhaps to a lesser extent, Buckley) probably no longer have the energy or interest. My impression may not be correct, of course, and if it isn’t I’m sure someone will be along shortly to set me straight.
Sampiro asked…
Is there anybody else out there who’d love to watch a 35th Anniversary debate between Vidal and Buckley?
Hey! Count me in, Sampiro, what fun- a rematch of 1968…
With Vidal calling Buckley an “aging pro-crypto-Nazi” and Buckley calling Vidal an “aging queer” and an aging Howard K Smith admonishing them both for age-discrimination.
What fun! 
On the other hand maybe it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie; besides, the real reason that “Nazi” Bill got mad at “Queer” Gore is because of Gore’s improper use of the nonce word “pro-crypto-Nazi”.
Buckley rightly reasoned that the term was clumsy and ultimately meaningless.
Later Vidal agreed. The word he was searching for was “fascist”.
www.pitt.edu/~kloman/tapes.html