Fall of the House of Buckley?

While a senior a Yale, William F. Buckley founded a journal of politics entitled The National Buckley, and a literary magazine called The Buckley Review. Later, he would merge the two publications into what is now known as The Buckley Buckley, at least according to David Brooks. Somewhere along the way, the Buckley Buckley would morph into the National Review.

At the Nat'l Rev., Mark Steyn wrote a pretty darn good column on the back page. With Mark Steyn tied up in the ironically named Canadian Human Rights Commissions though, the amazingly talented Christopher Buckley, son of William F., recently took the reins of the last page of the Nat'l Rev. With William F. Buckley's passing this year, it appeared, at least to me, that some of torch had been passed.

Only 7 columns in, however, Chris Buckley endorsed Barack Obama in a mildly insulting article (see below). At least a few of the editors of the Buckley Buckley were not pleased. In a move of apparent childish flippancy, Chris Buckley offered to resign. As Steyn, an equally talented writer, was freed from bonds of the commission's shackles, the resignation was accepted. Now the pages of the Nat'l Rev. drift out to sea Buckley-less.

I can't help think that the readers of National Review are the worse off for this whole debacle. While I think Buckley's argument for endorsing Obama was fatally flawed (more on that later), it did not diminish his ability to write (imagine, Steyn and C. Buckley in the same issue). Unfortunately, that appears like an unlikely pipe-dream for me now. I'm also saddened by the unshakable feeling that Chris Buckley greatly diminished himself during the handling of this whole thing.