buckley.jpg

Before there were right wing blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’ Reilly hamming it up for ratings, there was William F. Buckley–a voice of conservative punditry who could actually put together a coherent thought. Unfortunately for the right, they’ve lost one of their most articulate and venerable voices. According to his son Christopher, Buckley suffered from emphysema and diabetes; the columnist died overnight in his study at his Stamford, CT, home.

Buckley’s column “On the Right” entered into national syndication in 1962 and appeared in over 300 newspapers. He also hosted an Emmy Award-winning show, Firing Line that pitted liberals against conservatives, ran for 33 years. Buckley spoke fluent French and Spanish, and though he took pride in taking jabs at the left, he also didn’t take it easy on his right wing brethren. In a 2006 column, he called for President Bush to admit defeat in the Iraq war and said of the neoconservative movement:

“The neoconservative hubris, which sort of assigns to America some kind of geo-strategic responsibility for maximizing democracy, overstretches the resources of a free country.”

A series of tributes to the man appear on National Review Online.