Bill Buckley on Bush, Iraq & Past Presidents
William F. Buckley Jr., the longtime conservative writer and leader, said George W. Bush's presidency will be judged entirely by the outcome of a war in Iraq that is now a failure.
``Mr. Bush is in the hands of a fortune that will be unremitting on the point of Iraq,'' Buckley said in an interview that will air on Bloomberg Television this weekend. ``If he'd invented the Bill of Rights it wouldn't get him out of his jam.''
Buckley said he doesn't have a formula for getting out of Iraq, though he said ``it's important that we acknowledge in the inner councils of state that it (the war) has failed, so that we should look for opportunities to cope with that failure.'' ...
While praising Bush as ``really a conservative,'' he was critical of the president for allowing expansion of the federal government and never vetoing a spending bill.
The president's ``concern has been so completely on the international scope that he can be said to have neglected conservatism'' on the fiscal level, Buckley said.
Appraising Presidents
Buckley also offered his perspectives on other recent presidents:
-- Richard Nixon ``was one of the brightest people who ever occupied the White House,'' he said, ``but he suffered from basic derangements,'' which precipitated his own downfall.
-- Ronald Reagan ``confounded the intellectual class, which disdained him.'' Every year though, Buckley said, ``there is more and more evidence of his ingenuity, of his historical intelligence.''
-- Bill Clinton ``is the most gifted politician of, certainly my time,'' Buckley said. ``He generates a kind of a vibrant goodwill with a capacity for mischief which is very, very American.'' He doubted that ``anyone could begin to write a textbook that explicates his (Clinton's) political philosophy because he doesn't really have one.''
Buckley exalted in what he sees as the conservative success stemming from his call a half century ago in the National Review to ``stand athwart history and yell stop.''
Read entire article at Bloomberg News
``Mr. Bush is in the hands of a fortune that will be unremitting on the point of Iraq,'' Buckley said in an interview that will air on Bloomberg Television this weekend. ``If he'd invented the Bill of Rights it wouldn't get him out of his jam.''
Buckley said he doesn't have a formula for getting out of Iraq, though he said ``it's important that we acknowledge in the inner councils of state that it (the war) has failed, so that we should look for opportunities to cope with that failure.'' ...
While praising Bush as ``really a conservative,'' he was critical of the president for allowing expansion of the federal government and never vetoing a spending bill.
The president's ``concern has been so completely on the international scope that he can be said to have neglected conservatism'' on the fiscal level, Buckley said.
Appraising Presidents
Buckley also offered his perspectives on other recent presidents:
-- Richard Nixon ``was one of the brightest people who ever occupied the White House,'' he said, ``but he suffered from basic derangements,'' which precipitated his own downfall.
-- Ronald Reagan ``confounded the intellectual class, which disdained him.'' Every year though, Buckley said, ``there is more and more evidence of his ingenuity, of his historical intelligence.''
-- Bill Clinton ``is the most gifted politician of, certainly my time,'' Buckley said. ``He generates a kind of a vibrant goodwill with a capacity for mischief which is very, very American.'' He doubted that ``anyone could begin to write a textbook that explicates his (Clinton's) political philosophy because he doesn't really have one.''
Buckley exalted in what he sees as the conservative success stemming from his call a half century ago in the National Review to ``stand athwart history and yell stop.''