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As a writer, my dream is a death like that of William F. Buckley -- at my desk, pen (figuratively or literally) in my hand. And surely his family deserves condolences at this time. But as a public intellectual, over a span of some 50 plus years, I don't know that he ever retracted or apologized for two positions that NR notoriously held during the 1950s -- the support of racial segregation and of McCarthy. It seems that the reactionaries that compose the intellectual cohort of the GOP have only ever been able to praise the civil rights movement long after it was safe to do so. And as for McCarthyism, it is no accident that Anne Coulter was able to write a book in praise of Gunner Joe -- the model was provided by Buckley himself. Yes, his vocabulary was extensive, and he had wit and deep intelleigence, but they were put in the service of some pretty odious causes.
