Firing Line Roast

Feb. 28, 1986

It's worse than that. He is his own best friend. [laughter, applause]

MR. GREENFIELD: You can gain a measure of my own dumbness by thinking that I was afraid that all our speakers would be finished and we would have loads of time left. Not with our speakers. So, moving to the last but not least celebrant, he needs no introduction, but Henry Kissinger insisted.
[laughter] I will only say this is a man, not only a prizewinning writer, head of the National Security Council, secretary of state, the man who singlehandedly abolished Franklin Roosevelt's rule that presidential aides should have a passion for anonymity [laughter], a man who has with the best of grace suffered the fact that the Washington Post has just said that he is out and Richard Nixon is in, a man who has been on every television show this year except Dr. Ruth's Good Sex show [laughter] which is either a burst of modesty or the injunction to talk about what you know [laughter], I don't know; but anyway, one of the most fascinating men probably in 20th century public life: Dr. Henry Kissinger. [applause]

DR. KISSINGER: I am at some handicap compared to my predecessors. The staff of the Firing Line, following instructions issued during the period of detente, refused to answer my telephone calls [laughter] and did not tell me what this program was all about until I got here--this despite the fact that by the time the administration Bill Buckley supports is finished, detente of 10 years ago will emerge as the hardline position. [laughter] So I will describe a few of my experiences on Firing Line. The first time that I recall being on Firing Line was when I was on the cover of a national magazine in a Superman suit and Bill Buckley introduced me as follows: "Henry Kissinger reminds me of an athlete who is carried around the stadium on the shoulders of the multitude while somebody else is winning the race." [laughter] From then on, things went slightly better and in fact we had a rather fascinating discussion of philosophy of history. My most recent appearance on Firing Line was when Bill interviewed me about the report on the Central American Commission, which I chaired, of which he seemed to be slightly approving, an experience I was not used to. His influence on the Reagan administration is shown by the fact that I have recently proposed that the best way to solve the problem of Nicaragua is to drop all the unread copies of the Central American Commission report on Nicaragua unless that is considered too great a violation of human rights to drop such a tonnage of material on so small a country. [laughter] I was interviewed yesterday about Bill Buckley and I told the interviewer that I met Bill shortly after he graduated from Yale, and he announced to me that he wanted to change the direction of American politics by starting a magazine and various other activities. This is so long ago that I was still a member of good standing of the Harvard faculty, and therefore the necessity of that objective was not self-evident to me. But I consoled myself by the conviction that there was no conceivable way that Bill could achieve this objective. Well, I told the interviewer--

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The interviewer yesterday asked me, "Where would you place Bill Buckley on the political spectrum?" I said, "I would consider him a moderate conservative." She said, "You think he has moved towards the center?" That, with all respect, is like saying the compass needle has stopped pointing north.

[laughter] The center has moved towards Bill. Even more importantly, Bill has moved the center in the direction that he said these many decades ago with an assurance that the decades have not augmented in the direction that he said he wanted to go. Now, we are here, a number of liberals, and I a conservative--considered such only by liberals [laughter]--to celebrate the *Firing Line*. And the most important thing to say about Bill is that whatever objective he set himself these many decades ago, he did not carry out as a sectarian. We have all appeared with him because we trust him and because he is a great healer of a society which in its 200th year has learned that it cannot do everything simultaneously, who has always shown respect for his critics, even though he cannot hide the pain that it causes him, but which he overcomes with the realization that even his best friends cannot be right 100 percent of the time. [applause]

MR. GREENFIELD: In events such as this it is traditional to permit the victim the last word. In the case of Bill Buckley, anything else is unthinkable. To say that he prefers to get in the last riposte is to say that General Custer had a communication problem with the Indians. Personal example: Twenty years ago I wrote a piece in the Yale alumni magazine about a trip Bill Buckley had made to Yale, and I dared to suggest that on something somewhere he had been inconsistent. Three months later a letter comes back from Gstaad with an exquisite, utterly wrongheaded reply. And I have since learned that this is a total phenomenon in America. A food critic in Albuquerque criticizes a recipe Buckley writes about. [Snap] There is a letter on the desk. A music critic in Missoula quarrels with a review he did on Rosalind Tureck. [Snap] In goes the letter. And now he is equipped with a computer and a modem. He can go anywhere around the world. Indeed, I think you have to visualize Mr. Buckley's lust for the last word as including his own personalized strategic defense initiative, a Star Wars permanently stationed in space that will detect and destroy any criticism before it even sees the light of day in 10 years. [laughter] On the other hand, when you consider that for 20 years this man has provided on a weekly basis good conversation, argument, analysis and thought, it's probably a mark of fairness to let him have at us for these last words. Ladies and gentlemen, the host of *Firing Line* for the last 20 years: William F. Buckley Jr. [applause]

MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. The turning of the clock unhappily truncates my remarks on these brilliant columns. I'm dealing, as Tom Wolfe would have me say, with very brilliant people and also with some pretty mean people. [laughter] Gene McCarthy talks about voracious readers, which reminds me that John Kenneth Galbraith in his memoirs said that Adlai Stevenson was so infatuated with books

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SECA PRESENTS

FIRING LINE

HOST: JEFF GREENFIELD

GUESTS: JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
HENRY KISSINGER EUGENE MCCARTHY
HARRIET PILPEL TOM WOLFE

SUBJECT: "BILL BUCKLEY AND FIRING LINE GET
ROASTED"

FIRING LINE is produced and directed by WARREN STEIBEL

This is a transcript of the Firing Line program
taped in New York City on January 14, 1986, and
telecast later by PBS.

SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION

[c]

MR. GREENFIELD: Hello, and welcome to a special edition of *Firing Line*. My name is Jeff Greenfield, and no, there has not been a bloodless coup. William F. Buckley Jr. is alive, well, present, and God knows, soon to be heard from. [laughter] I have temporarily fled the sleazy commercialism of ABC News for the purism of noncommercial, taxpayer-supported television to act as your host, or guide, or ringmaster for this celebration of 20 years of *Firing Line*. Most television shows don't last a single season on the air. Five years is an extraordinary achievement, a decade is often cause for national celebration. So part of our purpose tonight is to try to figure out the incredible longevity of a show that disdains every convention of the medium of television. Fred Allen once said they call TV a medium because it's rarely well done. [laughter] Always steal from the best. For instance, television is said to be a visual medium. People actually get paid for forking that out. The only element of visual interest on *Firing Line* I have ever been able to detect is whether Mr. Buckley would someday part his hair with his tongue. [laughter] TV is said to be a fast-paced medium of entertainment to keep the audience alert. *Firing Line*'s unspoken motto is, "We are going to explain this to you even if every last one of you is asleep before the program ends." [laughter] TV is a medium of glitz and trivia. *Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous* is a hit show. Mr. Buckley would not deign to deal with such fluff as *Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous* on TV. No, he saves that for the *New Yorker*. [laughter] So we have to explain this-- We have to explain this rather astonishing track record. I think one way is by pointing to another rule of traditional TV that Mr. Buckley and *Firing Line* shatter with abandon--I almost said gay abandon, but Lord knows we don't need that issue here [laughter] and that is that most television shows seek the widest possible audience. I think Mr. Buckley has made it abundantly clear over and over again that he doesn't care if anyone watches *Firing Line*. All you need to know that is to listen to his famous choice of words, which we honor tonight with these balloons, which are, appropriately enough, filled with hot air. [laughter] Ha, ha, ha. [laughter] So famous is Mr. Buckley's embrace of the sesquipedalian, that for years other TV talk show hosts spread the rumor that *Firing Line* was actually funded by a surreptitious grant from *Roget's Thesaurus*. [laughter] Such an accusation, of course, can only be described as mordacious. And it seems to me that he is also happiest about not stooping to conquer vast audiences. He would prefer to speak to those people whose grasp of public philosophy and theology and politics rivals his own. So in that sense, Mr. Buckley for 20 years has more or less been talking to himself, and who else would listen more eagerly? [laughter] If you think about the span of life of *Firing Line*, it has been a remarkable 20 years. Twenty years ago we had a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate, an intellectual world where conservatism was still slightly suspect. It is now clear that Mr. Buckley's philosophy is now everywhere, acceding to positions of power, and now the consequences of his long-held beliefs are being put to the test. And you sometimes wonder how Mr. Buckley feels about seeing his lifelong beliefs

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put into practice. The best clue, I think, is that in a reversal of a long-held position, Mr. Buckley now favors the decriminalization of hallucinogenic drugs. [laughter] People have asked many times how Mr. Buckley has managed to host a weekly TV show in the face of a pace that would kill a dozen lesser men. The answer, I think all of us know, is that he just does things more efficiently than anyone else. He has admitted that he sometimes writes his newspaper column in 20 minutes--how often, reading them, have we said, "I didn't realize it took that long to write some of those columns"?
[laughter] He writes novels in eight weeks, he writes magazine essays in 45 minutes. He wrote a children's book on a two-hour airport layover. In the few minutes I have been speaking, Mr. Buckley has composed a 12,000-line epic poem. [laughter] I think it's on the mistreatment of first-class passengers on trans-Pacific flights. Now, you may ask, what has this all to do with *Firing Line*? Well, the answer is simple. I am about to reveal a secret: Each of these shows, which lasts on your screens for an hour, is taped in seven and a half minutes. What we do, you see, is that each of the guests of Mr. Buckley talks at absolute breakneck speed. Then the producer and his staff play the tape back at one seventh the speed to fill the hour. I mean, you don't really think Buckley talks like that?
[laughter] So we come to the question of the moment, which is how do we pay tribute to so special a television program, so impressive a figure? What tribute could measure up to Mr. Buckley? No one has agonized more over this than Mr. Buckley himself. [laughter] And he had some wonderful ideas.
Unfortunately there is no more room on Mount Rushmore, and the $5 bill has been taken. [laughter] So what we did instead was to invite a group of people to share with us their thoughts about the program and about the man without whom public debate would be far more comprehensible. [laughter] When they are done, I assure you, we will probably be able to persuade Mr. Buckley to say a few words. If we fail to invite him to say those few words, you will all be treated to a TV first: the sound of wild horses attempting to restrain Mr. Buckley from the nearest microphone. Now, it may also happen that our host will feel compelled to address himself to the remarks of the celebrants. Mr. Buckley is a prime exponent of the philosophy of self-restraint in the face of temptation, so Mr. Buckley's wrestling with himself may be one of the great primetime shows in history.

And I want to begin by introducing to you our first celebrant guest. And it's very fitting that Tom will be that person, because one of *Firing Line*'s most enduring qualities--I think it's a touchstone of Bill Buckley's entire public life--is his capacity to send some of his ideological opponents into a state of hyperkinetic rage. [laughter] I have this image that every week, as Mr. Buckley's views fill the ether, there are whole neighborhoods in Berkeley, California, and Madison, Wisconsin, and the upper west side of Manhattan, that are bathed in an almost palpable aura of indignation: How can he say that? And why does he seem to be having so much fun when he says it?
[laughter] Mr. Buckley, of course, would never dream of

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inflicting such intentional emotional injury, but he shares
that capacity with Tom Wolfe, our first speaker. It seems that
every time Tom Wolfe offers himself up with an opinion on art,
architecture, the habits of the affluent progressives, he
triggers a thermonuclear blast of indignation. It has been
proposed that as a public health issue, every time Tom Wolfe
publishes something, cardiac care units be set up in newsstands
in big cities. [laughter] It has happened for more than two
decades, from *The Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby* through
*The Right Stuff* and *From Our House to Bauhaus*, and of course,
*Radical Chic*, a term which I assume will live forever in the
public debate. And I suspect that when Mr. Wolfe's first novel
comes out, the doctors of our major cities will be fully and
gainfully employed for months to come. Tom Wolfe. [applause]

MR. WOLFE: Well, thank you very much, Jeff. You know, this, I think we all agree, is really a terrific event: a celebrity roast. [laughter] I congratulate you, Bill. You have finally managed to elevate *Firing Line* to the level of Alan King and Dean Martin, Don Rickles, the Friars and late afternoon network television. It's a real accomplishment. You may wonder, and I think the loyal viewers of *Firing Line* are certainly going to wonder, how it has come to this. Well, it's an open secret, so I don't think I'm revealing anything that's not known, certainly within the production corps of *Firing Line*. It all goes back to a review several weeks ago in *The New York Times* of Bill Buckley's latest book, *Right Reason*, by Morton Kondracke, a registered liberal. This review opens with the following: "Many of us disagree with Bill Buckley. Many of us obviously, agree with Bill Buckley. But all of us love him. He is a national treasure. And he is now 60 years old." Now you can imagine the panic that set into Bill Buckley and you can imagine why this event, this roast, this celebrity roast has been-- You know, of course, what national treasure is a codeword for. That means that you are now old, flabby, toothless, benign, no longer a threat of any sort. [laughter] Who are the national treasures that-- Who is on this Olympus that Bill Buckley has now ascended to? Well, first of all, I. F. Stone. He is constantly referred to as a national treasure. I was talking to bona fide, hardline right-wing political commentator the other day, who told me, he said, "You know, Izzy--" He called him Izzy. "Izzy Stone is 72 years old now, and he has begun to learn Greek. He has just started learning Greek." You see, that is something you can look forward to, Bill. Bill always likes to give an appearance of being busy at all times. [laughter] You know, that's one of the great myths that he has created. That is something you can look forward to. Lillian Hellman was referred to continually as a national treasure before she and her black coat truckled under for the last time a couple of years ago. [laughter] Michael Harrington is a national treasure. Of course, if there are 200 million Americans and you are the only socialist, you are kind of a rare metal, so in that case, you do become kind of a national treasure. [laughter] Let's see, who else can we think of who is a national treasure? Gore Vidal. [laughter] Twice in the last six weeks I have seen Gore Vidal referred to

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as a national treasure. You're really in terrific company now,
Bill. [laughter] You're a national treasure. Many things
were said about the late Truman Capote. But no one ever found
him so little of a threat as to call him a national treasure.
[laughter] Now, the thing that I hope to do for Bill Buckley
today is to inform him--I don't think he understands--how this
has come about, and I think it's one thing I can do for him is
to try to tell him. And that is, you know, he has managed to
create the reputation of being America's foremost fearless
polemicist. Someone who just lets the chips fall where they
may, and someone who always has a "rapier-like"--I've read that
phrase a thousand times--"rapier-like ripostes" to anyone who
dares confront him, who sticks to an ideological position,
doesn't care who it is who is coming after him. Well, let's
just look at the record a little bit and see exactly how Bill
Buckley does handle these people. I think exhibit number one
has to be *The New York Times*. Now, every writer, every
politician knows that the ill will or good will of *The New
York Times* is a potent force that you simply cannot ignore.
The only person who is willing to ignore this is Bill Buckley.
The only person who doesn't care what *The New York Times* thinks
about him is Bill Buckley. And I have to take my hat off to
him. I will give you an example of how he does this. The
archliberal editorial writer of all times was John Oakes. I
think we can all agree on that. Certainly Bill Buckley regards
him as that: the arch example of the liberal editorial writer.
Buckley was not afraid to take him on. He said in print that
John Oakes has no sense of humor. Now, you may not consider
that a very formidable insult. [laughter] But in fact it's a
terrible insult. The worst insult you can give to someone
today is to say that he or she is undersexed. [laughter] But
the second greatest insult is to say that that person has no
sense of humor. And Bill Buckley said this about John Oakes.
Now, it is true that fearing that this had been a really
grievous wound to John Oakes in his retirement now, he added
that the reason John Oakes has no sense of humor is that he
has, over 40 years at *The New York Times*, created the modern
world as we see it. And as he gazes out upon it, he is very
melancholy at what he has wrought. Well, you can imagine how
John Oakes bleeds at night reading these words. [laughter] He
has no sense of humor. Of course, he has created the world we
live in [laughter], he's the most influential writer since
Freud and Marx, so I think we can safely assume that tonight
John Oakes is at home-- He's also a tooth-flicker, by the way.
He is a great one with the pipe. He is at home tonight saying,
"Buckley's ideas are frozen in the past. God, I love the guy.
You know, he is a national treasure." [laughter] Now, Buckley
realized that in fact the corporate body of *The New York Times*,
even though Oakes has retired, might still be offended by this
imputation of a lack of a sense of humor, so he went on, in the
same column, he went on to say that two other people at
*The New York Times* happen to have the greatest senses of humor
that he has ever run into, namely Abe Rosenthal and Punch
Sulzberger. [laughter] In fact, he said that Abe Rosenthal
is the funniest man alive. He said that Abe Rosenthal and
Punch Sulzberger together have a wit, a sense of humor--I'm

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paraphrasing, but only slightly--that makes George Bernard
Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, and Petroleum V. Nasby look like
a lineup of toll booth attendants. [laughter] That is what I
call letting the chips fall where they may. I think you can
now begin to understand why we have been convened here this
evening. Bill Buckley is in desperate need of insults. He is
in desperate need of being thought of as a threat--a threat
once again. And I was told before I came on that I should be
colorfully rude tonight, and that I should come up with some
insults. Now, ordinarily I never break a confidence, but since
I have been told by the staff of this very organization that I
should be colorfully rude, I think it is fair for me to reveal
something that I should not reveal, which is that next week on
Firing Line--this is the truth--there is going to be a surprise
guest. That surprise guest is going to be none other than Gore
Vidal. [laughter] The examiner--you know, this kind of
interlocutor is brought on during the program--Paul Newman.
[laughter] And I have had access to the introduction that Bill
Buckley has already written for Gore Vidal, and it says, "My
guest today, Mr. Gore Vidal, is the sort of author who assumes,
because he is arguably"--incidentally, Bill, that is a very
trite barbarism, this favorite word of yours, "arguably." It's
on a level with "hopefully." "Because he is arguably our
finest living novelist and our most brilliant and outrageous
political essayist, he is thereby ipso facto indictum sit"
[laughter] which, incidentally, is an expression that makes no
sense in this context--"that ipso facto indictum sit exempt
from even the most elementary obligation to be truthful." Now,
Vidal is going to be reeling when he hears that, of course. I
mean, he is only brilliant, outrageous, the best novelist in
the country--

MR. BUCKLEY: Are you talking about-- [inaudible]

MR. WOLFE: Talk is cheap when he is up against it, but you
know, he is waiting-- He envisions actually seeing--having
Gore Vidal on his terrace at Rapallo, saying of an evening,
"Buckley has been very evil and he has called me a lot of
names, but I can't help it. I love the guy. He is a national
treasure." [laughter] "He's 60 years old, and he has the
cutest wire hairs growing out of his ear." [laughter,
applause]

MR. GREENFIELD: Thank you, Thomas. Over the past three
decades, I guess it is safe to say that Ken Galbraith has taxed
Mr. Buckley's patience almost as much as he desires to tax Mr.
Buckley's income. [laughter] This most towering of American
economists literally has been the author of dozens of ideas,
every one of which seems specifically designed to get Bill's
blood pressure rising. If they have ever supported the same
politician for any office over the level of coroner, it's only
by the purest of coincidences. So why is Ken Galbraith here?
Well, they share enthusiasms is why. Skiing, for one. The
writing of bestselling novels, for another. But I think, most
important, they share something else in common. Ken Galbraith
is known to regard Bill Buckley as a master stylist, a gifted

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advocate, a witty, charming, altogether delightful companion.
Bill Buckley agrees. [laughter] Ken Galbraith. [applause]

MR. GALBRAITH: Well, I share the pleasure of all in being here this evening, and I rejoice, as do so many others, in my years of friendship with Bill Buckley. And from those years comes my explanation, Bill, of the success of *Firing Line*. You are a man of great kindness, wonderfully exempt from that terrible solemnity that afflicts all conservatives and even a few liberals. You are also a very good skier [laughter] who once thought my slightly erratic, even alarming, performance on the slopes to be a metaphor of my economics. Bill Buckley is also a liberating force in one's life. We hear much in our time of freedom of thought. For most of us, this is a small thing as compared with freedom from thought. [laughter] This, Bill competently and consistently provides. If he takes a position, you can take the opposite one without troubling thought that you might be wrong. [laughter] There is also, my friends, his wonderful flexibility of mind and expression to the extent, of course, that these are in any way related. [laughter] Once he was an ardent exponent of conservative public finance--I must get back to economics now. He was one of the most compelling of critics of that most inimitable of figures, John Maynard Keynes. Now, as a supporter of Ronald Reagan, he blesses the largest peacetime deficits in our history and our efforts to become the world's largest debtor nation--more than Argentina, more than Brazil, more than Mexico. First Keynes, and now Reagan and Buckley. Mr. Reagan has remained faithful, as has Buckley, to the old Buckley principle of income distribution--once in distant past times called the trickle-down doctrine, now designated as I've elsewhere told, the horse-and-sparrow theory. This theory holds that if you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road to the sparrow.

[laughter] And Bill has found no reason to quarrel with the administration's view of incentives, a view which holds that the rich--Mr. Buckley possibly excepted--have not been working in these last years because they have too little money and the poor have not been working because they have too much. Here, I say, he has been able to remain constant. It is a small reward to a man who has had to surrender so much. We greet him tonight with appreciation of that adaptability, combined as ever, my friends, with great affection. Thank you all.

MR. GREENFIELD: Now, our next celebrant fills a role on *Firing Line* that came about shortly after the show was created, when Mr. Buckley and the producers realized that on those occasions when Bill Buckley and his guests were in total agreement, that might be pleasant atmospherics, but lousy television. So they took out some insurance by inviting people who would be more inclined to disagree with Mr. Buckley's views. It started out as a panel of youths--several of which will soon be released from federal correctional institutions for substance abuse, as I recall--and then became a single examiner, the still small voice of reason who would be heard when Mr. Buckley's more extravagant assertions passed through the asteroid belt on its way distant from reality. [laughter]

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Nobody, I think it fair to say, present company included, has served this function with more zest and bite than Harriet Pilpel, possibly because she brings to her work a splendid record as a lawyer with the firm of Weil, Gotshal and Manges-- yes, you can advertise now on television, the Supreme Court says--but more important as counsel to several organizations Mr. Buckley would most eagerly like to see disappear from the face of the earth: Planned Parenthood and, of course, the ever-popular American Civil Liberties Union. Her battles for women's rights and reproductive freedom so impress Mr. Buckley that on her behalf on a recent birthday he purchased several plenary indulgences for her. [laughter] Ms. Harriet Pilpel. [applause]

MS. PILPEL: Thank you for the indulgences. When I told someone that I was going to participate in a roast of Bill Buckley, he advised me as follows: "Don't try to be funny. You're not a humorist. The other people on the program probably are. Don't try to be profound. Bill is at least as profound as you are. Above all, don't try to be sincere. Just be yourself." [laughter] I am disregarding this advice only to the extent of being sincere and myself. I grew up with the notion that if you built a better mousetrap, the world would beat a path to your door. My picture was of a rustic path meandering through the kind of beautiful woods we think of in connection with Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood. While most of us are lucky if the world beats one path to our door, the paths made by the world to Bill Buckley's door are probably more like an eight-lane highway, all going to the same builder of many different kinds of mousetraps. From time to time this leads me to wonder whether maybe I may be a mouse and whether Bill does not in fact set traps for the unwary, but if he does, I have not been aware of it. Overall, the question I've asked myself is, is a man as good at as many things as Bill perfect? First of all, I thought I would take it from his point of view. Does he think he's perfect? [laughter] While there are times when he really seems to think he's perfect, the truth is that most of the time he is too busy to consider at all such questions as what degree of perfection he has attained. [laughter] He is much too occupied with building various mousetraps to think about himself one way or the other. I doubt very much if any one of us would take the time to reflect on whether we have become perfect. If we had written bestselling mysteries, bestselling novels, bestselling nonfiction works, bestselling children's book, run a successful magazine, a successful television program, a successful column, is a great connoisseur of art and music, plays the piano exquisitely as I heard before this meeting started, no doubt as a way of relaxing. He, I know, typewrites on planes. [laughter] I did not know until tonight that he was a wonderful skier, but I am not surprised. Why do the rest of us consider him perfect, or do we? I don't consider him perfect because one of the necessary aspects of perfection is openmindedness, and I don't think Bill has ever been accused of that. [laughter] I remember when two other women and I traveled all the way to Columbia, South Carolina, armed with

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facts and figures to show Bill on *Firing Line* that women still don't have it as good as men in today's world. He turned us off with a flat contradiction, a few words I didn't understand, and some lighthearted jokes. If you argue with Bill about freedom of choice with reference to abortion, he will take the position that no freedom of choice is possible, that abortion is wrong and that Bill is right. He has no doubts about all of his opinions being correct or that he has the right answer to all important questions. We poor liberals have a fundamental belief that there are many answers to most questions and that diversity of point of view is an essential aspect of democracy. When it comes to Bill's point of view, that is not true. However, Bill does not always appear the perfect conservative. Occasionally he does and says things which do not fit the pattern. There was and is, for example, his loyalty and affection for and support of Allard Lowenstein, a liberal. I think that Bill's eulogy at Allard Lowenstein's memorial service was the most beautiful eulogy I have ever heard. Then there was the time he loaned me his car and chauffeur to take me to the airport so I wouldn't miss my plane, even though for all he knew, I was going someplace to lecture on freedom of choice on abortion. [laughter] Incidentally, I may say in this connection that Bill has a powerful effect on those around him, including animals. For example, on my trip to the airport that day, a lap robe kept slipping down from the back of the back seat of this very luxurious car and I kept pushing it up. Finally it came down to the seat anyway, and I finally looked at it and saw it was not a lap robe, but a dog. [laughter] I was subsequently told by the chauffeur that this dog is an original thinker like Bill and has chosen to make the car his permanent home. [laughter] On the basis of my acquaintance with Bill for many years, I have a sneaking suspicion that he is not a pure conservative. He certainly is not openminded and he does think that there is one right answer to most questions, namely his. It is just possible, however, that at least in some respects--he would never admit it--he may be a closet liberal. [laughter] As recently as this past Sunday on *Firing Line*, with Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut, both described by John Correy of *The New York Times* as being somewhat left of center, Bill did not take umbrage to many of their statements. I think that was not only because he is a polite host, but because also there is that small chink of openmindedness which occasionally enables him to absorb what is said by those who disagree with him. As to *Firing Line* itself, it is one of the longest running consecutive discussion programs, or any program, in the United States, and I think it should be. It allows more time for discussion in depth of controversial issues than any other program on television: one whole hour with no commercials. While *Firing Line* is an ideal platform for Bill himself, it is also a platform for those who disagree with him. Of course sometimes he has programs where no one disagrees with him, but those are the ones they do turn off after eight minutes [laughter] and they are the exception rather than the rule. We liberals follow Thomas Jefferson's precept, that while we disagree with most of what Bill Buckley says, we will fight to the death for his right to say it. At

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the present time in the present climate of opinion and in view
of his political stands, it is not likely we will soon be
called to battle. [laughter] As John Correy said in the
Sunday Times this past week in that same article, Firing Line
is touching upon important issues. So to Firing Line, after 20
years, I say happy birthday, and to Bill I say happy birthday
too, and may you achieve even greater wisdom in the next 20
years--all of which adds up to my conclusion: I disapprove of
liking Bill as much as I do, but I'm glad I do. I'm glad I do
for many reasons, including the fact that after I disagree with
Bill about an issue I feel strongly about, I find that I think
and speak more effectively in favor of that issue if Bill has
opposed it [laughter]--so thanks for that too. [applause]

MR. GREENFIELD: Harriet, you have given us a new source of
controversy: Bill Buckley's dog has his own limousine.
[laughter] God, if they were angry at him before out there,
they are going to be livid now. [laughter] Now, to those who
marched in the Children's Crusade through the snows of New
Hampshire in 1968, it must have been a shock when former
Senator Eugene McCarthy endorsed the presidential candidacy of
Ronald Reagan at the end of the 1980 campaign. There were many
attempts to find out why. I think tonight, Gene and Bill, we
can reveal the truth. It was a black bag job by that former
CIA employee, none other than William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley
knew precisely the soft underbelly of Eugene McCarthy's
commitment to the Democrats: baseball. It may not be known,
but the former senior senator from Minnesota has a passion for
the great American pastime that is perhaps the best evidence we
have of his sound mind and good judgment. Now it has to be
conceded at this point, on the other hand, that popular sports
may be one of the only areas of public life in which Mr.
Buckley's knowledge is less than extensive. [laughter] I
heard him once that he thinks that Dwight Gooden's ERA is a
measure of his support for the constitutional amendment.
[laughter] Nonetheless, Buckley managed to convince Eugene
McCarthy that the position of commissioner of baseball had
become a presidential appointment. [laughter] And the rest is
history. Ladies and gentlemen, Eugene McCarthy.

MR. MCCARTHY: Thank you, Jeff. I really hadn't anticipated
having to explain that endorsement, but I think I will take a
few minutes to do it. You may remember that in 1980 there were
three candidates for the presidency: Anderson, Jimmy Carter,
and Ronald Reagan, and I decided to subject them to three
tests, all of which I think Bill Buckley would have approved,
at least as tests. And the first was theology, or philosophy,
and the issue, you may recall, was creationism. And Anderson
said he was both for evolution and creation, which is a safe
liberal Republican position. You would expect him to be there.
[laughter] Jimmy said he believed in evolution, but not only
did he believe in it, but he said he could do it. [laughter]
He said he would evolve a policy. And Ronald said he just
believed in creationism. So I thought on that score, it's
really good to have a president who doesn't say I believe in
evolution, because nothing evolves really in four years anyway

9

[c]

[laughter] and it gives an excuse to say, "Well, I believe in evolution, not in revolution." If that language had been around when Jefferson was here, we would probably still be subject to the Crown. So I came down slightly on the side of Ronald. And he's been proving it true. I heard the other day-- Well, I was never invited to the White House by Carter, excepting by accident with the poets. Actually, I was invited by his wife. He didn't invite the poets. It was done by his wife. And anyway, I went down, and there were about 150 poets lined up waiting to get in. It was a cold, windy day, and suddenly a terrible noise came out of the magnolia tree, and as poets are sensitive--most of them are--I understood, but-- So I reassured them. They didn't know what it was. And I said, "Well, that's the frightened sound of the starling being reproduced electronically to scare the starlings away from the White House. The electronic device is in that magnolia tree." So I quieted them and they went on into the White House. And I learned the other day that the Reagan administration has taken the electronic starling frightener out of the tree and had replaced it with two stuffed snakes. I mean, that's fundamental creationism. [laughter] I mean, it's right out of the Bible. And then the second point I thought I would raise was intellectual discipline, I suppose. I mean, how do they approach problems and how do they read? And Anderson said he was a voracious reader, and I wondered about that. I would sort of accuse Bill of that, but in Anderson's case I had a feeling that he got most of his vocabulary out of the Reader's Digest "Word Power" study. I mean, he'd pick this up and he'd say things like "denigrate," you know, which is far short of what we have in the helium-filled balloons here. [laughter] Jimmy said that he was a speed reader and that his retention rate had improved by 50 percent. Well, that worried me, because, you know, 50 percent of what? [laughter] Where did he start, and what 50 percent was he retaining? [laughter] And you get to saying, well, the president ought to do better than that. You could say that if it's something he should read it shouldn't be speed-read, and if it should be speed-read he shouldn't be reading it. [laughter] And Ronald said that he didn't read much. So again, I thought Ronald scored best on that count. [laughter] I'd rather take a chance on a non-reader in the White House than a speed reader or a voracious reader. And finally I worked it down to religion, and they were all re-born. They said they were. It's awfully hard to set up any objective standards for judging the re-born. There's no history, there's no theology. They have only one witness. [laughter] So I had to take their own testimony. And Jimmy said he was re-born in the woods with his sister. And he knew what had happened and what it did to him. So that sort of set that up. [laughter] Anderson said he was re-born when he was 14 on hearing the gospel of the beheading of John the Baptist, and Salome's dance, and John never explained whether it was the beheading or the veils that did it to him [laughter] but he said he was re-born. And Ronald said he was re-born but he really didn't know quite what had happened or what it had done to him. [laughter] And so I ran all these three together, and again I thought he scored highest on

10

[L]

religion. And the other was a more profound principle which I sort of learned from watching Nixon, which is that: You're looking at presidential candidates; you don't really pay any attention to what they say they'll do that they can't do, or what they won't do that they couldn't do. But you begin to look at what they say they would do that they could do. But the thing to look at is what they say they won't do which they could do if they decided to do it. [laughter] And I watched Richard Nixon for something like 20 years and then when he got to be president he said the last thing he would ever do as president was recognize China. And it was. [laughter, applause] You never know. Well, this is a far cry from Bill Buckley and what I intended to say, but you sort of challenged me to explain this. There are two or three things that-- I really didn't know why I was invited here. [laughter] I'm not a great reader of-- Well, I've only been on *Firing Line* two or three times, and I'm not a great reader of the magazine. I read it more when the Democrats were in power, actually. I found the *National Review* more pertinent then. [laughter] As of now it's relatively irrelevant, I think, and I sort of pass it by, but in any case it is one of the best invitations I've had in several months. [laughter] I spoke at the funeral of a senator. I spoke at the eightieth birthday of Pat Brown, and the liveliest thing I've been invited to recently was the retirement of a judge at 70. [laughter] So working into something that's stimulating and active, and also it's sort of a change of speech. I found in each of these three cases, I had spoken of them when they were getting into politics, when they were in it, and when they were out, and I gave the same speech on each occasion [laughter] excepting to change the tense. I said, "He will be, he is, he has been." [laughter] And I hope I can say this about Bill: My first knowledge of Bill was when he was pursuing God at Yale. I think God has been running from him ever since. [laughter] He doesn't want to get caught on *Firing Line*, and Bill would say, "Why did you let that ape stand up in that Miocene Age?" What would God say? "It all came apart." "Keep him on all fours. There's no need to have any of these radical steps." [laughter] Well, in any case, Bill was said to be precocious. When he was 20, they said he talked and thought like a man of 40. When he was 40 they said he talked and thought like a man of 60. Now at 60 he thinks and talks like a man of 80. [laughter] And he's saying the same things now that he said when he was 20, so you have a kind of an inborn precocity that has run for 60 years and may run for 20 more. Well, in any case, Bill has not caught God yet and he hasn't quite caught the liberals, although he has forced them all to deny their name. [laughter] I would conclude-- Well, I would make two points about his achievements. He has influenced the Reagan administration in ways somewhat different from what Kenneth Galbraith has pointed out. One was the snakes, I think. I'll give him credit for that. The other is that he's changed the White House dog, [laughter] which was a good working dog. A Bouvier is a cowherding dog. And now we have a King's Spaniel, a real achievement. [laughter] Well, I will conclude, but I thought someone would say that Bill is his own worst enemy. He isn't.

11

[L.C.]

12

[L]

13

[C]

that he was always threatening to read one. [laughter] There
is, unhappily, no time given to me to speak beyond a very few
words. I probably should acknowledge our genial host, Jeff
Greenfield's, references to the ascendency of my ideas. It is
quite right that I don't stoop to conquer--I merely conquer.
[laughter] And the reason for that, of course, is that we are
all wedded to the notion that dialogue permits the correct
ideas to rise, like hot air. Ha, ha, ha, ha. [laughter] And
of course we have evidence all over, as witness that only
yesterday the mayor of New York suggested that we meter the
consumption of water, a suggestion, as Ken Auletta reminded me,
that I made 20 years ago when I ran for mayor, and which it is
true that if I won again, my campaign slogan would be, "Voting
by invitation only." [laughter] In any event, I noted only a
few weeks ago on another occasion that nothing tires an
audience more than expressions of gratitude and for this reason
I will refrain even from the most imperative expression of
gratitude, to Professor Galbraith, to whom all of us owe so
much for not exercising political power. [laughter]
Accordingly, I hereby pledge not to express my gratitude to
Jeff Greenfield, Harriet Pilpel, Tom Wolfe, Gene McCarthy, John
Kenneth Galbraith and Henry Kissinger for their courtesy in
being with us tonight. I recall that that is what the
rhetoricians call paralepsis, which is one of those words some
people put on balloons. [laughter] But there is an exception.
We've done in the last 20 years I figure approximately 1,000
hours of television, so I am going to take one and one half
minutes to say that it is inconceivable that this ordeal would
have been possible for me save for Warren Steibel, the
impresario of this program, with which I had nothing to do. He
has been the producer for 24 years, and get this, he is a
liberal Democrat [laughter]. It is no doubt on account of the
weekly mortification of the soul he experiences on *Firing Line*
that he is otherwise self-indulgent, all 250 pounds of him.
[laughter] Especially, because he is not by temperament
himself a patient man, that he knows and sympathizes with the
little irritations other impatient people feel, such as talking
too long. He has never asked me to be physically present at a
television show five minutes before my presence was actually
needed, yet he can be fatalistic. He did not complain on the
day the camera broke down, keeping Richard Nixon waiting for
three hours. [laughter] He said nothing when the hand grenade
went off in the cafeteria in Saigon five minutes after Warren
had passed by for his third cup of coffee and his 16th
breakfast roll. [laughter] As long as he's left free to smoke
his cigar and as long as everyone in the studio does exactly
what he wants, he is perfectly serene. And so I am reminded
finally of a documentary I saw several years ago. It was of
President Richard Nixon at the inaugural ball in Washington, at
which Guy Lombardo was the orchestra leader. President Nixon
faced him beaming and said to the crowd, "You know, when V-J
Day came, Pat and I were in Times Square. We really felt like
celebrating, but to get into the Roosevelt Hotel, where Guy
Lombardo was playing cost $3." [laughter] "But I said to
Pat, "Pat, let's just splurge today. So we went into and
listened to you, Guy. And I want to tell you this. I hope at

14

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RECENT FIRING LINE PROGRAMS

<table><thead><tr><th>PROGRAM<br>NUMBER/TITLE</th><th>GUESTS</th><th>ORIGINAL BROADCAST<br>DATE</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>665. THE PROBLEMS IN<br>THE PHILIPPINES</td><td>Rep. Stephen<br>Solarz (D-NY)<br>Rep. Henry Hyde<br>(R-IL)</td><td>November 1, 1985</td></tr><tr><td>666. THE CRISIS IN<br>CONGRESS</td><td>Rep. Robert<br>Dornan (R-CA)<br>Otis Pike (former<br>D-NY Rep.)</td><td>November 8, 1985</td></tr><tr><td>667. WHAT ABOUT CORPOR-<br>ATE PROFITS?</td><td>Mark Green<br>Lewis Lehrman</td><td>November 15, 1985</td></tr><tr><td>668. DEMOCRATIC POLITICS<br>TEXAS STYLE</td><td>Gov. Mark White<br>Ex. Wm. Murchison, Jr</td><td>November 22, 1985</td></tr><tr><td>669. THE HISPANIC RUMBLE</td><td>Adelfa Callejo<br>Ruben Bonilla<br>Richard Rubottom<br>Ex.: Wm. Murchison<br>Jr.</td><td>November 29, 1985</td></tr><tr><td>670. CRY, THE BELOVED<br>COUNTRY</td><td>Joseph Lelyveld<br>John Hutchinson</td><td>December 6, 1985</td></tr><tr><td>671. A LOOK AT THE<br>HILLSIDE STRANGLERS</td><td>Darcy O'Brien<br>John G. Watkins</td><td>December 13, 1985</td></tr><tr><td>432R. HOW DOES ONE FIND<br>FAITH</td><td>Malcolm Muggeridge</td><td>October 5, 1980</td></tr><tr><td>656R. A MUSICAL QUESTION:<br>TO PERFORM OR NOT<br>PERFORM</td><td>Tim Page<br>Rosalyn Tureck<br>Schuyler Chapin</td><td>August 23, 1985</td></tr><tr><td>672. THE RIGHT TO DIE</td><td>Alice Mehling<br>Rev. Robert Barry</td><td>January 3, 1986</td></tr><tr><td>673. WHAT DOES PEN HAVE<br>TO OFFER?</td><td>Norman Mailer<br>Kurt Vonnegut</td><td>January 10, 1986</td></tr><tr><td>674. "AIDS: THE RIGHTS<br>OF THE PATIENT, THE<br>RIGHTS OF THE PUBLIC</td><td>Alan Dershowitz<br>Ex.: Richard<br>Brookhiser</td><td>January 17, 1986</td></tr><tr><td>667R. WHAT ABOUT CORPORATE<br>PROFITS?</td><td>Mark Green<br>Victor Frank</td><td>November 15, 1985</td></tr></tbody></table>

[L]

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01/07/91

01:27

001

## DENT REAGAN

AND GENTLEMEN, I mean it
ly when I say it is a delight
come tonight. The editors, as-
and friends of NATIONAL RE-
celebrated not just for skill-
ment and sound polemics, but
wit, warmth--even merriment
their gatherings.

I admit that like most of his
I wonder if Bill Buckley's well-
regard for fun doesn't get a
out of hand. A couple of years
made a congratulatory phone
an anniversary party for Bill
y's television show. Now, as you
Firing Line attracts many impor-
quests, some of whom, however,
also very, very controversial. No
had I picked up the phone and
"Hello," than Bill's voice came
ing through: "Mr. President, I'm
ing here with Gordon Liddy on
right and Howard Hunt on my
and we await your orders, sir."

And once when Bill was asked what
he wanted in the Administration
his friend the President, he replied
his typically retiring and deferential
y: "Ventriloquist."

But when you think about it, the
rd "fun" really is important to the
caning of NATIONAL REVIEW and the
nservative movement it fostered, a
rd, as Bill Buckley might put it,
it is "transcendentally freighted, reso-
ut with metaphysical meaning and
certone." By which he would mean (I
ot used to interpreting in Geneva--so
ith your permission. Bill) it is a
ord not very popular in our century.
specially with those who preach the
upremacy of the state, who think they
an remake man and society in the
mage of a brave new world. For
these serious people, earthly paradise
is always just around the corner, and
evenings like these are bourgeois dis-
tractions. Laughter itself is suspect; and
even fun is an act of subversion. It is
purportedly why Lenin refused to listen
to music.

But it is also why all of us are here
tonight—to celebrate thirty years of
witty, civilized pages from our beloved
NATIONAL REVIEW and the damage, the
terminal damage, those pages have done
to modern statism and its unrelenting
grimness.

Since its beginning in 1955, NATION-
AL REVIEW has argued that politics and
state power—like all human endeavors

- have their limitations, and that ac-
knowledging those limitations is the
beginning of political--even earthly--
wisdom. It is really an acknowledgment
that God means for us—at least some-
times—to take life as it comes: to
woo, to laugh, to love, and to make
room, as you have tonight and through-
out the thirty-year life span of NATION-
AL REVIEW, for fun.

If any of you doubt the impact of
NATIONAL REVIEW'S verve and attrac-

tiveness, take a look around you this
evening. The man standing before you
now was a Democrat when he picked
up his first issue in a plain brown
wrapper; and even now, as an occu
punt of public housing, he awaits as
anxiously as ever his biweekly edition
--without the wrapper. Over here is
the Director of the Central Intelligence
Agency, who, besides running a suc
cessful presidential campaign in 1980,
is the same New York lawyer who
drew up the incorporation papers for
NATIONAL REVIEW. Or ask any of the
young leaders in the media, academia,
or government here tonight to name
the principal intellectual influence in
their formative years. On this point, I
can assure you: NATIONAL REVIEW is to
the offices of the West Wing of the
White House what People magazine is
to your dentist's waiting room.

So in standing up, then, for what
Russell Kirk might call the metaphysics
of fun, I think history will show NA-
TIONAL REVIEW also launched a spirited
and decisive defense of freedom. NR
taught several generations of conserv-
atives that it is this recognition of a
higher order that enables the individual

## WESTERN UNION

TO: CHARLTON HESTON
PLAZA HOTEL, NEW YORK

DEAR MR. HESTON.
THE ENCLOSED IS FOR WFB.

DEAR BILL:

WHEN WE FIRST MET, OVER THIRTY YEARS AGO NOW, YOU TOLO ME
WITH AN ASSURANCE THAT EVEN THE DECADES HAVE NOT MANAGED
TO ENHANCE OF YOUR PLANS FOR A JOURNAL TO EXPRESS CONSERVA-
TIVE THOUGHT AND TO MOVE THE POLITICAL CENTER OF GRAVITY OF
OUR COUNTRY. I CANNOT SAY THAT I WAS SEIZED WITH THE URGENCY
OF EITHER OBJECTIVE, BUT I WAS NOT TOO CONCERNED BECAUSE,
FANKLY, I DID NOT BELIEVE YOU COULD BRING IT OFF.

FORTUNATELY, I WAS WRONG ON ALL COUNTS. NATIONAL REVIEW
HAS EXCEEDED EVEN YOUR VISION. IT HAS LEFT ITS MARK ON OUR
NATION. IN THE PROCESS IT HAS ALSO LEFT A FEW MARKS ON ME,
NO DOUBT TO THE ULTIMATE BENEFIT OF ALL THOSE WHO CHERISH
LIBERTY.

YOU HAVE DISARMED YOUR CRITICS, INSPIRED YOUR FRIENDS, AND
SERVED THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM.
WHAT MORE CAN BE SAID EXCEPT THE PRIDE ALL YOUR FRIENDS
FEEL AT THEIR GOOD FORTUNE THAT YOU TOUCHED THEIR LIVES.

WHAT MORE CAN BE SAID EXCEPT THE PRIDE ALL YOUR FRIENDS
FEEL AT THEIR GOOD FORTUNE THAT YOU TOUCHED THEIR LIVES.
AS ALWAYS,
HENRY [A. KISSINGER]

DECEMBER 31, 1985 / NATIONAL REVIEW 127

FIRING

LINE

NEWSLETTER

A production
of the
SOUTHERN
EDUCATIONAL
COMMUNICATIONS
ASSOCIATION

SECA
P.O. Box 5966
Columbia, S.C. 29250
(803) 799-5517

"BILL BUCKLEY AND FIRING LINE GET 'ROASTED'"

NATIONAL REVIEW

150 E. 35th Street
New York, N.Y. 10016
(212) 679-7409

Guests:

Jeff Greenfield, Tom Wolfe, John Kenneth Galbraith, Harriet Pilpel, Eugene McCarthy, Henry Kissinger

#1531 for air on PBS the week of February 28, 1986

Interest: The Revenge of the FIRING LINE Guests

Rating:

Public Interest ***
Performance ****
Entertainment *****

"How do we pay tribute to so special a television program, so impressive a figure? What tribute could measure up to Mr. Buckley? No one has agonized more over this than Mr. Buckley himself, and he had some wonderful ideas. Unfortunately, there is no more room on Mount Rushmore and the five-dollar bill is taken."—Greenfield

Comment:

The zest with which Jeff Greenfield opens the roast of Mr. Buckley and FIRING LINE sets a fast pace for this entertaining, not to say, hilarious hour. His analysis of how FIRING LINE disdains all conventional rules for television success is a marvel of mental jujitsu. Mr. Wolfe carries on the tradition of the roast in high style, lambasting "national treasures," the right, the left and the peculiar. Mrs. Pilpel is her engaging self—an unreconstructed liberal from the days when liberals knew who they were. One has the feeling that some of the august roasters never turn on commercial TV, and so do not know what a "roast" is. However, they manfully rise to the occasion with majestic quips. Senator McCarthy's free-lance digression on why he voted for Reagan in 1980, although it has nothing to do with the roast, is one of the show's funniest moments. We'll never know Mr. Buckley's full prowess as a roastee, for although he makes a spirited start, inexorable Time closes down the hour. The show, especially featuring the dazzling display of roastmanship by Mr. Greenfield and Mr. Wolfe, is pure fun. Alan King and Don Rickles should look for other work.

Mr. Greenfield's Introduction:

Hello, and welcome to a special edition of FIRING LINE. My name is Jeff Greenfield, and, no, there has not been a bloodless coup. William F. Buckley is alive, well, present and, God knows, soon to be heard from. I have temporarily fled the sleezy commercialism of ABC News for the purism of non-commercial, taxpayer-supported television to act as your host or guide or ringmaster for this celebration of 20 years of FIRING LINE.

Most television shows don't last a single season on the air. Five years is an extraordinary achievement, a decade is often cause for national celebration. So part of our purpose tonight is to try to figure out the incredible longevity of a show that disdains every convention of the medium of television. Fred Allen once said they call television a

* Poor

** Fair

*** Good

**** Excellent

medium because it's rarely well done...For instance, television is said to be a visual medium...The only element of visual interest on FIRING LINE I have ever been able to detect is whether Mr. Buckley would someday part his hair with his tongue...

So what we did was to invite a group of people to share with us their thoughts about the program and about the man without whom public debate would be far more comprehensible...

It's very fitting that Tom Wolfe be (our first celebrant), because one of FIRING LINE's most enduring qualities...is [Bill Buckley's] capacity to send some of his ideological opponents into a state of hyperkinetic rage...He shares that capacity with Tom Wolfe...

Over the past three decades...Ken Galbraith has taxed Mr. Buckley's patience almost as much as he desires to tax Mr. Buckley's income. This most towering of American economists, literally, has been the author of dozens of ideas, every one of which seems specifically designed to get Bill's blood pressure rising...

Nobody, present company included, served (the function of examiner) with more zest and bite than Harriet Pilpel, possibly because she brings to her work a splendid record...as counsel to several organizations Mr. Buckley would most eagerly like to see disappear from the face of the earth: Planned Parenthood and the ever-popular Civil Liberties Union...

It must have been a shock when former senator Eugene McCarthy endorsed the candidacy of Ronald Reagan...There were many attempts to find out why...It was a black-bag job by...William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley knew precisely the soft underbelly of Eugene McCarthy's commitment to the Democrats: baseball...It has to be conceded at this point...that popular sports may be one of the only areas of public life in which Mr. Buckley's knowledge is less than extensive: he thinks Dwight Goodin's ERA is the measure of his support for the constitutional amendment. Nonetheless, Buckley managed to convince Eugene McCarthy that the position of commissioner of baseball had become a presidential appointment, and the rest is history...

The last...celebrant needs no introduction, but Henry Kissinger insisted. I will only say this is a man...who has with the best of grace suffered the fact that "The Washington Post" has just said that he is "out" and Richard Nixon is "in," a man who has been on every television talk show this year except Dr. Ruth's "Good Sex" show--which is either a burst of modesty or the injunction to talk about what you know...

## EXCERPTS:

**WOLFE:** This is a terrific event—a celebraty roast. I congratulate you, Bill. You've finally managed to elevate FIRING LINE to the level of Alan King, Dean Martin, Don Rickles, the Friars, and late-afternoon network television...

**GALBRAITH:** Bill Buckley is also a liberating force in one's life. We hear much in our time of freedom of thought...This is a small thing as compared with freedom from thought. This Bill Buckley competently and consistently provides. If he takes a position, you can take the opposite one without troubling thought that you might be wrong...

**PILPEL:** I don't consider that [Mr. Buckley] is perfect because one of the necessary aspects of perfection in open-mindedness, and I don't think Bill has ever been accused of that...

**MCCARTHY:** My first knowledge of Bill was when he was pursuing God at Yale, and I think God has been running from him ever since...Bill hasn't caught God yet, and he hasn't quite caught the liberals, although he has forced them all to deny their name...

**KISSINGER:** The center has moved toward Bill. More importantly, Bill has moved the center in the direction that he set these many decades ago...

**GREENFIELD:** Mr. Buckley is happiest about not stooping to conquer vast audiences; he would appear to prefer to speak to those people whose grasp of public philosophy and theology and politics rivals his. So in that sense Mr. Buckley has for 20 years more or less been talking to himself...**BUCKLEY:** It's quite right that I don't stoop to conquer. I merely conquer...

**BUCKLEY:** Yesterday the mayor of New York suggested we meter the consumption of water, a suggestion I made 20 years ago when I ran for mayor...If I ran again, my campaign slogan would be: "Voting by invitation only."...

(This newsletter is prepared by the producers of FIRING LINE. Mr. Buckley is not consulted in any way in its preparation.)