Submitted by Gordon Crump, Apr 30, 2007 06:31

There is a bit of sadness about Mr. Buckley and I wish it were not there.

With the march of modern conservatism,. which he was bright enough to recognze and write about early on,Mr. Buckley, like his lesser light, George Will, now seems content to deconstruct and vandalize that which held his attention for so long. (See this column as exhibit One).

Perhaps he is regretful that he did not participate in the development of conservatism as an office holder himself, and lacked the grit to risk his sterling reputation before the voters. He was not the fatther of modern conservatism, as some suggest. That honor belongs to Robert Taft, Jr. His untimely death severed that commendable work.

Buckley did chronicle the birth of the movement.

It is sad that he stopperd there, when he might have been its head and heart with monomental acompiishments to lightened his (and my) old age.

Instead, there is only bitterness and a silly kind of vengeance.

Mr. Buckley's penchant for perhaps thinking too well of himself. as with his impersonator, George Will, continues to turn off an important portion of those attracted to conservatism.

So, is his vinditive hem-hawing and that of his rip-off, Will, regret for not attaining all that might have been ihave been; or the payback to people of Buckley, Will and my age?

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