Tim Blair

Vidal doesn't remember the following live TV from 1968?

At the Aug. 22 debate in Chicago - the penultimate encounter in the series, with an estimated 10 million people watching - things began with relative calm. But it didn’t stay that way, and before long the men began exchanging words that one simply didn’t hear on TV at that time. Vidal called Buckley a "pro-crypto-Nazi," a modest slip of the tongue, he later said, because he was searching for the word "fascist" and it just didn't come out. Inflamed by the word "Nazi" and the whole tenor of the discussion, Buckley snapped: "Now listen, you queer," he said, "stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in you goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered." Smith attempted to calm the exchange with "gentlemen, let's not call names," but the damage had been done. The two men, considerably subdued, met the following night for the last of their week of debates.

There's more here plus an audio clip.

My opinion of, Buckley already pretty high....has now attained Stratospheric proportions....

Lol! Amen to that, j!

I wasn't sure if Vidal were dead or alive before this piece started making the internet rounds.

How many people really care what Vidal thinks? I always found him pretty boring. Could never understand his appeal.

Chris -- Are you sure if Vidal is alive or dead now?

Insults are the last refuge of the loser. And Vidal is a loser, big time.

Plus Vidal came extemely close, if not outright, invoking Godwin's Law.

I hear people all the time saying that FOX News is a bunch of propaganda, right-wing lies, etc...and strangely enough, they never seem to be able to mention a single example as to why that is the case.

"...invoking Godwin's Law."

Damn. Just damn. How can you be that dumb and not be photosynthesizing? The event occured in 1968, for the love of Cthulhu! The internet wasn't even a gleam in Al Gore's eye yet! Godwin hadn't had a chance to formulate his famous law!

Good. Lord. Almighty.

Get the hell off my internet!

FWIW, Dept. of Senile Hypocrisy... That great reviler of all things American and therefore Phillistine, Mr. G. Vidal, has permanently abandoned his villa in Italy and returned to his (other) villa in LA. Reason: the obvious superiority of the medical care here in the land of non-socialized medicine.

Eichra: this is idle speculation, so take it with a grain of salt -- but even though Godwin's Law wasn't around then, it's at least possible that Leo Strauss had by then created the phrase "reductio ad Hitlerum", which is much the same idea.

The internet wasn't even a gleam in Al Gore's eye yet! Godwin hadn't had a chance to formulate his famous law!

Good thing Newton finally got around to formulating a law of gravity. I'll bet our ancestors were pretty sick of floating about aimlessly, before then....

Or maybe the effect predated the law :-)

Vidal is so nasty that I suspect it to be pathological. A couple of months ago, he appeared on "Crossfire", where he gratuitously insulted one of the hosts for wearing a bow tie. I am certain that his fans will snicker delightedly at this adolescent behavior.

I've noticed that too, PatrickM. In all seriousness, does anyone know if there's a "Foxwatch" sight or something like that? Off hand, I can't recall "Spinsanity" catching Fox in anything.

Bleepless -- in "Bob Roberts" I'm pretty sure Vidal's character (ineffectual senator Brickley Paiste) wore a bow tie. Perhaps the experience scarred him.