Last night, I joined the thousands of TV viewers around the country who watch Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown” on MSNBC. Krazy Keith’s show is consistently an hour of angrily bashing President Bush, Republicans and conservatives in general. His guests and correspondents are routinely liberal. There are no debates, no disagreements, just KKO and his pals, people like Richard Wolffe, Rachel Maddow (Air America)and Jonathan Alter. Last night, Keith outdid himself and reached a new low.

While announcing the death of conservative icon William F Buckley, Olbermann took the opportunity to inform his viewers that:

Buckley’s opinions were “indefensibly and gloriously wrong”.
As a student, Buckley had opposed World War Two.
He had defended Sen. Joe McCarthy.
He once suggested that AIDS patients be tattooed.
He once “ruminated” about denying the vote to the uneducated.

Keith, that was completely “klassless”. Why didn’t you raise a glass to cheer the death of Buckley while you were at it? Not that I was surprised. I am used to the far left making those kinds of comments about conservatives who have just died. I remember when Reagan died, and many on the left were celebrating the “fact that Reagan was burning in Hell”. Just recently, it was reported that Nancy Reagan had suffered a fall in her home. Adriana Huffington’s blog, “The Huffington Post”, was filled with entries from her readership insulting the former First Lady and wishing her nothing but the worst.

But that’s not all. Toward the end of the show, KKO presented his “Worst Persons in the World”. (Surprisingly, Bill O’Reilly wasn’t among the finalists last night.) Who got the Gold Medal? John McCain. Why? Because, in the wake of the Bill Cunningham rant in Cincinnati, McCain had stated that he didn’t know Cunningham, nor had he ever met him. Cunningham has stated that he met McCain on a couple of occasions at political events. At that, the McCain campaign backtracked, stating that it was possible that the two had met at some time. So for that, John McCain was the Worst Person in the World? I think it is fair to say that when a major political figure attends political events, he/she shakes hands with a lot of people that they never see again. The person who shakes hands with the pol will remember the meeting. The pol forgets it.

As a conservative, there are a lot of things about McCain that I don’t care for. He is not the person I had hoped would win the nomination. As a presidential candidate, he has to accept the barbs, just as I have pointed out for Sen Clinton. But just to nitpick, I would like to suggest that before Olbermann calls someone like McCain (whose shoes he couldn’t shine) the “Worst Person in the World”, he might want to accumulate a resume similar to McCain’s in the service of his country. I don’t need to repeat the senator’s military record; it is known to all. On the other hand, Mr Olbermann’s military record is not known to all-because he doesn’t have one.

gary fouse
fousesquawk

William F. Buckley – no longer standing athwart history, yelling Stop – has died at 82.

I’m reminded of a tribute to Buckley at a testimonial dinner many years ago:

“I have spent many happy hours in my favorite chair, National Review in one hand, the dictionary in the other.”

– Ronald Reagan

You gotta know the Gipper was front and center in the welcoming party today up yonder. And I’ll bet he brought the dictionary with him. It’s the kind of humor they both loved.

RIP, Mr. Buckley. And thanks.

William F. Buckley Jr, Founder and Editor of National Review Magazine and father of modern conservatism died today at 82. Buckley was a giant intellect that articulated the conservative cause like no other possibly could. Back in 1996 I was a member …

The great and wonderful William F. Buckley has passed away.

His influence was great as the only source of conservative programming during the 1980’s.

Prior to Rush the only outlet for conservatives in the media was Buckley’s Firing Lin…