Buckley: Bush Not A True Conservative Stamford, Conn., July 22, 2006(CBS) President Bush ran for office as a "compassionate conservative." And he continues to nurture his conservative base â even issuing his first veto this week against embryonic stem cell research. But lately his foreign policy has come under fire from some conservatives â including the father of modern conservatism, William F. Buckley. CBS Evening News Saturday anchor Thalia Assuras sat down for an exclusive interview with Buckley about his disagreements with President Bush. Buckley's Stamford, Conn., home is a tranquil place that allows Buckley to think, write and spend time with his canine companion, Sebastian. "He's practically always with me," Buckley says. Buckley finds himself parting ways with President Bush, whom he praises as a decisive leader but admonishes for having strayed from true conservative principles in his foreign policy. In particular, Buckley views the three-and-a-half-year Iraq War as a failure. "If you had a European prime minister who experienced what we've experienced it would be expected that he would retire or resign," Buckley says. Only on CBSNews.com: Watch more of Thalia Assuras's interview with William F. Buckley Asked if the Bush administration has been distracted by Iraq, Buckley says "I think it has been engulfed by Iraq, by which I mean no other subject interests anybody other than Iraq... The continued tumult in Iraq has overwhelmed what perspectives one might otherwise have entertained with respect to, well, other parts of the Middle East with respect to Iran in particular." Despite evidence that Iran is supplying weapons and expertise to Hezbollah in the conflict with Israel, Buckley rejects neo-conservatives who favor a more interventionist foreign policy, including a pre-emptive air strike against Iran and its nuclear facilities. "If we find there is a warhead there that is poised, the range of it is tested, then we have no alternative. But pending that, we have to ask ourselves, 'What would the Iranian population do?'" Buckley does support the administration's approach to the North Korea's nuclear weapons threat, believing that working with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea is the best way to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. But that's about where the agreement ends. "Has Mr. Bush found himself in any different circumstances than any of the other presidents you've known in terms of these crises?" Assuras asks. "I think Mr. Bush faces a singular problem best defined, I think, as the absence of effective conservative ideology â with the result that he ended up being very extravagant in domestic spending, extremely tolerant of excesses by Congress," Buckley says. "And in respect of foreign policy, incapable of bringing together such forces as apparently were necessary to conclude the Iraq challenge." Asked what President Bush's foreign policy legacy will be to his successor, Buckley says "There will be no legacy for Mr. Bush. I don't believe his successor would re-enunciate the words he used in his second inaugural address because they were too ambitious. So therefore I think his legacy is indecipherable" At 81, Mr. Buckley still continues to contribute a regular column to the National Review, the magazine he started 51 years ago.
Buckley is a fag. Of course Bush is a conservative. You don't get much more conservative than a wahhabist.
Homos call themselves fags halt the time Z, and only get offended when a non-fag uses the term. Kinda like negroes using the slang derivative of negras among themselves but objecting when anyone else uses it. get off it. That is unless I have offended you? If so what term would you prefer I use? Heterosexually challenged?
It takes a lot of courage for you to come out of the closet, you deserve to be commended for your courage to tell everyone you are gay. There are lots of folks here who are anti-homosexuality.
Hahaha, of course not learning that I'm a homo. But how to properly misunderstand a debate opponent! Although with my women troubles I have advised my son to go gay. He has declined to accept my advice.
Yeah I remember a guy that got "Real" offended when I thought he was gay! As for me I'm not to offended since I'm not one of those guys that have a fear of homos.
Obviously gays don't have a fear of homosexuals, so why would you be afraid? Again, I commend your courage for the public admission of your homosexuality, and while there may be some curiosity from ET members about your gay lifestyle, whether you are the man or the woman in your gay partnerships, what it is like to have a partner's Johnson in your mouth, or their Johnson in your sphincter...just tell them that your gay sexual activities are personal and that it is none of their business...