Buckley vs. Vidal
By It’s a shame that I have never heard of this before, because it sounds like the greatest thing ever.
The idea for pairing Buckley and the unpredictable Vidal had come from Buckley himself, albeit in a back-handed manner. The network had asked him to name a liberal with whom he could profitably spar during the convention coverage, and Buckley replied that he would appear with any non-Communist, but he would prefer it not be that “philosophical degenerate,” Gore Vidal. “Bingo” said the men at ABC.
The network’s reporting of the 1968 Republican gathering–like the convention itself–passed came off without incident. The Miami gathering was marred only, in Buckley’s view, by Vidal’s insistence, during their debates, that he had based the “entire style” of the transsexual hero of his novel Myra Breckinridge on Buckley. Buckley replied that Vidal was “immoral” and held American culture in “disdain,” but there the colloquy ended. Buckley tried to convince the producers to allow the two commentators to make their presentations separately for the ensuing Democratic convention but it was no go: A star had been born.
Amidst the violent chaos that was the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention however, Buckley and Vidal began to argue over the relative provocational potential of the student protestors’ raising of a Vietcong flag the night before. Buckley compared it to the raising of a hypothetical Nazi flag during World War II. Vidal then insisted that “as far as I’m concerned, the only sort of pro- or crypto-Nazi is yourself.” “Now listen, you queer,” retorted the conservative elder statesman, “stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in the goddam face and you’ll stay plastered.” The evening degenerated from there.
As far as I’m concerned, the only use for either Vidal or Buckley is in a cage match against the other.
UPDATE (from Scott): Ah, a chance to link to one of my favorite bookmarks. See the video here.