I write mostly comic novels. We have written seven or eight of those. This book is a memoir probably the only memoir i will never write. I dont have that much to say. May be going out on thin i. C. E. I dont think i will write another book than this one in part because it is so singular in nature. About two Extraordinary People who provided me with some amazing material for a book. Host what was it like to write the book . I sat down shortly after i buried my father last year i woke up in the morning with no intention of writing a book and started writing a book and i wrote a in 40 days. Was accidental there was no biblical collusion but when i looked at the calendar i saw 40 days had lapsed. I work hard to on my writing. It wrote a lot of it itself but we pretty much poured out. Host were you surprised at what poured out . Yes. I think the first sentence read Something Like im not sure how this book is going to turn out. I was indeed surprised at how it turned out. Host thats exactly what it says. The height of unity quoting oneself. [laughter] it is the story of the year of losing my parents who were quite incredible people. There are a lot of flashbacks in it growing up with them. I asked myself when i got to the end of the book so why did you write this book . The typical reason is catharsis. Honestly i wrote it as a way to spend some more time with him rather than finally put them to rest for go to the extent one does. And spending time when they were at their best in there were some passages. [laughter] my dad was a great man in there was no reason to expect great people to be uncomplicated. And certainly theres no reason to expect them to be harriet like ozzie and harriet. Host when you went to her death bed to say i forgive you . I literally raced through a storm to get to her death bed. I was giving a speech at washington university. April 14 which has always been a day of remembered. Titanic hit the iceberg and present lincoln was shot. I waste from robert elees house to my mothers death bed and she was in a coma so all i could do was hold her hand after giving the order to give the respirator out. I found myself saying i forgive you. These words surprised me. But they needed to be said. She was a wonderful woman that she could be noddy and impossible and she was too prou proud. She never said im sorry for being so impossible at dinner last night. My wife has a rule dont go to bed angry. Its a good rule. So as my mom is going to bed i didnt want there to be anything unresolved between us. I certainly hope that my deathbed people will forgive me. In a larger scheme of things in but i didnt. Host the last memory of her father . When he was alive . He was failing. He just kept nodding forward into his soup. He had emphysema and diabetes. I just wanted his pain to be over so that was my last living memory of him. And brought them home for one last night and he was in the coffin for week and we open the coffin and i wanted to put some things in the coffin, sorr. A jar of Peanut Butter because he was crazy about Peanut Butter. The rosary because the tv remote control. I knew he would want that. He always had a death grip on that and my a mothers ashes on his lap and closed the lid. And said my eulogy but i dont think any pharaoh into the afterlife was better equipped with his jar of Peanut Butter and his remote control. Host we have already gotten several emails asking about the importance of the catholic faith to your father and what it meant to you. He raised me catholic and post catholic or collapsed catholic and respectful of the catholic faith i went to boarding school in rhode island i got a wonderful education Father Damien and julian. Keep praying for me. I needed. And this became difficult for my father because he was the guy who never ever doubted his catholic faith. He had tragedies in his life he lost abel livid sister on a beloved sister in 1964. He was devoted to her. And lost many people that died to him prematurely and that was to either reinforce or challenge the religious faith. His father William Frank buckley senior was the son of a texas sheriff. Our ancestors left ireland at about the 18 forties because the original john buckley was a protestant who married a catholic girl and they had to leave and they went to ontario where the eventual sheriff was born but he had asthma so they moved down to texas. So my greatgrandfather john buckley, the sheriff of duval county was the first catholic. His best friend was the man who shot billy the kid that is a fun little bit a family history. Host mr. Buckley one more story but when it comes to catholicism and your father there was a crucifix in your yard . [laughter] yes. Years ago he commissioned a bronze lifesize crucifix about 7 feet tall from the connecticut sculptor. And then to reside in the cross and this depended on keeping the house in stanford and i was pretty sure after death taxes i could not sustain house. But i didnt want to bug him out in the last month of his life. So one evening i tiptoed that my mother had died at this point she never wanted to be in the cross. She was not a religious woman and whispered to me when im gone send me out with the trash i most certainly do not wish to be in that object. But she went first and went into the object. But now we are coming up on his final months. I know you want your ashes in the cross. He said absolutely. In the tone of voice i knew so well. Was set im just wondering in the event i ever have to sell the house the new owner and he says why wouldnt the new owner want the cross . [laughter] i may be they are jewish . [laughter] dont want dead giant crucifix. So i had this interesting dilemma so i decided on the drive from washington to stanford that in sharon connecticut where he grew up he was his own admission he was happiest between five and seven and bury him with his sisters. So my friend and i wrestled the across out of the ground and put it in the back of the car and followed the funeral procession so now its in the cemetery right next to him and my mom. I hope and ellen on a solution he may come back to haunt me but. Host those are stories from Christopher Buckleys most recent book. Good afternoon this is the tv and the political satirist. October 2008, theres something ironically liberating when the father figure dies. For the first time your own man. I miss him every day but now i can write about things i was not terribly comfortable writing about. Such as . Religion. Something is shied away from and then barack obama for president but i have asked myself that and i wonder. I am 56 years old. I worked at the white house in of written a bunch of books. Im entitled to my own political views but you are still a kid as long as they are alive. So i might not have. Can you say the word on all hell broke loose because i did this to say on never donate any money because that turncoat. So i offered to resign my column to the editor and he objected rather quickly. Host do you have any relationship with the National Review quick. I have the fondest for everybody there particularly the publisher jack fowler. Host are you in contact . I am a director part owner not sure how you get fired. [laughter] but i am a big booster. And then to relaunch the conservative movement with 6000 columns and tapes 1500 episodes of firing line and ran for mayor and wrote 55 books. He threw a lot of spaghetti on the wall. But what was most important was National Review. And what was nearest and dearest to him. And he cared deeply. And those who worked there like Francis Bronson and linda bridges and dusty rhodes and im leaving some people out but. Host what your Politics Today . They are all over the board. I endorsed obama but i have something very critical of him on my daily beast blog tomorrow. I like him personally he has a firstclass temperament but i write about his economic policies i think will bring the country to its knees. I think we are headed in a ruinous direction. I am socially libertarian. Nothing against gay marriage. I am prochoice. I am a fiscal hawk and to talk about sustainability which is the current buzzword. But we dont seem to be talking about sustainable budgets. And obama has just said the three. 6 trilliondollar budget. Which will double the deficit during the first term. Every president comes into double the deficit we are finished. Theres my politics. Knowing democrats are big spenders why a did you vote obama knowing all the spending he would do you are against and not a thirdparty . And less you are trying to penalize. If you voted for ross perot. And my honest answer is that obama would not be this vendor. That if he and ask ruinous spending leader to leading to higher taxes and inflation and then i think we are headed in a bad direction. I may well have been wrong. But in 2000 and i voted for the conservative. The conservative candidate for president george w. Bush. And he had enacted ruinous expansions of the Entitlement Program and the west deficit. So who is to say what you will get . Heres a question for all of us. Where would be right now if john mccain and sarah palin had one . That would be an interesting exercise to engage in. Host along with your most recent book which is a memoir, he you have written other books, actually this is nonfiction steaming to bamboo let. I was a merchant marine. Right martini. The schema in the nineties it is a collection. 2007 Supreme Court ship. Also little green men which came out and 2004. If you say so but i think it was 1999. Wednesday what is transitioning . It is a the looming Social Security crisis and the woman comes up with the idea the government sense there is 77 million baby boomers getting ready to retire at this link of the Social Security system she proposes the government incentivized baby boomers suicide and you get tax breaks. So you have to have that euphemism coming up with voluntary transitioning. Host how do you come up with the idea for that . It sounds like a dinner party discussion. The hardest part of writing satire today is competing with usa today. Its not a level playing field. I wrote a novel of any president ial election or a Minnesota Senate election. You would probably say come on. Do you expect me to believe that . Host florence of arabia . Just a little bit wouldnt you say saudi arabia and qatar . That would be quite fair. I got it from wausau be if you go to sushi parlors from the green horseradish. The young woman i came up the title florence of arabia before the idea of a book although i wasnt the first one to get there. And said if you are any better looking you would be florence of arabia. [laughter] writing in 1986 prior to the white house. After. That was my first novel. I worked for george h. W. Bush as Vice President asked leader in kinder man if youre watching bush. I was with him last week. While i worked at the white house, i became fascinated with white house memoirs. Everyone who works at the white house for more than five minutes rights one and its usually 800 pages. [laughter] and they all have the word power in the title like proximity to power power principle. So witness to power which is gloriously bitchy. [laughter] that would be great is a novel it is a parody of the white house memoir written by herbert wadlow it was great fun. Host how much truth is there . None but yet a lot. How is that for an answer . [laughter] i was there for two years so i know what the place look like and secret site on secret Service Agents look like and sounded like. So i use that and one or two real life situations but it is a novel. People often ask is it based on george bush or Newt Gingrich . The answer is almost always now. They are inventions that may have been borrowed and Supreme Court ship which came out last fall is about a tv judge who gets on the Supreme Court and she wears glasses and is very sexy from texas her name is pepper and wears a gun under her robe. And her opponent is a cosmetically enhanced senator who spends a lot of time on amtrak. And in fact is modeled on jim hardin but the book came out the day became nominated. I give up. [laughter] but generally has a satirist you try to stay 1 inch in front of the americans tsunami of realit reality. And its very hard to out run. Host thank you for smoking you might have seen the movie. Lets go to calls rochester new york. Good afternoon and thank you for being such a professional peter. And hello mr. Buckley. I have a couple questions. If obama realizes, because i think he will that they will overreach if he realizes he will not get reelected, do you think he will govern even more radically to the left . And next what do you think the Republican Party should do spread out or in line. Let me take your second question first. I have actually written i dont know if you read blogs but if you go to the daily beast. Com tomorrow i have a posting of the death of the gop and one or two thoughts how we can get our mojo back. So i quote a rather compelling line in the Financial Times newspaper, a democratic strategist in a piece that i commend to you. [laughter] i almost said defecation sorry. [laughter] where was i . Because the Republican Party is the party of southern white males and that is a shrinking group so the party that cannot get any votes north of the Mason Dixon Line or west of the rockies is doomed. I come from connecticut christopher a very fine guy was my hometown congressman in Fairfield County and lost reelection. That now has not one single congressperson. Maine has two very good but republican senators. So clearly something is going o on. It is the disassembling or disintegration of the Reagan Coalition. Look. Im not a political strategist or a political thinker. Im probably the wrong person to ask. But since you ask, i think we have to go back to some basics. The great threat now is fiscally. The fed is printing money and mr. Obama is proposing fantastical spending and will have a Democratic Senate to permit this and i think this will bite us in the rear end. Theres a lot smarter people than me in the white house coming up with a plan. But one thing that we learned is the smartest people in the room are often wrong. Everyone thought Alan Greenspan was pretty smart and here we ar are. With that shredded 401 k because of the fantastic instruments. A very longwinded answer but republicans have to become the fiscal hawks and stand for that. To the extent we fight skirmishes over gay marriage were to teach creationism a looked on important if it ruins. The way things are going i think it is entirely probable we will have doubledigit inflation and three or four years. Remember that under president carter . Anyway sorry for the longwinded answer. I forget the first question. Host if he doesnt think if he wins reelection if he will go left . I think that is hard to call. I will say i do like this man. I think he has done some very good things in 100 days. I like his temperament. Its funny. According to the polls everyone likes him but also theyre not sure about his policies. Its like the negative capability that was first brought up by the poet keats and defined by fitzgerald to keep two contradictory ideas in your mind and go on functioning so there is a neighbor on negative thing going on with president obama. People like him but i think some of his policies worry us. Hello mr. Buckley what do the conservatives have other them privilege . They dont serve the environment as Teddy Roosevelt or nixon dead and they dont conserve Civil Liberties as george w. Bush has shown us. And they dont think to preserve our budget. I thank you have answered your own question. To me and strikes me in saying that conservatives or even conservative republicans are not identified as the party of conservationism. Richard nixon signed the Clean Air Act but that was a lost opportunity. And then at the Republican Convention last august with everyone chanting drill baby drill. Im all for drilling because i dont think our problems will be solved by windmills at least not right away. I thought it was stylistically a bad moment. As for the last eight years there was nothing conservative about george w. Bushs eight years. I have been a drunken sailor. But conservativism William F Buckley conservativism stands for fiscal responsibility. And small government and individual liberty above all. What is happening now as government seeps into every aspect of american life, is a gradual loss of liberty Irving Kristol used the metaphor of the frog on the stove in the water. If you put a frog into boiling water it will instantly feel pain and leap out but if you put it in with cold water and gradually heated, the frog acclimates himself to the hot water. This is as we lose our liberties one by one what happens government is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it away. These are words that have ring very true to me. Thank you for your question. Host Traverse City michigan go ahead. Caller thank you very much. First of all i admired his father. I always agree with his political views but i admired his father a great deal. My question and may be what he learned and came away with the experiences he shared with his father on the boat. I have not sailed on the beautiful lakes but i have sailed across the atlantic twice with my dad and the pacific once sailing from honolulu to new guinea in 30 days. 4400 miles. My dad was. [laughter] he was impatient we would be at sea for a week and pull in to some beautiful a toll with palm trees and a lagoon maybe even ladies in grass skirts in the distance. We would be sticky and salty just wanting a cold beer and a hot shower. And say its 10 00 oclock no now, shall we shove off at two . Id be happy to spend a week there lying on the beach but for him