1014 On the Right

New York, Aug. 27—I have now, for the first time, the feeling that Watergate is going to blow over. Of course one needs to hedge: If the tapes show that Nixon conspired to assassinate Jack Anderson or whatever, the bets are off. But I detect the kind of acrimony that characterizes the losing side: the losing side, in this case, being those who wished to see Watergate unfold in such a way as to bury Nixon for good and all. It is hard to single out the worst offender, but it is hard to beat my eloquent friend Hugh Sidey, writing in the current issue of Time Magazine, comparing the Administration of Nixon with that of his predecessors.

For Sidey, the White House is a sort of continuing fountain of political good and spiritual exaltation. Itisasif the Council of Trent the Congress of Vienna and Vatican II met simultaneously and forever: until Nixon. The White House, says Sidey, “has been the creative center for our way of life.” Under FDR people took “profound satisfaction” from it, exalted by every “new surge of creation.”

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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New York, Aug. 27—I have now, for the first time, the feeling that Watergate is going to blow over. Of course one needs to hedge: If the tapes show that Nixon conspired to assassinate Jack Anderson or whatever, the bets are off. But I detect the kind of acrimony that characterizes the losing side: the losing side, in this case, being those who wished to see Watergate unfold in such a way as to bury Nixon for good and all. It is hard to single out the worst offender, but it is hard to beat my eloquent friend Hugh Sidey, writing in the current issue of Time Magazine, comparing the Administration of Nixon with that of his predecessors.

For Sidey, the White House is a sort of continuing fountain of political good and spiritual exaltation. Itisasif the Council of Trent the Congress of Vienna and Vatican II met simultaneously and forever: until Nixon. The White House, says Sidey, “has been the creative center for our way of life.” Under FDR people took “profound satisfaction” from it, exalted by every “new surge of creation.”