"The right was still reeling from its isolationist stand against F.D.R.'s engagement in the war against totalitarianism and had lost the essential argument over the expanded role of government in American life," wrote the New York Times in its 2004 review of William F. Buckley, Jr.'s literary autobiography, Miles Gone By. "The work of the Eisenhower presidency was less about undoing the New Deal and the Fair Deal than it was about managing the growth of the state. Even when conservatives' instincts were right, as they were in the battle against Communism, they seemed (with a good deal of justice) extreme, paranoid, overreaching.

"Then came Bill Buckley."

Ever since the mainstream media has joined the conservative love-in for the founder of National Review, it's easy to forget that things weren't always this way, that conservative ideas and their articulators were reviled.

Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription, a collection of outtakes from National Review's popular "Notes & Asides" column, reacquaints readers with the real William F. Buckley, Jr., as his readers and fans and critics have always known him: gruff, irreverent, and characteristically impudent.

It's tough for anyone in the modern era to comprehend just how far conservatism has come since chilly November 1955. Just earlier that year, it had been declared dead — literally. Lionel Trilling in The Liberal Imagination, wrote that "In the United States at this time liberalism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition. For it is the plain fact that nowadays there are no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation. (author's italics)"

Fifty-two years later, and not only are conservative (and libertarian) ideas "in general circulation," to be sure, but 'liberal' has become a four-letter word in the American political lexicon. William F. Buckley Jr.'s fortnightly deserves a lot of the credit for that.

Kinder and Gentler? Not Hardly

"When generations go by and you get fresh players, people are prone to say, 'Well, he isn't as civilized as that other guy.' And it's opportunistic," said Buckley in a 2005 interview with the Times, "because one has the feeling — at least I do — that they're trying to give an authenticity to their criticism, which is more easily done by making comparisons of that kind.''

Said Rush Limbaugh, also to the New York Times: ''The reason why [liberals] lament the loss of Buckley is because he was the only one then. He was not nearly the threat to the left. He was the crazy aunt in the basement. But that's why he was so important. Look what he spawned.''