James L. Buckley celebrated many firsts in his long career as one of America’s most influential conservatives, and today, that includes his birthday.
“This is his 100th birthday,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in a Senate floor speech today.
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“James Buckley’s commitment to service whether on the battlefield in these halls in Congress or in the courtroom is a reminder of the power, joy and honor of being an American,” Lee added, a noted constitutional conservative himself.
In many conservative corners of Washington and the country, Buckley parties are taking place to recall his influence on American politics as a one-term New York senator, a top aide in President Ronald Reagan’s first term, and as a federal appeals judge on the District of Columbia Circuit.
“Whatever the office he occupied, James exhibited the same dignity, consideration, reserve, and conviction,” wrote Matthew Continetti, a senior editor at National Review, founded by William F. Buckley Jr., James Buckley’s younger brother.
Over decades the brothers helped to popularize and explain conservatism, James in the Senate and on the court and his brother through National Review and the popular public TV show Firing Line.
Lee recalled that Buckley made an early mark in the Senate by helping to spark the pro-life movement after the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973. He also was a key player in creating the Environmental Protection Agency, established by President Richard Nixon.
“My own interactions with James Buckley have helped me understand why he remains a hero to this day, not just in the Senate but really throughout the United States,” Lee said of Buckley, who lives in a Bethesda, Maryland, retirement facility.
“I invited him to address the Senate Republican Conference in our steering lunch just a few years ago, in which he provided observations that were timely, relevant, compelling, and delivered with incredible enthusiasm. On each occasion when I’ve met Sen. Buckley, he’s always struck me as someone who is friendly, who’s kind and thoughtful and considerate, deeply loves his country, and is willing to work hard to make it a better place. Today, Mr. Buckley is the oldest living former U.S. senator, and to this day, he remains an advocate for constitutional government, for federalism, separation of powers, and for conservatism at large,” Lee added.
He is also the only public official to serve in all three branches of government in the 20th and 21st centuries.
David Keene, a former chairman of the American Conservative Union and unofficial GOP historian who knows Buckley well, recalled in the Washington Times today that “as a senator, Jim Buckley always strived to do what was right rather than what was politically expedient.”
Keene said that helped lead to his defeat to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1976 and to be one of the first Nixon supporters in the Senate to call for his resignation in the wake of Watergate.
“It was an agonizing decision Mr. Buckley knew could cost him a second term, but he believed it was the right thing to do,” Keene wrote.
He also wrote, “One of Mr. Buckley’s four books, If Men Were Angels, should be on every conservative’s reading list. He is a rational conservationist for the nation’s air, water and wildlife, an expert on birds and the musk ox, of all things.”
Some hoped that Buckley would come to the Senate today, but he begged off, surprising few who have come to admire his modestness.
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“Mr. Buckley is a devout Catholic and a family man. His friends this week are celebrating his career, his contributions to the country and his birthday. But, modest as ever, he is declining to be publicly honored except by a Fund for America’s Studies scholarship just named in his honor and by his brother’s journal and foundation, which is initiating an annual lecture in his name,” Keene said.
“That James Lane Buckley is still with us is something for which we should be grateful; that he has devoted a lifetime to preserving the values that define a free republic is something we should celebrate,” he added.
Continetti wrote that Buckley said that his first role in political life was “‘to defend, preserve, and expand the realm of freedom.’ Rarely has the conservative mission been so well stated. But then, a man as humble, thoughtful, wise, and brave as James L. Buckley is rare indeed.”
