re: #54 Charles

Spencer’s reference to Buckley’s outburst as “sage advice to Gore Vidal” has an unintended irony. Buckley consciously used his famous cool as a shield against name-calling attacks on his credibility. Vidal goaded Buckley to drop the shield for a moment. Buckley regretted the outburst as anything but sage.

See the paragraph beginning “If scoring points gracefully was victory, revealing visceral anger was defeat”, here.

Referring to the outburst as “sage advice” is the polar opposite of Buckley’s happy warrior style; it is cheesy.