Advice from a Kamikaze

Not many journalists ever make it big in politics. There were Winston Churchill and Warren G. Harding. But journalists keep trying. The latest to make something of a splash was Bill Buckley, who gave up editing his National Review for a few months while he ran for mayor of New York. He didn't run too well, and last week Bill Buckley went back to journalism with a bang. Some 2,500 friends and well-wishers gathered in the ballroom of Manhattan's Americana Hotel to cele brate the tenth anniversary of his conservative magazine, which started as a weekly with 10,000 circulation and has grown to a biweekly with 85,000.

Buckley received warm praise for his journalistic talents from speakers ranging from Clare Boothe Luce to Steve

Allen. Then Barry Goldwater got up and gave him some good-natured but sharp political advice. "I'm that trigger-happy s.o.b. you've all read about," said Goldwater. "But things could be worse. Robert McNamara could be President and I could be Secretary of Defense." As a matter of fact, Goldwater added, he had been offered a job in the Johnson Administration--"as food taster for Bob McNamara."

Then, with a sure sense of timing, Goldwater began to needle the guest of honor. "Bill," he said, "if you're going to lose 'em, lose 'em big. Running as a conservative in New York City, you're not a political candidate, you're a political kamikaze. You're a Goldwater who did it on purpose." Just how popular that sort of activity makes a man, Goldwater had little doubt. "I had an interesting dream last night. The scene was Johnson City, Texas, and Bill Buckley was moving into a brand-new house. Across the highway Lyndon was nudging Lady Bird and saying: 'Well, there goes the neighborhood.' "

The fact that Buckley had not done exactly what he wanted, which was to bring about the defeat of John Lindsay, was too obvious to overlook. "As a political kingmaker," Goldwater added, "you're a wrong-way Corrigan."

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