Phil Brennan
Tuesday, June 29, 2004

At the time few thought a publication dedicated to the principles of traditional American conservatism had a chance to put so much as a dent in what was then considered to be liberalism's impenetrable armor. They were wrong. In a mere 10 years the forces marshaled by National Review (NR) captured control of the Republican Party and nominated the conservative iron man, Barry Goldwater as the party's presidential candidate. Goldwater lost, but the so-called liberal eastern establishment's iron fisted control of the GOP was over.

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In early 1963 a group headed by Bill Rusher, then NR's publisher, put together a political operation designed to take the control of the 1964 GOP national convention. They decided to use Barry Goldwater as their weapon, with neither his permission nor his desire.

Rusher put the late F. Clifton White, a seasoned political operative, in charge of the campaign and raised the funds to finance his operation. White recruited a group of 21 Republicans then active in national politics to help get the movement underway.

At the time I was working for the House Republican Policy Committee and writing NR's "From Washington Straight" column under the name of Cato. During the 1960 Nixon presidential campaign I had worked with Jack Stiles, a close associate of Gerald Ford, who had a big hand in rounding up delegates to the GOP national convention that nominated Dick Nixon. He had amassed huge dossiers on every potential delegate to the 1960 convention. He knew exactly what buttons to push to win a delegate's vote.

After the election, Jack used an office I had in the National Press building as his Washington headquarters. He stored much of his records there, including all of that invaluable information about the delegates to the 1960 convention. On the theory that about 75 percent of the delegates to any convention had been delegates to the previous convention, I asked Jack if I could turn his records over to Cliff White and he agreed.

With those delegate records in hand, which included the most intimate financial and other details about each and every delegate, White and his team were able to put together a strong pro-Goldwater slate of delegates long before the convention ever got underway. He now had the information about what buttons to push and he pushed them.

There were bumps in the road. On the basis of misinformation Goldwater was unhappy with White's activities in his behalf and wanted to disavow him and his campaign. It was a serious blow to the campaign that could have ended the Goldwater movement before it ever got underway.

Bill Rusher smoothed things over and saved the White campaign, which in turn saved the Goldwater nomination.

In short, just about 100 percent of the credit for the Goldwater revolution, which wrested control of the GOP from the liberal Rockefeller wing, should go the National Review. It was their baby from the very beginning.

They laid the foundation by reviving what had been a dead conservative movement and making it possible for conservatives to have a respectable voice in political discourse. And they did the groundwork that gave conservatives control of the GOP.

In 1980 it was the heirs of the Goldwater revolution who nominated and helped elect Ronald Reagan, who freely admitted the debt he owed to Bill Buckley and National Review.

In its earliest days, NR had an astounding pool of intellectual talent gathered around Bill - Frank Meyer, James Burnham, Whitaker Chambers, and Russell Kirk to name just a few of the members of Bill's elegant braintrust.

Bill's enormously talented sister Priscilla Buckley was managing editor, a delight to work for, a kind and generous lady. Under her direction NR was far and away the best read publication around for anyone interested in lively and above all humorous political comment. This was the magazine that famously tweaked the New York Times ad for its classified section that bragged "I got my job through the New York Times" by running a picture of Fidel Castro under that caption.

The magazine was widely read and widely respected on Capitol Hill where it had a huge impact for a small circulation publication. I got a big kick out of hearing members unaware that I was Cato frequently quote items from the Cato column to me.

Anyway, the United States of America owes a huge debt to Bill Buckley who when he announced the founding of NR promised to stand "athwart history, yelling 'Stop,' at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who urge it.’"

And that's exactly what he did, and he changed America while doing it. Bye Bill, Dominus Vobiscum.

Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor & publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. He can be reached at phil@newsmax.com.