The new biography about Patrick J Buchanan… The Crusader… endorsed enough by its subject that we see him on CSPAN talking with the author.

Moving through the table of contents, there’s three chapters (or so) on his place in the wrecking ball of the Nixon Adminisration.  I can’t say there would too much intrigue with his punditry and columnist career — one of the most pointless tv shows — The MacLoughlin Group — a forerunner of the vacuous debate yelling shows that don’t illuminate any issue.  I guess we have a sense of the political controversies of olde.  Then we get to the three presidential bigs.  I suppose Buchanan fans will thrill at the 1996 telling — see here –  though I float to the three chapters on his 2000 bid — a chapter on his adversarial role with Donald Trump (a man who feigns a presidential run every 12 years for media attention and ego-stroking.)  He batted Buchanan on that whole “Hitler didn’t want war” issue.  The other adversary is described in the chapter title as a “Flying Buddhist”.  Actually I think he’s better called a levitating Buddhist, but who’s counting?

I imagine this last chapter is a reach, to make Buchanan an influential figure and stamp out a broad legacy.  A man who instigated the culture wars, or prodded them — see his 1992 RNC speech.  Better to say this goes back to the Spiro Agnew speech-writing.  With that he’s stated as a Tea Party precursor.

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