First Ronald Reagan and now William Buckley. Why is it that when a heartless conservative dies he is remembered as a hero? When Henry Kissinger finally kicks it, he'll probably get a worshipful statue in Central Park. Anne Coulter will be eulogized as a compassionate spirit, a kind-hearted, open-minded soul. I shudder to think what our grandchildren will be saying about Michelle Malkin.

The fawning over William Buckley isn't really deserved, but I don't have to construct a fancy argument or even do any research to prove my point. Michael Kinsley has done it for me, in his way. In his op-ed piece in the New York Times, he inadvertently makes the lasting point.

Kinsley relates three anecdotes intended to persuade us of Buckley's genius. The kicker is that if you read the anecdotes in reverse order, the real Bill Buckley is revealed. Kinsley's column is like a trick piece of glass, that shows a different image depending on which way you look through it. When you read Kinsley's puff-piece backwards, Buckley's true self magically appears.

In the third anecdote, Buckley and Kinsley are getting into a car parked in a garage. Buckley asks where the rest room is. When he learns there isn't one, he takes a leak right there, in the parking lot. His explanation to Kinsley when he gets back in the car: "It's sterile, you know."

I don't follow Kinsley's logic. Buckley was a great man because he urinated in parking garages? Because he operated so efficiently, on such fine distinctions? "Here was a great man, who understood that, unlike public defecation, public urination creates no risk of subsequent infection." I don't get it.

In the second anecdote, Buckley boards a flight with a book he hasn't read. By the time the plane lands, he has written a review for the New York Times. Hello? So far we have: 1) public urination; and 2) writing reviews of books he hadn't read.

Backwards onto the first anecdote, in which Buckley writes a column in 20 minutes. No, not really. Although that is Kinsley's teaser, he quickly admits that Buckley wrote the column during a vice presidential debate which lasted an hour, maybe longer.

Let's review. Buckley was a genius because he: 1) urinated in parking garages; 2) reviewed books he hadn't read; and 3) wrote columns in . . . however long it takes to write a column.

Maybe Kinsley didn't spend very much time with Buckley? Maybe this was the only material he had? Maybe Kinsley wrote his column in 20 minutes?

Kinsley says he was impressed by Buckley's antics, but I wasn't. And to test my intuition, I put myself to a test. I timed myself as I wrote this, to see if I could do it in under 20 minutes.

I clocked in at just under 15.

For a different perspective on Bill Buckley, here's Alexander Cockburn in Counterpunch.