Tell me again, which one's the queer and which is the crypto-nazi?

Ah, remember a time before the advent of cable TV, when two politically opposed gentleman could have a sober discussion of the political events of their day?

[ABC's] reporting of the 1968 Republican gathering--like the convention itself--passed [sic] came off without incident. The Miami gathering was marred only, in Buckley's view, by Vidal's insistence, during their debates, that he had based the "entire style" of the transsexual hero of his novel Myra Breckinridge on Buckley. Buckley replied that Vidal was "immoral" and held American culture in "disdain," but there the colloquy ended. Buckley tried to convince the producers to allow the two commentators to make their presentations separately for the ensuing Democratic convention but it was no go: A star had been born.

Amidst the violent chaos that was the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention however, Buckley and Vidal began to argue over the relative provocational potential of the student protestors' raising of a Vietcong flag the night before. Buckley compared it to the raising of a hypothetical Nazi flag during World War II. Vidal then insisted that "as far as I'm concerned, the only sort of pro- or crypto-Nazi is yourself." "Now listen, you queer," retorted the conservative elder statesman, "stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in the goddam face and you'll stay plastered." The evening degenerated from there.

Tucker Carlson's got nothing on his bow-tied forebear.