Tony Blankley, RIP
Laid low with a rotten cold for a couple of days now, I'm late in noting the death this past Saturday of my friend Tony Blankley. The notice in the New York Times does a good job of describing Tony's career: child actor in Hollywood; prosecutor for a decade here in California; member of the Reagan administration (where I got to know him); press secretary for Newt Gingrich; editor and columnist at the Washington Times; longtime regular on "The McLaughlin Group"; vice president for the Edelman public relations firm.
What might I add? That, like his hero and mine, Ronald Reagan, Tony represented a paradox: He was genial, warm, friendly, and funny--but also very, very tough. As Speaker Gingrich's press secretary, Tony defended Newt with a certain irresistible lightness of touch--when a reporter asked about Newt's comparison of himself with Gandhi, Tony admitted that "Ghandi was better dressed"--but at the same time ferociously.
You'd have seen this on "The McLaughlin Group" during the George W. Bush administration. Virtually every member of the panel turned against the war in Iraq--for that matter, Pat Buchanan became one of the most vocal opponents of the war in the country. Yet week after week Tony insisted that the war was entirely justifiable--and did so without surrendering his sense of humor, or his obvious affection for Pat, John McLaughlin, and the other members of the group.
For years--and I mean at least a quarter of a century--Tony and Dana Rohrabacher (once a Reagan speechwriter, now a member of Congress) were famous for throwing chile and tequilla parties, originally in whatever bachelor apartment Dana happened to be renting. The last time I saw Tony, he was hosting one of these parties at his farm in Virginia--over the years, he had prospered. But the crowd wasn't there to network or namedrop--not at a party that Tony was throwing. We were there, simply and innocently, to enjoy his company--which is to say, to have fun.
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Oct '10
Re: Tony Blankley, RIP
The McLaughlin group was a once-a-week Ricochet, or rather Tony on McLaughlin was, for my wife and I in the nineties living in a very blue corner of a blue state. McLaughlin and Buchanan were unreliable conservatives, Barone and Kudlow were often absent, but Tony could always be depended upon for an articulate, informed and--this particularly--good-natured defense of the Right/right. If he had even a fraction of the charm and character that he projected on that show (and your post confirms he did), you were lucky to have known him.
One of his most endearing traits was a laugh that was a dead ringer for the cartoon character Muttley. I will really miss that laugh.
Edited on Jan 10 at 5:54amRe: Tony Blankley, RIP
Severely Ltd.: Tony could always be depended upon for an articulate, informed and--this particularly--good-natured defense of the Right/right. If he had even a fraction of the charm and character that he projected on that show (and your post confirms he did), you were lucky to have known him. · Jan 10 at 5:46am
Edited on Jan 10 at 05:54 am
Thanks, Severely. He did--and I was.
The sheer sweetness of the man--that's what I keep coming back to.
Sep '10
Re: Tony Blankley, RIP
Peter,
He's another man I'm sorry to have never met. I did notice that he was the only person who could make the McLaughlin Group bearable.
Re: Tony Blankley, RIP
Listen to him for years on KCRW's Left, Right, and Center (or as we called it Really Left, Right, Left, And Who The Heck Knows) for years. Tony was always the voice of reason and good humor on that show, even when Bob Sheer said something ridiculous, which happened at least once per show.