Kingmaker.

I HAD the privilege of knowing Bill Buckley for some 40 years. One might even argue that I would not be a U.S. senator without him. I ran for the Senate in 1988, and Bill was not an admirer of the Republican incumbent. He called me up and said, "Joe, I'm thinking of endorsing you. Do you think that would help you?" I responded, "Well, that's very good of you." Then he interrupted and said, "Please understand, this is the only time I am likely to endorse you in your career." I laughed, said I understood, and then said, "Your support probably would help." Bill then endorsed me in his syndicated column and, with the puckishness that was so much a part of him, formed BuckPac, which he said was a political action committee open to anyone in Connecticut whose name was "Buckley" and who was committed to the defeat of the incumbent senator. They printed bumper stickers and the like and assisted me during the campaign.

I won by a very small margin. In a close election, there is more than one cause of victory, and in 1988, Bill and BuckPac were definitely part of the reason. I called to thank Bill and told him, "You played a rabbinical role for me in this campaign." Bill replied, "Well, what do you mean by that?" I explained, "Your endorsement of me and the columns you wrote conveyed to Republicans in Connecticut that it was kosher to vote for Lieberman."

Bill Buckley was a man of deep principle who recognized that civility in our political life is a virtue, one infrequently seen or heard today. He was a man of ideas whose writing and publishing gave birth to the modern American conservative movement and reminded us all of the importance of protecting individual liberty. His conservatism was moral, idealistic, and pure in the sense that it rejected bigotry and extremism.

I and so many others will miss him, but he has left us a legacy of thoughts and words in print, and the sound of laughter in our ears.

Mr. Lieberman is a U.S. senator from Connecticut.