Last week, the son of National Review founder William F. Buckley came out in support of Barack Obama in a memorable column explaining his choice that featured the portentous quotation from his dad:

Dear Pup once said to me, "You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks."

Poor "Pup" Buckley. His own publication now seems to be chief headquarters for the Right/Kook Convergence Express, as purges begin, with Chris Buckley himself becoming a casualty.

Tuesday in a phone interview with the Austin American-Statesman he revealed another surprise: After NR readers raised holy heck over his perceived betrayal of the right, he offered to resign his column - and it was accepted.

"It upset a great number of people - a huge number of canceled subscriptions, apostasy, the whole thing," he said from Washington.

When he offered his resignation to the magazine’s editors, "I was sort of hoping for, ‘Well, let’s think about it,’ " Buckley said. "But to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me."

Yes, the likes of K-Lo, Rich "Little Starbursts" Lowry, Andy McCarthy (who's latest madcap adventure is speculating that William Ayers wrote Barack Obama's Dreams of My Father), and Jonah Goldberg now are the standard-bearers for the National Review. And lo, we watch the wagon circle get smaller and crazier by the day.