G. Gordon Liddy: John McCain Finds His Own Radical

John McCain has had a field day with Barack Obama's tenuous associations with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground who is now a Chicago professor.

Obama has said repeatedly that Ayers' radical past (he was involved in a handful of bombings in the 1960s) occurred when Barack was just a child, and he repudiates those actions. Nevertheless, McCain wants more. He claimed recently:

"I think not only a repudiation but an apology for ever having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people."

Now, however, the Chicago Tribune is pointing out McCain's own radical associations with G. Gordon Liddy:

How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns--including $1,000 this year.

Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

For those who are unaware, Liddy helped plan the Watergate break-in that would cost Nixon his presidency and landed Liddy a four-year jail sentence.

But Liddy's career of inflammatory statements and actions exceed his Watergate actions.

Liddy, on Vitenam:

"I wanted to bomb the Red River dykes [sic]. It would have drowned half the country and starved the other half. There would have been no way the Viet Cong could have operated if we had the will-power to do that."

Liddy, advising Branch Davidians how to defend themselves from ATF agents during a radio show:

"If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insists upon a firefight, give them a firefight. Just remember, they're wearing flak jackets and you're better off shooting for the head."

Liddy, on the impact Adolf Hitler had on him as a child:

When he listened to Hitler on the radio, it "made me feel a strength inside I had never known before," he explains. "Hitler's sheer animal confidence and power of will [entranced me]. He sent an electric current through my body."

Comments

[ThePeoriaKid]

Liddy, all you have going for you is you are in a free country that serves the rich and powerful. Umm, well, they used to call us free. Thanks to people like you, we ALL pay the price. You make people like Bill Clinton seem normal.(He'll get his, trust me) And I'm certain you know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not a "Rhodes Scholar", but I'm hip enough to know you are not what ANY "creator" had in mind. You are a tyrant's dream, a true soldier of the dark side. And you're proud of that stature, I'm sure. Scum, pure and simple. You are simple. Complicated? Nah.. just simple. You're a rock. Simple as a rock. Pure. You have little to show for your efforts. Money? You have no idea how good it feels not to have any. And I hope you never will. You are simply a rock devoid of any natural feeling. If there is a God, he cast you as you are. Sorry bud, but you sold out, PURE and SIMPLE. You followed the script you were handed, I reckon. Choices? I doubt you ever had any. Pure evil never does.

[Redrover666]

So stop trying to hide your feelings.
Tell this man how you really feel about him.

[mamacat]

The comment about the Red River dykes is very important. During the Vietnam War, Nixon had the moral courage to not do something that would have helped the U.S. in the short run, but which would have been an indefensible human rights violation. Today, with the neo-con hijacked Republican party, those Vietnamese civilians would be toast. For these people, no immorality is too great in the name of making America "great;" just ask the Iraqis.

[MaracaKabob]

Liddy looks like a QTip that was used to pull a flea from a dead dogs ear.

[UndercoverBlackMan]

Ummm... at least Liddy "paid his debt to society."

[ThePeoriaKid]

You mean he was executed? Ummm... I think he's still alive pal.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

Celebrity criminal GGLiddy keeps pretending he is a patriot, despite his direct involvement in efforts to subvert democratic elections in the USA. Tho he was caught, and in Nixon's words, "mollycoddled by the courts" with a short sentence, he persisted in obstructing justice withholding most details of his and E. Howard Hunts episodes and ties to Nixon and the Bush family. Yet ironically, GWmdB has failed to give him the same level of recognition that McLame has. Nice that MagCane is taking up the slack for the current WWashH.

[Vik]

The next time that Ayers is covered, I hope that the media covers this.

[DocJerome]

Crazy.

[JMEB]

My god, that Hitler quote helps explain his aesthetic...

[AnnoyedCanuck]

Years ago, I read "Will", Liddy's autobiography. Weirdest f*ckin' book I've ever made my way through. As a boy, Liddy was a sissy who hated his weakness. He set out to turn himself into the toughest of the tough guys. He became almost a caricature of masculinity - thoughout his life he has taken every opportunity to prove his toughness, as if his maleness was constantly at issue. There's an odd insecurity that runs through the book, including many asides and unfunny jokes about gays.

I think Liddy has spent his life proving to himself he isn't a fag. Funny thing is, he's a big admirer of J. Edgar Hoover. Takes one to know one, I suppose.

[chronic]

Good gawd, Liddy looks like an evil alien!!

[libmatters]

Or a villain from an Austin Powers movie.

[punchmonkey]

"What's the deal with that lump in john's face?????" "Is that an absess?????"

[Enid]

The two of them make a great pair of nuts.

At first seeing the picture /glance/ headline
it accrued too me McCain had picked Liiddy as his Vice President.

NOT !.

[RobtBrock]

Liddy is probably working on the Nixon Cloning Project in Brazil.

[BEHM777]

I'll take Dr. Jeremiah Wright over G. Gordon Liddy any and everyday. Amazing how putrid the media has become. I wonder if they will pick this up and beat it to death...

[h20bird]

1) GGL is irrelevant. You just gave him more publicity than he's had in a decade.
2) No doubt McCain will continue to enthrall us with his swift-boat-esque strategies during the next 6 months, but that doesn't mean stooping to his (or Rove's) level is a good idea.

Let's let this non-news die, shall we? Can I get a witness?

[LeoMarvin]

If McCain rejected these tactics re: Wright and Ayers, I'd agree. But the sad truth is that such tactics work. So if you're going to let your opponent use them against you without at least countering with your own to rob his of their power, you may as well not run for office. Because you will lose.

[ObamaOhio08]

Hmmm... I wonder if Liddy has any ties to Doug Coe. They both love Hitler.

Just throwin' it out there....

[elpollo]

I need a new mop. I wonder if I can use Liddy's face.

[shag11]

Does he look more like Hitler, or Mini-me?

[DrDemon]

More like a cross between BOTH!

[zippywpinhead]

he looks like a Conehead in that picture...

[zigzag1]

spewing mass quantities of bull shit

[bigogre]

And, of course, the MSM will immediately pick this up and repeat it ad infinitum, right?
I mean right after the temperature of hell reaches the absolute zero...

[OzzieSmerck]

Ollie North may may no longer be a convicted felon (through a GOP-appointed, narrowly decided ruling), but he remains a CONFESSED felon, by his own testimony. Nothing can change that, or wash his hands of the blood of tens of thousands of Central Americans in who died as a result of his crimes.

And that's leaving aside the Iran side of the equation - in which the Reagan administration's scheme armed both sides of a war in which 10 year old boys were slaughtered in waves. Pretty neat, in the words of North himself. To escape capture, they put the constitution through the shredder. "Hanging by their thumbs" outside the White House was too good for all of them.

As for Liddy? God, if you can't see on its face what a fascist sociopath that bastard is, you just know nothing of history or patriotism. That McCain shows such fealty to a man who to this day is unrepentant of basically trying to overthrow our system of government, explains a lot about why he can support so many destructive Bush policies.

[lthuedk_1]

Having worn a uniform doesn't give you a free pass to lie, subvert our nation, or steal another nation's treasure for Neo Cons and militant corporatist. Didn't you take an oath, sir?

It is you, sir, who owes the American People an apology.

I once liked you, but obviously you've been either brainwashed, your family or you have been threatened by the junta, you've been bought off, or you've decided to reveal the real McCain. You are, by all appearances, a complete Neo Con. And Neo Cons are not worthy of wearing the military uniform.

So, which is it, Senator? Your new loyalties fit very well with your close association with the Watergate criminal, Liddy. You shame our country.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/McBush.html

[realpolitic]

G.Gordon Libby describes how he once ate a rat to get over a fear of rats. I did not know rats practiced canibalism.

[libmatters]

He also held his hand over a flame to show how tough he is.

[realpolitic]

We should tell him to do it again. We looked away and missed it the first time.

[Chapmanp2]

If you haven't seen the US vs. John Lennon, check it out. G. Gordon Liddy appears a few times throughout the movie (all snippetts from the same interview I believe). I almost puked when he said
"Peace is a threat to war"
How's that for mainstream???

[realpolitic]

"Peace is a threat to war," sounds somewhat Orwellian. I guess that nasty peace sometimes does intrude in that all-out, brutal warfare that conservatives seem to thrive on.

[Redrover666]

He's an American, a nut and a patriot and we can be damned proud of him. Americans like him and Col North and those like them. They are genuine.

It's a hell of a lot more than can be said for the likes of Rev Wright or Ayers. Two men who in the long tradition of the far left, proclaim their contempt for America and become wealthy and prosper from the very system they claim to despise. Then move in next door to their white "oppressors" in a wealthy neighborhood.

Many of you here are fond of pointing out that most Americans are stupid. Well, they are certainly smart enough to smell a liberal con-job and aren't likely to take the bait on this story either.

Try again.

[nostalgia]

I am very confused by the current definition of Patriotism. McCain was drafted to Vietnam and his plane was downed...He was the most famous prisoner at the "Hanoi Hilton Hotel". So he is now an acclaimed patriot.

More than 1 million Americans were drafted to Vietnam (many against their will) and all of them are now considered patriots by the same definition?

Please give patriotic value its due. It is what you do for your country from your heart and mind and not what people tell you what to do.

[stephenswain]

And how old are you Mr. Trolls? What wisdom or inside information leads you to conclude that the rapier-witted Senator from Arizona is senile? Could you be mistaking the slight hitch in his giddy-up that came from being tortured for years as a sign of incapacity? The two aren't the same thing. Why don't you write something that is based on reasoning instead of simply spouting blather. You would feel better about yourself.

[stephenswain]

How do you figure that John McCain was "drafted" to Vietnam?

He is a Naval Academy graduate. He was s serving Naval aviator before the regime of Lyndon B. Johnson (a Democrat) began sending troops and aviators to that country. Do the arithmetic: If Senator McCain is 71 years old now, that must mean that he was born August 29, 1936. According to Wikipedia, "McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War in 1967, he narrowly escaped death in the Forrestal fire. On his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese. He spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture, before he was released in accordance with the Paris Peace Accords in 1973." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain).

By the same token, the dates also demonstrate that Senator McCain entered the Naval Academy in 1954, at the age of 18. Since he retired from the navy in 1981, that would seem to mean that he served for 27 years, including his four years at Annapolis, which would have been more than half of his life at the time of his retirement.

So, what is the basis of your questioning his honorable service to his country? Please elaborate. Were you a prisoner of war?

[montestruc]

Obviously the guy you are replying to is mistaken, but I don't like him for a lot of reasons that boil down to this.

I don't think we are safe trusting him.

1. The "bipartisan campaign reform act" which is a direct assault on the first amendment rights of all Americans.

2. As he himself says, he did dishonorable things in giving propaganda for the North Vietnamese while their captive, and other servicemen, who were not officers, and did not have an admiral or general for a dad were court marshaled for doing so.

3. Honest to god read the below website, do recall that he was held captive by the communists for more than five years and subjected to mind control drugs and endless torture and drugs sessions.

http://www.usvetdsp.com/mar08/mccain_manchurian.htm

Do you honestly want to trust the lives of your children to that this man is :

A) not under the control of an foreign power.

B) will not lash out in anger as people who have been treated that way for many years are known to, but this guy has his finger on the button.

Maybe he is not, maybe he has control over his temper, but can we afford to be wrong, when we have others to choose from.

[bigogre]

Hi redrover, nice satire...
Forget those who didn't get it. ;)

[EGNY]

Ahh, yes. The Right Wing patriotism patrol. Liddy, North and their ilk are not patriots. They don't love America -- they love THEMSELVES. I find it so abhorrently disingenuous that people who think themselves entitled to ignore whichever pesky rules and principles are inconvenient for them, seek to get away with it by wrapping themselves in a protective mantle of fake patriotism.

Republicans promote a flag-draped, "rah, rah, we"re the best," bumper-sticker Patriotism. It"s very shallow, requiring only that the "consumer" (i.e., the citizen), regurgitate a few talking points, wave a flag and chant "USA, USA¦" This simplistic idea of Patriotism does not require -- in fact discourages -- people being deeply engaged in their own Democracy.

These Republicans are anything BUT Patriots. Their allegiance to America"s core principles is a sham. They FAIL in their Patriotic duty to put the good of the country, the good of the American people, ahead of their own narrow agenda. They have shredded these principles at every opportunity. They find them bothersome -- a hindrance to achieving their objectives (Bush: "that damn piece of paper").

True patriots believe in America. We believe in the foundational ideas of governance that make our democracy work, despite the complexities and ambiguities we face, and have always faced since our inception. True patriots don"t kick our founding ideals to the curb when they become inconvenient. True patriots" allegiance to these principles supersedes expediency. Supersedes self interest. Supersedes partisanship. Supersedes "winn