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

[bitabingbitabangbitaboom]

Where is Bill Kunstler now that we need him.......­..........­is Len Weinglass still Around??????

[jdizl]

whoa nelly...

I was passe about the first couple of comments, but then the Hitler
thingy came up! Johnny boy, you definitely don't want to get into this one!
You can't even get your words straight on 'the occupation­'...

MSM is embarrassing! Their last chance is to vet Johnny boy in the General.
My bet is they won't run the course with the Admiral!

sad, very sad!

But hey, I guess America can do no better...
I still love my dumb country though..."­Hurray I'm for the other team!" smirk smirk...

[flacon]

Did you mean blase?

[RoboA2008]

Liddy is and always will be crazy as bat crap. Once again the guilt be association only applies if you are a Black man running for president. If you are a White male or female it just does not seem to matter. We who are concerned about this should flood the mainstream media with one question..­. WHY?

[tsloan]

gotta love his Hitler-esque moustache

[SouthpawSass]

MAY 4, 1970, four students killed by Ohio National Guardsman at Kent State University in antiwar protest.


Lest we forget Liddy with his blaming the students for their own demise... I remember reading somewhere that Liddy actually discussed kidnapping university protesters to get them to stop their anti war protests..­. Nice guy.

[newshawk14]

I've always felt that someone needed to be held responsible and court marshaled for Kent
State. When you have either a M-14 or M1 rifle, particularly if a bayonet is attached, you have
no need for live ammunition. I think someone deliberately set out to kill students in order to
quell protests, and I'd like to know who that someone was.

[GrandpaMcCain]

Oh good. A convicted Watergate criminal / GOP hero and McCain. Oh yeah. Grandpa is the right choice.

For retirement.

[MizLiz]

Yes, his choice of spokespeople leads me to wonder what his cabinet would look like. Now there's something to give you nightmares. How come nobody gets upset about that crazy minister? The one going after the Catholic church? Is it okay because he's white ??? Just curious.

[cmrinc]

This is a huge story, notice all the coverage from the mainstream media.

[Lagniappe]

Evidence of lack does not mean a lack of evidence.

[jah2008]

The MSM won't touch McCain until the Dem's nominee is chosen. Bad for business. They'll save the circus for the fall. I guarantee it.

[awcbuddy8]

Liddy is a republican and endorses every Republican candidate. What's the story?

[TocinoHumano]

Liddy is a convicted felon who, on his national radio show a few years ago, gave detailed instructions on how to murder law enforcement personnel. That's the story.

[helloworld2008]

Will McCain reject and denounce this?

Or does he agree about Hitler and shooting ATF agents with Liddy????

[MizLiz]

Frankly, I think McCain admires Liddy. He still fancies himself a go-to-Hell fighter jock, I guess. Maybe Liddy's aura of ruthlessness and danger turns him on.

[SpoxLogic]

Er, I'm just wondering because I don't know...but was Bill Ayers ever convicted of anything?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers

Also turns out, they never set any bombs anywhere. Just killed some of themselves­...
"But for the Weathermen, violent action was nothing short of necessary in a time of crisis, a last-ditch effort to grab the country’s attention. And grab attention they did—in March 1970, just days after Bernardine Dohrn publicly announced a “declaration of war.” When an accidentally detonated bomb killed three Weathermen in the basement of a Manhattan townhouse, the group suddenly became the target of an FBI manhunt, and members were forced to go into hiding. The bomb had been intended to be set off at a dance at a local Army base.
How did the Weathermen arrive at this point? Some of the group’s former members, interviewed in THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, cite the murder of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in a December 1969 Chicago police raid as a turning point. What many believed to be a government­-sanctione­d killing in an effort to wipe out militant groups such as the Panthers was, for the Weathermen, the final straw." - http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/weatherunderground/movement.html

...like I said, I was just wondering, is all...

[SpoxLogic]

Correction by addition:

They did bomb a police station in June, 1970. So, they set off two bombs, with the result that the only people killed were 3 of their own members, one of whom was Ayer's girlfriend.

[JulieSA]

Ayers bombed the Pentagon. Here's his fond recollection: "However, in describing a bomb he placed in the Pentagon, Ayers brags a bit too much. "It turns out that we blew up a bathroom and, quite by accident, water plunged below and knocked out their computers for a time, disrupting the air war and sending me into deepening shades of delight."

Dohrn aidded and abetted these actions by the Weather underground: "On Oct. 20, 1981, Sgt. Edward O'Grady, Patrolman Waverly Brown and Brinks guard Peter Paige were gunned down in Rockland County, N.Y. by heavily armed terrorists. The half dozen gunmen — all Americans — were members of the Weather Underground, a faction of the Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Liberation Army, formed from members of the Black Panther Party and the Republic of New Afrika.

These improbable violent coalitions were committing armed robberies (this was number 19) to finance their "revolutio­n." At stake that day was an armored truck with $1.6 million in cash. Thanks to the bravery of the dead officers, the terrorists failed; but left behind were three widows and nine children, like most victims all largely forgotten.­"

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_108950.html

[JulieSA]

Read this account of the attempted murder of a judge and his entire family by the Weathermen. Also, please recall that Ayers said in an 2001 interview that he didn't regret it, he would do it again, and he wishes he had set more bombs.

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0430jm.html

[iLogos]

Honestly, while I feel for the child, I have no respect for the adult.

The piece is is full of inaccuracies, and Murtagh's own support for Sen. Clinton, his ignoring of Ayer's LACK of involvement in that case, and conflating an association into a deep friendship, doing everything but blaming Sen. Obama for what was an attempt to gain publicity from a dangerous stunt (and stunt it was, not an assassination attempt) is the height of intellectual dishonesty.

I could have sworn Sen. Clinton said the Democratic Party was the party of ideas, how about we actually discuss those ideas and let the voters make decisions on those instead of bogus non-issues.

[paganmist]

By the way, what people fail to mention is the bomb that killed 3 people? --Ayers tried to talk them out of it. This is out there, for anyone who cares to check. He tried to talk them out of it, they would not listen. Later he tried to get them to turn themselves in.

This really sounds like the horrible man everyone's painting him out to be.

[MizLiz]

The Clinton people are desperate, grabbing at straws.

[ErnestineBass]

G. Gordon Liddy.
Hair Club for Men? Nope.
Just for Men Beard and Moustache? Yep.

[GrandpaMcCain]

~snicker~ Let's also hope for no place else on his body.

[iPolitics]

Let's see this or Hagee on loop at MSNBC, CNN, and Faux News. Then again it's not race-baiting like the Wright story so they'll ignore it.

[reelcobra]

Great work HuffPO!

I personally think the Amrican Voter is stupid enough to equate this "scoop" with the Ayres story.

Boy is that thing ever neutralized.

Now let's push the Pastor Haggee thing to help keep Wright on the front pages!

BHO '08!!

[paganmist]

Last time I checked, Wright never sent anyone out to kill someone. For all his ranting, he's at least sending folks to college, getting them off of drugs, getting them jobs, etcetera.

Even Ayers - Obama's association with him has been through education and helping the poor.

This guy though? Is freaking insane, and you know it.

Never ceases to amaze me how much people are willing to overlook for their candidate.

[SouthpawSass]

Does anyone believe that the MSM and political junkies like Matthews, Russert, Scarborough, Blitzer and the like will bring this up on any one of their shows or panels? Don't think you'll see this on The Factor... Not likely.

Personally, I think McCain is hiding a lot more than we know. He's dirty, my friends, a dirty rotten scoundrel.

[zendem1]

Gordon Liddy is crazy as a shit house rat...Don'­t need a weatherman to tell you that

[wmfor]

Did I ever tell you my G. Gordon Liddy story? Stop me if I told you...

My father was with the F.B.I. in the Denver office where Liddy was assigned several years before Watergate. The agents were complaining about other cars being parked in the Bureau's reserved spots in the building, and the S.A.C. (=boss) said in a huff, "Someone ought to let the air out of their tires."

So Liddy did.

My Dad always suspected that Nixon had said, in a huff, "I wish we had a bug in the DNC's offices." Something like, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

[SouthpawSass]

Serious? He's a whack job, alright.

[vegasrichard]

can the boomers on both sides please stop reliving the 60's and 70's and deal with the real issues of today.

note: i am 47 and remember both the weather underground and watergate both where wrong then and now.

[SouthpawSass]

Ye ole geezer...

I'm ONLY 46... hehehe

[Decipherer]

Well, the fact of the matter is that for many of us "boomers" what is so difficult to understand or comprehend is that after forty years or so, our country has not hardly learned anything from the past and seems doomed to repeat it.

At least we were able to run Richard Nixon out of office for crimes that pale in comparison to those of George W. Bush! What is our excuse today for not having both Bush and his leader Dick Cheney facing impeachment or worse?

And then there's the teeny-tiny matter of the bizarre connections between the Bush Crime Family (yes, 41 and 43) and the Nixon Crime Family, including Dick Cheney, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Pat Buchanan, Donald Rumsfeld, and a whole host of neo-CONS in training, just waiting to spring into action like a terrorist sleeper cell.

Well, that's what we've got. SO, if you want to "deal with the real issues of today," such as the war ON Iraq, political dirty tricks of all kinds, corruption, and all the rest, you'd do well to do a little homework and learn a little bit about how and when these criminals got their start.

Maybe YOUR children will not have to go through this when their time comes.

[RickTheScribe]

Many learned the wrong lessons from Vietnam and Watergate, believing that the problem was not the intent, but rather the execution. Sadly, most of the rest lost the stomach to fight authority and have taken comfort in trying to ignore the problems of criminal abuse at the highest levels of our government in hopes that it will go away all by itself.