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

[4wehttam]

I'm sure that there are dozens and dozens of extremely radical people in McWar's background. For him to even put his foot in is very brave of him. He probably thought (rightfully so) that the media's infatuation with him and being on the republican party that no one would dare question him.

[Mscharizmaa]

Burglary vs. Bombs planted

Not the same thing, but both are crimes against society. And the question is not in comparing the two as to which does more harm. But that if “guilt by association" is in play, then McCain has some explaining to do.

Good find Huffington

[JulieSA]

Dohrn also was an accomplice to an armed robbery in which three men were murdered.

Another difference is that Ayers and Dohrn hate America to this day, and are happy to say so, and they are educating our youth. That's not a crime, but I sure don't want anyone like that to have some potential influence on a President.

[ErnestineBass]

But...you have no problem with a Hitler-worshipping convicted felon like Liddy influencing your candidate McKranky? What is it with you people?

[Reaganwater]

Sweet Julie ,this is your kind of loving America I take it ?
Quotes of Liddy :
August 26, 1994 - "Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests." ... "They've got a big target on there, ATF. Don't shoot at that, because they've got a vest on underneath that. Head shots, head shots.... Kill the sons of bitches".
September 15, 1994 - "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."
and From Wikipedia
Liddy concocted several plots, some far-fetched, intended to embarrass the Democratic opposition. These included firebombing the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. (where classified documents leaked by Daniel Ellsberg were being stored), kidnapping anti-war protest organizers and transporting them to Mexico during the Republican National Convention (which at the time was planned for San Diego), and luring mid-level Democratic campaign officials to a house boat in Baltimore where they would be secretly photographed in compromising positions with call girls .
Very heartwarming ,Keep talking , a few more leave your side every hour.

[atila]

the problem is,nobody is paying atention thanks to billary power addiction...

[VillyVal]

Huh?

[luckyoldson]

Yeah, we need MORE blaring Hillary headlines so people will pay more attention.

You've got to be kidding...and what in the world does Hillary and Bill Clinton have to do with Liddy and McCain???

[Kundera]

Liddy served his time and never killed anyone. Ayers never paid the price for helping kill innocents.

[Decipherer]

OK -- please educate us as to who Ayres helped to "kill innocents?" Where do you get that information?

If you have some new information about Ayres that federal prosecutors did not have when they decided not to prosecute him, I am certain that they would like to know it.

There is no statute of limitations on the crime of murder, so have at it.

We're waiting.

[plainsman]

We know where that information came from: Sean "screw-the-facts-ratchet-up-the-rhetoric-with-lies" Hannity.

[ErnestineBass]

Kundera, along with his "good buddies" cmrinc, heyliberal, TimmySlagle, illuminati (in her numerous incarnations), rollingdivision and ohio mark, are pathetic blowhards.

But they are fun to slap around.

I think they like it.

[kawreader]

Hm. Maybe read up a bit more on these two before making those kinds of claims.

[plainsman]

The Weathermen bombed sites. There was never a death attributed to the weathermen, although three of their members died when a circuit shorted and the bomb blew them up. Those three had planned to bomb an NCO dance, which would have resulted in innocents dying, but it was never carried out. After that the remaining members of the group rejected killing as a mode of getting their point across.

[CyrusBeaucephus]

Kundera doesn't need any of your stinking facts. He knows a terrorist when he sees one. Obama lost him wth the funny-sounding name. Somehow I don't think Obama is counting on much support from the neanderthal 28percenter End Times types, but then I may be wrong

[JulieSA]

Dohrn served seven months in prison. She was an accomplice to a 1980's robbery in which two policeman and a security guard were murdered, although she was sentenced for contempt of grand jury. The spoiled, wealthy radical helped get three working-class men killed.

The Weatherman tried to kill people. Attempted murder is a horrible crime. That this pair walks free and is accepted in polite society is scandal.

[sandtats]

Exaclty. Let's not forget BC's pardoning of 16 members of the Puerto Rican terrorist group FALN, credited with over 146 bombings, resulting in 9 deaths and hundreds injured. Supposedly this pardon was payback to Hillary ("Bill's little gift") for all of the crap she had to put up with re: bimbos, all of her work on his behalf, defending him, trashing them, and the fact that she was just about to embark on a NY Senate bid, NY being rich with Hispanic voters; well, you get the idea.

"Given all this, why would Bill Clinton, who had ignored the 3,226 clemency petitions that had piled up on his desk over the years, suddenly reach into the stack and pluck out these 16 meritless cases? (The New York Times ran a column with the headline, "Bill's Little Gift.")

Hillary Rodham Clinton was in the midst of her state-wide "listening tour" in anticipation of her run for the U.S. Senate in New York, a state which included 1.3 million Hispanics. Three members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus -- Luis V. Gutierrez (D., Ill.), Jose E. Serrano, (D., N.Y.) and Nydia M. Velazquez, (D., N.Y.) -- along with local Hispanic politicians and leftist human-rights advocates, had been agitating for years on behalf of the FALN cases directly to the White House and first lady."

[IslandGyal]

dostortions again, but hey, they think we are mindless idiots like FauxNews viewers.

[sugarmoes]

conservatives see this association as a PLUS!!! crime is ok... as long as THEY are committing it.

[plainsman]

Subverting democracy is a major plus on Republican resumes.

[Lagniappe]

HILLARY'S WATERGATE SCANDAL

By Jerry Zeifman
IN December 1974, as general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, I made a personal evaluation of Hillary Rodham (now Mrs. Clinton), a member of the staff we had gathered for our impeachment inquiry on President Richard Nixon. I decided that I could not recommend her for any future position of public or private trust.

Why? Hillary's main duty on our staff has been described by as "establishing the legal procedures to be followed in the course of the inquiry and impeachment." A number of the procedures she recommended were ethically flawed. And I also concluded that she had violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons.

Hillary had conferred personally with me regarding procedural rules. I advised her that Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino, House Speaker Carl Albert, Majority Leader Tip O'Neill and I had previously agreed not to advocate anything contrary to the rules already adopted and published for that Congress. I quoted Mr. O'Neill's statement that: "To try to change the rules now would be politically divisive. It would be like trying to change the traditional rules of baseball before a World Series."


Hillary assured me that she had not drafted and would not advocate any such rules changes. I soon learned that she had lied: She had already drafted changes, and continued to advocate them.____________________________Note: Tip O'Neill had a young staffer named Chris Mathhews.

[wmfor]

G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, Karl "Miss Piggy" Rove. Republican criminals are treated as celebrities and given high paying media jobs. I don't know why Scooter Libby doesn't have his own show on Fox yet.

[Grannysue]

Another Nixon troll, let's see there's Cheney, Rummy, Liddy and um McSame, are they going to partner with Hillary to form some new kind of party? If so, maybe they can all move to some other country cause we were done with that bunch a good many years ago, only some people in this country who keep voting morons like this in either need to read history or just plain read!

[lvdragonlady]

I think clinton has already secretly partnered with the Reps. That is the explaination I can come up with for all the crap she is telling the American people.

[moda31]

that photograph is truly frightening.

[hopelessobama]

so the left is comparing burglary to planting bombs and saying there the same thing? kind of like saying a senator is the same as ayers. the left can't defend obama's association with wright and ayers so they try to equate them to hagee and liddy, even though mccain has no relationship with either and neither has any influence over mccain. wright's foreign policy views have been fully adopted by barack, end of discussion.

[djelimon]

"so the left is comparing burglary to planting bombs and saying there the same thing?"

I didn't read that in the article. Just that mcCain is far closer to a convicted criminal (ayers was never convicted btw) than Obama is to Ayers.

Of course, he was a criminal trying to further the cause of fascism in the US, so good luck getting a repub to admit he did anything wrong. hell, under W, I doubt Liddy would have seen the inside of a court, let alone done any time.

[evekendall]

Under W, Liddy would have been give the Medal of Freedom.

[NYCBear]

If you think Liddy is just a simple burglar, you don't know his story. He's a vicious racist and homophobe who advocates using violence to crush anyone who disagrees with him.

He claims that his criminal background was washed clean by the blood of the lamb when he converted to fundamentalist Christianity - but continues to lead a remarkably non-Christlike life of hatred and dirty tricks.

[smartalek]

Bear, didn't know he was a homophobe, too (though of course it's completely unsurprising). Thanx for pointing that out.
But I wonder, even before I saw this post, my gaydar was pinging off the scale on that pic. And of course we all know that many (all?) of the most virulent homophobes always turn out to be closeted themselves. Do you suppose... ?

[Decipherer]

Who exactly are you talking about on "the left?" Are you saying that someone who points out the hypocrisy of one candidate versus another is automatically a leftist, if for instance they call out John McCain, the media's fair-haired boy?

If you were to put G. Gordon Liddy head-to-head with this William Ayres guy, there is simply no comparison. Liddy's crimes, those at least that we know about and which he has admitted, make the amateur "terrorist" Ayres look laughable. Liddy and the Watergate criminals (AKA the Nixon administration) nearly brought the country to its knees 35+ years ago, and Ayres scared some people with his and the Weather Underground's empty bomb threats.

Liddy was CONVICTED -- charges against Ayres were considered and then DROPPED. Both faced justice, and these are the facts, whether you like them or not. Liddy is an unrepentant Fascist, Ayres has actually done some good in and for his community.

To say that Obama's "association" with Ayres and Wright has significantly and adversely affected his views about policy and his view of the world to the detriment of the America people is laughable.

At least Obama has repeatedly repudiated these so-called "associations," unlike McCain who continues to solicit Hagee's support no matter what that clown says, and apparently will not disavow the Fascist Liddy's documented support for him -- including money he's raised -- that goes back decades.

To say that McCain "has no relationship" with either of these dangerous idiots is false.

[lippp]

Sorry. Your idiotic statements don't fly. Clearly Obama's relationship with Ayers is extremelty peripherel and in no way implies or proves a direct relationship let alone approval of Ayer's activities in the past. Liddy, a felon, who has undermined our democracy with his criminal behavior is warmly greeted my McCain. And you don't see the difference. Well shame on you.

[guntotinganglion]

First off, there is no left. There's the extremist right-wing fringe (that would be you) and the middle (everyone else). Only problem is, the pushing to the limits of what might be euphemistically called the right, has now produced a perception that what was once the middle is now the left. It's still the middle, and what used to be conservatism is now extremism. Profligate extremism actually.

Not to make too fine a point of it, but there's one difference between Ayers and Liddy, beyond your characterizations. Liddy was convicted of a crime, Ayers was not. All the bombast and bloviation notwithstanding, Ayers is NOT a criminal, or an ex-con, like Liddy. Ayers has never been convicted of ANYTHING. Just really tiresome when these tirades continue based on opinions not facts. If some talking head on FUX News says it's so, or if Rush farts out another stinker of an opinion, it becomes fact in the minds of the neo-con apologist sheep. Ditto!

[Insideout143]

Love the FUX news! Much better description than Faux news...

[Redrover666]

Not to put too fine a point on it but this fellow Ayers, was/is a radical that founded a domestic terrorist organization, that wanted to overthrow the government and establish communism as the form of government in this country. There is a photo of him recently, stomping on an American flag.
That he wasn't convicted, is putting a fine point to it.

Our country is swarming with nuts. Liddy is one of our nuts and though he may be crazy as bat-shit, the fool loves his country and would fight to his death for it.

On the other hand, this Ayers guy has made a career of denigrating his country.

I don't think either reflects on the candidates in any particular way. However, if I were to have to pick one of them to have a beer with, it'd be Liddy. Then after a couple of cold ones, we could just go ahead and kick Ayers' communist, flag burning, ass.

[hopelessobama]

bill ayers admitted to building bombs that resulted in the deaths of several people. he was not convicted because of a technicality. he has confessed, and also stated he wished he had made more bombs.

your absurd statement of there not being a left is a joke. just a few of the crazies left of center include bill ayers and those who believe in socialism and marxism in this country, the eco-terrorists who bomb lumberjacks, the code pinkers who say AFGHANISTAN is an unjust war, the 9/11 truthers who say bush bombed the twin towers himself, those who are pro-partial birth abortion when a vast majority opposes it, the protectionists who oppose even bill clinton's great economy, the lefties who believe public schools should have 3 bathrooms; girls, boys, and transgender, the peta loons who terrorize people who do tests on animals that actually saves lives and who believe an animals life is equal to a humans and no special treatment should be given to people who are in need over animals (example; if a human and a dog were starving, peta would flip a coin to decide who to feed first). these are not middle of the road positions, these are the core left wing beliefs that make up barack obama's supporters.

[jah2008]

Wow, I didn't even have to read the article to know that Liddy was emulating Hitler. His photo sent chills down my spine.

[Decipherer]

He may well be emulating Hitler, but in terms of his appearance, I'd say he's Baldar Conehead's long-lost brother from the planet Remulac.

[ErnestineBass]

LOL!

[StandingStill]

He looks like Doctor Death!

[realtalk]

People keep saying it like it's ture. Obama DID NOT have ANY relationship with Ayers!!! Crossing paths with someone is NOT a relationship! Sitting on an Anti-Poverty charity board, a board which consisted of 10 other people including doctors, lawyers, professors, city officials (democrats, and republicans), which met ONLY 4 times a year, does NOT a friendship make! Obama had no relationship with this man!!!

[Ramirez]

G. Gordon Liddy. A terrorist? That's a bit of a stretch.

It's amusing how the Obamians search desperately for their moral equivalence examples.

[LarsGruber]

it's a stretch, If you're ignorant.

How about those associations with Negroponte?

[Bluedog12]

Thanks for the GOP talking point of "moral equivalence". Rush would be proud. Is it possible to discuss moral equivalence in this context? After all McCain knows that Liddy the convicted criminal is moral less. Then again jailbird Chuck Colsen may have saved his soul but Rush may not have realized while in an Oxycontin stupor and neglected to mention it in one of his anti McCain rants..

[scottymac11]

Inciting violence against federal agents. Illegal Attempts to effect a national election through burglary and other crimes. Volunteering to murder people who speak against his political affiliates. These are components of terrorism indeed.

[Midnightrain]

I'm just curious why Americans are comfortable with romantic comments about Hitler and uncomfortable with any suggestion that racism still exists?

[Bluedog12]

Frank Rich hit it on the head. There are 49 GOP senators and 202 GOP Congressmen. There are zero elected african american republicans. In Congress alone there are 49 african american democrats. They don't have a problem.

[OriginalScreenName]

Not all Americans are that way. Watch out for the generalizations.

[jhink465]

McCain's Parade of Horrors: Bush, Keating, Hagee, Liddy....Who's next? Looks like Grampy has quite a wild array of skeletons rattling in his closet.

[Lagniappe]

Jack Abramoff-----When Mc Cain was Chairman of the Bureau of Indian Affairs investigation re: Lobby money to Indian tribes,McCain withheld an Abramoff email that directly connected Abramoff to "rigging"so to speak, the Don Seigelman /Riley governors race in Alabama. If you recall ,Seigelman was just released from for jail on appeal of being falsely imprisoned-and fingered Rove as the puppeteer. Go to Huff Po ,type in "Mc Cain Withheld Controversial E-Mail" SamStein,2/25/08. HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!

[mcartri]

AP) Our next President, John McCain, doesn't even know who that Liddy guy is. The press has investigated this McCain/Libby connection hoax and found absolutely no truth in it. Special Announcement: President McCain has invited all his press friends to the Maverick's BBQ Cook-Out for November 20, 2009. President McCain plans to announce the next five-terrorist countries we will bomb-bomb-bomb!

[LarsGruber]

Negroponte.

He's killed over a 100 of innocent civilians.

[Raymondf]

John distance yourself from this criminal now.

[plainsman]

...but still accept his endorsement.

[Dissident Dexter]

OH if you knew Liddy like I know that shithead. If you don't know this guy, google him. He's nothing but a convicted felon and a failed burglar. He's definately an OG - Old GOP