McCain's real ties to a domestic terrorist

John McCain Is Proud Of G. Gordon Liddy

Several weeks ago, seeing his last chance for the presidency slipping away, a desperate John McCain chose to focus of his entire campaign on William Ayers. In television ads, in stump speeches and through his surrogates, McCain, unable to run on the issues, decided that his only chance was to turn Barack Obama's time on a school reform board with Ayers into "palling around with terrorists," and during the last presidential debate, McCain said that "we need to know the full extent of that relationship." And McCain is right. We do need to know the full extent of a presidential candidate's relationship with an "unrepentant domestic terrorist." So let's talk about McCain's own relationship with G. Gordon Liddy.

During his recent appearance with David Letterman, McCain was asked about that relationship and said:

I’ve met him...I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt, he went to prison, he paid his debt.

Actually, Liddy "paid his debt" for his role in Watergate and breaking into the office of Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame. He never paid any price for:

...plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a "gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 Republican National Convention -- a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis...he had named his shooting targets after Bill and Hillary Clinton.

And he never paid a price for saying:

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." Liddy's advice that day was explicit: "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."

...a sentiment, by the way, that he expressed more than once on his radio show. And when asked in later interviews whether he regretted his role in Watergate or for giving instructions on how to kill federal agents, Liddy's answer was no. But really, who would expect remorse from a man who said:

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."

Despite all that, McCain simply tells Letterman that he knows Liddy and that he's paid his debt to society. But there is more to their relationship than that. Liddy has donated thousands of dollars to McCain's campaigns, and McCain has appeared on Liddy's radio show, as recently as five months ago, and:

...McCain praised Liddy's "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great," said he was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program."

Let's review: Barack Obama served on a school reform board funded by an ally of Ronald Reagan, along with a number of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. John McCain accepts money and enjoys sitting down for interviews with a man who is a convicted felon, who plotted murders and bombings, who advocated killing federal agents, who named his shooting targets after a President and First Lady/Senator, and who tingled when he listened to Adolph Hitler speak. And John McCain praises his:

...adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.

Exactly which candidate "is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America"?

(Daily Kos)