Republicans sure love their convicted felons. It seems kind of ironic that they claim to be the party of law and order, but they worship, adore and hang on to the every word of convicted felons like Oliver North, Scooter Libby and G. Gordon Liddy.
In a case of you are who you associate with, State Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, is taking time out of his busy schedule to appear with Watergate burglar and convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy at a breakfast Saturday morning arranged by local members of the motorcycle group ABATE, business owners and the Monroe County Republicans. According to the
Monroe Evening News, when asked if he would have an issue with being associated with Liddy's strongly conservative viewpoint, Richardville said no. They should have asked him if he would have an issue being associated with a convicted felon.
I personally know how much in demand and how full the schedule is for each of Monroe’s – where I was born and raised and most of my family lives - two state Representatives, especially now that they are both committee chairs and in the majority. Richardville is in the same position in the Senate where the Republicans control that house, but he is also responsible for twice the people and land area as Reps. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, and Kate Ebli, D-Monroe, are. Logic says Richardville should be in twice the demand as they are, so this is a rather curious choice for Richardville to put on his schedule.
Liddy is the former FBI agent and White House aide who helped plan the Watergate break-in of DNC headquarters that led to the cover-up and resignation of former President Nixon. According to Wikipedia, Liddy then worked for Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign, known as CREEP, in order to extend the scope and reach of the White House "Plumbers" unit, which had been created in response to various damaging leaks of information to the press. Liddy concocted several plots, some far-fetched, intended to embarrass the Democratic opposition. Most were rejected, such as firebombing the Brookings Institution, but a few were given the go ahead by Nixon Administration officials, including the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office.
At some point, Liddy was instructed to break into the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel. For his role in Watergate, Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and illegal wiretapping, and received a 20-year sentence. He served four and a half years in prison before his sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
It was obviously a mistake because the Liddy still refuses to take responsibility for his illegal behavior, which has served him well as a conservative talk show host and poster boy for the right. Liddy has launched a ridiculous
conspiracy theory – isn’t there a conspiracy theory for everything – that a then 21-year-old secretary – who is now a dean at a community college in Louisiana – was operating a call-ring out of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate. He claims the plumbers broke in to get pictures out of the secretary’s desk of the fictional prostitutes clad in see-thru nightgowns.
Richardville should feel right at home. It seems fitting that Richardville is appearing with Liddy now when we have a president in the White House who shares some of Nixon’s beliefs that he is above the law and the Constitution’s restraint and guarantee of personal freedoms for citizens are rights Bush does not have to heed. In Nixon’s case, he was held accountable, but in Bush’s case they just change the law for him.
