Surpassing outlandish: Diersen (see, Dave, I spelled it right this time) falls flat on Liddy challenge

I feel jilted, to be brutally honest.

In one of my blog postings yesterday, I challenged Dave Diersen of Wheaton to explain which of G. Gordon Liddy’s actions in the White House exemplified conservative values and/or American principles. As a member of the Plumbers Unit in the Nixon administration, Liddy proposed (and seemed fully prepared to carry out) firebombing the Brookings Institute, kidnapping leaders of the anti-war movement and assassinating newspaper columnist Jack Anderson (Liddy’s fellow future convicts put the brakes on these ideas).

And those aren’t even the highlights on Liddy’s resume of his time in the White House. Along with E. Howard Hunt, he planned the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel. Liddy served more than five years in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal.

On Monday, I posted a blog entry about how interesting it was that the nation’s newest celebrity domestic terrorist, William Ayers, grew up in blissful, peaceful, law-abiding, conservative, Republican DuPage County — Glen Ellyn, to be exact. I asked how critics of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama could make a big deal of his connection to Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground, and ignore the link between U.S. Sen. John McCain and Liddy, who has become a celebrity in the eyes of some people.

McCain has appeared on Liddy’s radio show and spoken very highly of him. In a May 4, 2008, article in the Chicago Tribune, columnist Steve Chapman noted that McCain once told Liddy, “I’m proud of you; I’m proud of your family. .. It’s always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles that keep our nation great.”

That would be incredibly heartwarming if someone — anyone — would explain to me what exactly Liddy has done to derserve such praise. Given his background of ignoring the Constitution and advocating violence to political rivals, Liddy exhibited as much as a domestic terrorist mindset as did Ayers. Why would any self-respecting, law-and-order conservative want to embrace someone who had committed himself to this kind of brazen criminality?

On his GOPUSA Illinois Web site yesterday (under “News Clips,” Oct. 14, Suburban Life), Diersen referenced my blog posting Monday by saying I ignored the “important difference” between Ayers and Liddy: “Ayers fought against American and for communism while Liddy fought for America and against communism.”

So yesterday I challenged Diersen to explain which of Liddy’s proposed and/or actual activites could be construed as fighting for America. I believe that Liddy held constitutional liberties in contempt and engaged in lawlessness so the Nixon administration could retain its power.

Well, Diersen declined to address my challenge. Given the scope of my blog posting yesterday, I was expecting quite a lecture by Diersen on his Web site. Instead, all I got this morning (under Suburban Life) was this: “Diersen Headline: Very Sad: Obama/Ayers promoter Jerry Moore demonizes and denigrates Diersen and G. Gordon Liddy and spells Diersen’s name wrong four times.”

OK, he got me on the misspellings. I regret the errors made in my post, and it has since been corrected. My bad.

But the rest of Diersen’s headline is pretty weak. Can Diersen point to the segment of my blog posting where I’m actually promoting either Obama or Ayers? And how am I “demonizing and denigrating” him and Liddy by pointing out the truth?

And what is the truth? Liddy was a political gang-banger who abused the authority of the Nixon administration, and Diersen feels compelled to defend his criminal mentality while denouncing Ayers’ lawlessness. The hypocrisy here is so huge that I just might use it as a condo — given the right terms on the mortgage, mind you.

I hope Diersen steps up to the plate and puts some effort into his writing. Simply whining that he’s been criticized without explaining why the criticism is wrong is just plain lame.

As far as I’m concerned, cyberspace deserves better. Who’s with me?

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