DATE: Monday, August 25, 1997               TAG: 9708230054

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Maddry 

                                            LENGTH:   97 lines

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK? LOCAL GOVERNMENT SPONSORS MR. ANTI-GOVERNMENT, G. GORDON LIDDY

G. GORDON LIDDY will host his nationally syndicated talk show today at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel under the sponsorship of the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, the Southeastern Public Service Authority, and the Norfolk Botanical Garden.

If you are a G. Gordon Liddy fan, congratulations. It must be a hoot knowing your hero is in town. And comforting to see your government falling in step behind him.

Some of us don't share that view of the ex-con. Naturally, radio stations WNIS and WTAR have every right to have the G-Man here for their ``Talkfest 79'' and it's good that some money from food sales at the event will benefit charities.

But governmental agencies linking with Gordon Liddy?

This is the man who former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell regretted not having tossed ``out the window'' for bringing a shopping list of constitutional violations to his office in the Justice Department.

This is the man who only months before the Oklahoma City bombing was spewing his contempt for the feds on his show while giving detailed instructions on how to make a fertilizer bomb. Just for any Bubba who happened to be listening, you know. You didn't have to write in for a bomb kit. He gave all you needed - a verbal blueprint. The G-Man even went over it re-yuhl slow for the retards. Nice.

This is a man who boasts to the nation of the pleasure he gets when firing a gun at the likenesses of the president of the United States and his wife. Likes to shoot Hillary Clinton ``in the breast,'' he says.

And, believe it or not, this is the man who makes a living by telling us our government is out of control!

Regretfully, local governments - as represented by the SPSA, HRSD and the publicly financed botanical garden - are out of line on this one. They are funded by tax dollars from Democrats, Republicans, Independents and whatever. They are supposed to represent us. All of us.

Those arms of government have no business supporting, financing, endorsing, sponsoring or affiliating themselves with any political figure or philosophy, And that goes for Ted Kennedy or a liberal-crackpot talk show host. And certainly not G. Gordon Liddy, the centerpiece and grand enchilada of ``Talkfest 97.'' (Liddy will be on the air from 10-a.m. until 2. p.m. when local talk show hosts from the stations will go on the air.)

Liddy - the lock-and-load mouthpiece for right-wing extremists - is what this year's Talkfest is about. And the HRSD, SPSA and the garden are Talkfest sponsors. They are listed that way in the newspaper ads promoting the event with a number of commercial sponsors. And they appear proud of it.

I have been talking with representatives of all three over the past few days and they will tell you they are not endorsing Gordon Liddy. ``We supported Talkfest in the past and that's what we're doing now,'' they will tell you.

So they will have booths at Talkfest, giving out information about their activities. And they have given out tickets or told callers where they can get them to see Liddy live.

``We're not really part of Gordon Liddy,'' they say. Or: ``We didn't know he was even going to be at Talkfest when we agreed to be sponsors.''

And all of it is nonsense. They want to be the impossible. They want to be part of the Liddy show and they don't - at the same time.

Here's a letter from the public relations coordinator for the Norfolk Botanical Gardens:

It goes as follows: ``Norfolk Botanical Garden does not support or endorse any political, sports or entertainment figure. . . . Norfolk Botanical Garden will distribute tickets to the event so the public can stop by our information booth. . . . ''

No support, but they are a sponsor of the event! Ain't that neat. Let's say next year's Talkfest biggie is the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Here's how it would go:

``Hey, we're not connected to the wizard. We don't support him, you know. We just got our little old information stand down here and have been passing out tickets and using our employees to assist the event in any way we can. But we're not supporting or endorsing Mr. Pointy Hat. No siree.''

Oddly, this is another example for conservatives to ponder about government sticking its nose into places where it has no business.

There has been a lot of stargazing about the future of Hampton Roads done by community leaders trying to place our position in the galaxy of great cities.

Well, this is just the kind of tackiness to take us off the star charts permanently: government greasing up to the likes of Gordon Liddy or, at best, appearing to do it.

Does anyone think this would be going on in Atlanta, or Charlotte? ``We're not really supportin' ole G-Man. We just got our names on the ad, givin' out tickets and putting a booth with our name on it where he's at.''

That really doesn't wash. The question is whether or not the HRSD, the SPSA and Nofolk Botanical Garden are willing to disassociate themselves from the principles of the poster boy for irresponsible talk radio. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

File Photo

Liddy will host his radio show today at the Norfolk Waterside

Marriott.

FILE

Liddy is not exactly shy about his checkered past.

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