Buckley Clarifies Role in the Course of Human Events

Well, finally, it’s been cleared up.

Conservative commentator William F. Buckley writes that he maintains a “continuing enthusiasm” for Newport Beach lawyer C. Christopher Cox’s candidacy for the 40th Congressional District. But he disavows the doctoring done to his April 26 endorsement letter by Cox’s campaign staff.

A postscript on the copies of the Buckley letter that went to voters reads: “P.S. The clipping from Human Events arrived just last week. I thought you might find this interesting and informative.”

It turned out that neither the P.S. nor the clipping had been part of Buckley’s original letter. Cox campaign officials said the sentence was added by an “overly enthusiastic” employee.

The clipping, Buckley said in a June 1 letter to The Times, “made animadversions on the other two candidates for nomination which I would not have made, and do not endorse.”

In particular, the article made disparaging remarks about Newport Beach businessman Nathan Rosenberg and his brother, Werner Erhard, the founder of such self-improvement programs as the Forum and now-defunct est. The article called est “an anti-religious cult with Eastern, mystical overtones.”

“It is now known that I was not the witting instrument of the ventilation of the Human Events article,” said Buckley, who added he has “great respect” for the journal.

P.S.: Buckley appeared as Erhard’s guest on a satellite seminar in October, 1986.

P.P.S.: An “animadversion,” according to Webster’s, is “1. a critical, esp. unfavorable, comment ( on or upon something); 2. the act of criticizing adversely.”

Dana Rohrabacher, one of eight Republican candidates in the 42nd Congressional District, has a claim to fame from his days as a journalist before he became a presidential speech writer.

Rohrabacher was the radio reporter who recorded for history then Los Angeles Police Chief Ed Davis’ famous “hang them at the airport” diatribe in 1972. Davis’ answer to the airplane hijacking problem at the time created a mini-sensation. There still are people who use the phrase as Davis’ middle name.

Rohrabacher, 40, then a radio news reporter, was covering a City Hall luncheon when he heard some people chuckling at Davis’ remarks. He went over to find out what was so funny, his tape recorder in hand. Davis, who now is a Republican state senator from Valencia, said:

“I would recommend we have a portable courtroom on a big bus and a portable gallows, and after we get the death penalty put back in, we conduct a rapid trial for a hijacker out there and then we hang him with due process of law out there at the airport.”

“The next day it was a major national headline,” Rohrabacher said.

Raising money for campaigns is hard business, so it’s not surprising that a few candidates in current races found it a cause for a little gallows humor.

Asked in a Times’ questionnaire how they expected to put together the money they needed, one of them answered, “By begging and pleading.”

Another candidate said he would get his through “faith,” and someone else said he expected to raise it “the old-fashioned way.” Neither offered further explanation.

Stephen Horn of Long Beach, a candidate in the 42nd Congressional District race, showed the most confidence in his reply. Asked how he would raise the $225,000 he expected to spend on his campaign, Horn replied: “With charm and persuasion.”

Horn, who turned 57 last week, got a surprise birthday present at one of his fund-raisers this week, but all he could say with a grin was, “Awful. Awful. Who do I fire?”

Folded in quarters and stuffed into a large envelope was a campaign sign for one of Horn’s 42nd Congressional district opponents, Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder.

It was one of those moments when the campaign staff probably wished that no reporter were present. Horn’s campaign this week went to great lengths to accuse Wieder’s campaign of removing vote-for-Horn signs, filing a formal complaint with the Orange County Republican Party.

“Pretty funny,” Wieder’s campaign manager Jeff Wallack said of Horn’s birthday card. Wallack denied that Wieder’s campaign had torn down any other candidates’ signs but complained that hers had “disappeared, right and left.”

Favorite endorsement of the week (at least by those who remember singer Pat Boone as the white-buck shoes alternate to blue-suede Elvis Presley): Boone endorsed airline pilot John Hylton in his long-shot attempt to win nomination in the 40th Congressional District.

Maybe Boone will record a campaign song for Hylton? How about “Writing Campaign Mailers in the Sand”?

Sigh. Somehow it doesn’t have the same romantic sound as Boone’s hit “Writing Love Letters in the Sand.”