REVIEW : Liddy Likable Despite His Tough-Guy Talk

P lus ca change department:

Back in the Nixon era, when he was the brains behind the Watergate break-in, G. Gordon Liddy was the quintessence of a breed: the ultraconservative loyalist who would do anything, even try to step over the laws that eventually put him in jail. When the left-wingers weren’t railing against his political and ethical stances, they were laughing at his extreme personality, his wild-eyed patriotism, his steely ways. But the very traits that made him a laughingstock to some made him seem heroic to others.

Sure enough, at Bogart’s in Long Beach Wednesday night, a handful of liberals paid $15 each to hear Liddy, maybe out of curiosity, maybe because they were out for a derisive laugh. But most of the youngish crowd came to pay respect, even to worship. Every one of Liddy’s in-your-face opinions drew applause, and the only real hisses came from the table where Timothy Leary sat.

There had been talk of Liddy and Leary facing off, as they’ve done occasionally since Liddy was released from prison in 1981, but it never happened. Leary, the ex-Harvard professor/acid apostle who once was arrested by Liddy on drug charges, only gave a brief introduction. After rambling a while about their relationship (and acknowledging that Liddy is not “playing in a sissy league”), he gave up the floor for good.

And Liddy seized it. First, a little pre-carnage banter. He noted that Leary’s brain, a one-time testing ground for all sorts of hallucinogenics, “has been declared a dangerous substance by the government.” Ho ho. Then, he went into a long bit that resembled one of those self-help motivational seminars, or maybe a pep talk by a college football coach.

The most we have to fear is fear itself, and if you’re going to fight, be sure you’re prepared to go all the way, that kind of thing. He talked about using “psychological jujitsu” on opponents, and stressed that we must avoid self-delusion.

But he also strayed from the macho-superman stuff long enough to bring up Mother Theresa, and to cite her as an example of the positive things that can come from willpower.

Liddy tosses out good vibes like that more often than you might think. He also has a pretty keen sense of humor, with a sprinkling of aself-deprecation. The short of it is that even if you hate his politics, G. Gordon Liddy is not hard to like. At times Wednesday, he came across not so much as an ideological bogyman, but as a guy who would be fun to argue with over a beer.

He’s so energetic and bright, in fact, that you have to keep reminding yourself that this man is a nine-time felon who talks openly about having planned assassinations while in the employ of various government intelligence agencies. At Bogart’s, he told of trying to have columnist Jack Anderson killed, but he couldn’t get the idea approved by his bosses.

That one quieted the crowd--but only briefly.

The evening revolved around a lengthy question-and-answer session, or as Liddy described it to the audience, “a game of lions and Christians; I’ll be the lion.” Actually, he was reasonably tame through it all, even while fielding a few heckles and several ridiculous queries. He was asked if Marilyn Monroe was murdered, and if President Kennedy was killed by a lone assassin. He said he didn’t know. People were disappointed.