Dispatches From the Fortress – Day 385

There are a lot of obits up for the famous Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy, who died the other day at the age of 90. A lot of them make him out to be a colorful figure…and I suppose he was. Liddy obviously relished being a celebrity and he often displayed a great sense of humor about his image.

But I don't think we should forget that he was a ruthless political operative who was quite willing to murder opponents of Richard Nixon, who kept up a relentless hate/revenge campaign against John Dean for testifying against Nixon and who constantly urged political violence and spread insane conspiracy theories. The nicest thing you can say about the guy is that he was so inept in his service of President Nixon that he helped bring down President Nixon.