Political Quotes

“I am fascinated with the process by which right-wingers have become devotees of civil liberties. A few years ago, when a lot of them were getting indicted, they became great supporters of such procedural protections as due process and the fifth amendment. Now we have seen a great rightwing rush, late in life, but I always like conversions, to embrace the principles of free speech. They have now decided that people who say crazy, irresponsible, dangerous things under the first amendment should be allowed to say them. I agree with them. I have always felt that way. The problem is that they only imperfectly understand that. Because the fact is that the right to say these kinds of things--irresponsible and obnoxious and in some cases threatening--cannot only go to their rightwing caricatures. It goes to the left as well. I am particularly struck by the fact that many of those who wanted the rapper Ice-T to be shut up and taken off the air, because he talked about killing policemen--and he certainly was, in my judgment, obnoxious and irresponsible--turn around and want to honor G. Gordon Liddy. Now, they got a little embarrassed after the Oklahoma bombing, so they backed away from Liddy a little bit. But the fact is, there is very little difference morally or in the nature of the rhetoric between Ice-T and G. Gordon Liddy. I suppose at a future Republican senatorial dinner, we will see both of them doing a duet.”