Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Pat still firing blanks

Friday, March 3, 2000 | 9:19 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

THERE'S SOMETHING about former Sen. Warren Rudman and Sen. John McCain that upsets the Rev. Pat Robertson. Rudman, a retired Republican senator from New Hampshire, helped McCain upset George W. Bush in his state's GOP presidential primary. This success resulted in Robertson attacking Rudman as a "vicious bigot" in phone messages during the next unsuccessful Bush campaign in Michigan.

It's true that Rudman, an outstanding and productive member of the U.S. Senate, had over the years made known his differences with the likes of Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell and their extreme Christian political right followers. There is reason to doubt that this difference, expressed by large numbers of other Americans, qualifies Rudman as a bigot. It does qualify him as a political moderate who irritates extremists at both ends of the political spectrum, which has little to do with religion.

I have to believe that there is something more than religion and politics that is bothering Robertson. Could it be the combat records of Rudman and McCain? McCain's more than five years as a POW in Vietnam is well-known. Rudman was a combat infantry officer in Korea. Both men carry with them a distinction that Robertson falsely claimed 14 years ago but had to relinquish when the truth was revealed by fellow Marines.

When eyeing the presidency in 1986, Robertson first said he, a television preacher, needed a sign from the Almighty. That sign would be 3 million signatures of voters who say that they "will pray -- that they will work -- that they will give toward my election." At the same time he was passing himself off as a combat Marine officer who fought in Korea.

His claim to be something that both Rudman and McCain have earned blew up in his face. Helping light the fuse of the explosive was former GOP Rep. Pete McCloskey of California. In September 1986 I wrote that the most damaging charge some of his former buddies make is that Robertson, the son of a senator, used political juice to avoid leading a combat platoon. John Gearhart of Los Angeles and McCloskey both make that charge. Gearhart claims he was kept in Japan with Robertson and two other young lieutenants because of a phone call Robertson made to his father. Gearhart complained and was later sent to Korea and so was Robertson, who was assigned to division headquarters.

Gearhart told Jack Nelson of the Los Angeles Times: "More than anything else, it disappoints me that Pat denies ever making any phone calls. I wish he would just state that, sure, he made the phone call and let it go at that."

A furious Robertson filed a lawsuit against McCloskey, which most people figured would fall on its face after Robertson failed in his attempt to become president. Also during the depositions other rather unflattering recollections of the reverend in Japan and Korea came to light. That Robertson had ducked direct combat and later became the liquor officer in the division rear became known facts. The liquor officer was assigned to make frequent trips to Japan to purchase liquor for the division.

When informed that Robertson's libel suit was being dropped in 1988, McCloskey told reporters that he is "chickening out ... just like he chickened out 37 years ago."

Twelve years later Robertson is back on his pedestal calling an infantry combat leader a "vicious bigot" and questioning the competency of another war-tested fighter to represent the GOP in this year's general election.

Both McCain and Rudman have had experiences that a wannabe like Robertson failed to face when given the opportunity. Republicans should advise Robertson to hang up his phone before he drags the Bush campaign into the same problems he created for himself back in the 1980s.