Usually fools are left for public officials or candidates for public office. That makes G. Gordon Liddy an unlikely candidate. However, Liddy has earned a special place in American political lore as the dirty tricks mastermind of Richard Nixon’s administration and the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). For that, he gets special consideration.

(Off all the acronyms, isn’t CREEP one of the most appropriate in history?)

In response to a question about the Obama administration being the most corrupt ever, Liddy responded:

“No. It’s just astonishing. They can’t tell the truth to save their souls. They came into office making all sorts of promises about being transparent and all the rest of it. And they just demonstrated that either they don’t know how or they [have deliberately] chosen not to be. But it’s very disappointing to the American electorate how these people failed to live up to their promises.”

For Liddy to call someone corrupt is the equivalent of a skunk telling another animal that it stinks.

Along with E. Howard Hunt, Liddy was part of the White House plumbers. They were given the responsibility to halt leaks from the information to the press, plus they hired political operatives like Donald Segretti, who helped derail than Democratic frontrunner Senator Edmund Muskie’s campaign. For dirty tricks, 1972 was the apex.

Liddy was the ultimate “yes” man. He even plotted to kill journalist Jack Anderson because he misunderstood the White House comment that “we need to get rid of this Anderson guy.”

It is because of Liddy and the other Nixon White House crooks and political shysters that tough campaign finance laws came to be. The Watergate break-in also set new standards for political behavior. Because corruption permeated the 1972 campaign, presidents would never have the luxury of hiding mistresses like JFK or accepting wads of cash like CREEP.

Liddy served several years in federal prison. His hands were dripping with corruption. Yet he dares compare Nixon to Obama and determine that Obama is the “most corrupt,” primarily because Obama did not fulfill his promises of transparency.

Transparency is the new measure? This is from the guy whose job at the White House was a “plumber.” His job was to stop leaks. In effect, he was the anti-transparency czar of the White House.

Forty years after Watergate and Liddy considers an administration that has not had one scandal where an Obama official has profited illegally. Unlike Nixon, who interfered with the constitutional rights of those on his political “enemies” list, there is no evidence that Obama is using the federal government to hunt down his political opponents. Nixon was charged with numerous high crimes and faced imminent impeachment. Except for a few on the far right, no one sees Obama as guilty in anything that justifies impeachment.

The irony of Liddy charging that Obama is the “most corrupt” president ever sets an entire new standard for political dishonesty. Amazingly, a glance around the internet at here, here and here, and Liddy’s comments are warmly embraced by some because Liddy knows corruption since he has done it.

It is sad chronicle of our time when a convicted felon who tried to upend the political system is more warmly embraced than a president who was democratically elected and has run one of the cleanest administration in years.

Liddy’s statement is so wrong and distorted that it ranks as another one of his dirty tricks. Just moments before making his statement about the Obama administration being corrupt, Liddy emphasized that radio personalities should “tell the truth.”  Everything that comes from his mouth trumpets disinformation. Unfortunately, many people still want to follow this pied piper of lies.