Molly Ivins March 9

BERKELEY, Calif. — Left-wing political correctness may have some aberrant moments, but right-wing political correctness is becoming a genuine menace. Calling a dwarf "vertically impaired" instead of "real short" is silly; barring someone from high public office for having resigned his job over a matter of high principle is both wicked and nuts.

The citizen in point is Anthony Lake, currently in nomination to head the Central Intelligence Agency. A quarter of a century ago, Lake worked for the National Security Council during the Nixon administration; he objected both to the illegal bombing of Cambodia, which has had unutterably tragic consequences, and to the illegal wiretapping of reporters. So, he quit.

To most of us, this would appear to be a highly commendable action and a splendid recommendation for a future head of the CIA. Imagine, someone in charge of the CIA who respects the law and has a conscience — thank you, Jesus! But, no — according to some on the right, these very qualities make Lake unfit to be head of the CIA. Furthermore, it is on his record that he once attended a seminar critical of the CIA!

Is it possible that anyone interested in public affairs has not been at some gathering at which the CIA was criticized? How in the name of heaven did that become a bar to holding office? Has Sen. Jesse Helms no sense at all?

According to some right-wing pundits, Lake is further unfit for high office because he is not absolutely certain that the late Alger Hiss was a communist spy — a charge on which Hiss was not indicted, much less convicted.

When asked about Hiss' guilt on a recent Sunday-morning chat show, Lake replied that he was aware of evidence that "he may have been. I don't think it's conclusive." This wildly temperate and reasonable observation moved Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who will head Lake's confirmation hearings, to announce that Lake's opinion raises "a red flag."

Just by way of historical context, Hiss may have been guilty, but the one thing we know for certain is that accuser Whittaker Chambers was a liar. One may choose to believe what Chambers claimed at one time or what Chambers claimed at another, but one has to admit that he lied at some point. That's the reason the case remains controversial to this day.

The notion that Lake's opposition to at least the most spectacularly illegal part of the Vietnam War, the Cambodian bombing, would somehow make him persona non grata at the CIA is (A) nonsense and (B) the function of serious memory loss.

In fact, Vietnam was one of the agency's finest hours, and had successive administrations paid any attention to the CIA's commendable intelligence gathering and analysis on that situation, we could have saved ourselves and the Vietnamese untold grief. The CIA said it was a no-hoper from the git-go.

True, the CIA later ran one of the most notoriously unsavory episodes of that war: 20,500 "suspected" Viet Cong leaders were killed by Operation Phoenix, and according to William Colby, mistakes were made — part of the long-running misuse of and lack of control at the CIA. Unfortunately, there is little reason to believe that Lake is especially anxious to either rein in or disband the CIA's fruitcakes. The impression that he is stems from his failure to meet the right wing's tests of political correctness. Soft on Hiss! What a blot in the old copybook.

Even stranger than these long-faded remnants of the Cold War now being posited as a bar to public office is the Republican effort to get hold of Lake's raw FBI files. When Shelby first announced that he would not set a date for Lake's confirmation hearing until he got the raw FBI files on the man, more than a dozen Republican senators backed him. Shelby has since retreated, and the hearing is to be held this week.

In my more optimistic moments, I often see common ground between good liberals and right-wingers, especially those of the libertarian persuasion. When I hear right-wingers carry on about how the government tramples on people's rights, I think: "Great! New recruits for the ACLU!"

I submit to you that (aside from a disgusting chickening-out during the McCarthy era) the American Civil Liberties Union is the most consistent organizational champion of individual rights against the government in America. That's why it's always making itself wildly unpopular by defending the rights of fascists, Kluxers and horrible criminals — if the government can railroad any one of them, it can railroad any one of you.

Ollie North is among my favorite ACLU supporters. There's a guy named James Bovard who writes for The American Spectator who is just the kind of cranky anti-government citizen who belongs in the ACLU. I briefly became the Sweetheart of the Lunatic Gun-Nut Right just by taking a sensible civil libertarian position on the David Koresh disaster near Waco, Texas.

But then along comes Richard Shelby and I'm reminded why you can't trust conservatives (except maybe for James Kilpatrick) on serious issues affecting liberty. They claim to be against Big Gummint, but it turns out that they only care about property rights, not people's rights.

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Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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