Hoover's ghost lives on (Did Bill Moyers try to sic the Hoover FBI on his political enemies?)

On Halloween night, crusty conservative Judge Laurence H. Silberman had a scary tale to tell fellow right wingers gathered for dinner at Washington's University Club. He told in more detail than ever before how J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director ''allowed -- even offered -- the bureau to be used by presidents for nakedly political purposes.'' He called for the director's name to be removed from the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington.

''In my view,'' Silberman said, ''it is as if the Defense Department were named for Aaron Burr. Liberals and conservatives should unite to support legislation to accomplish this repudiation of a very sad chapter in American history.'' That concluded his speech, but it was not followed by overwhelming applause. Nor was support volunteered for his mission.

Silberman's plea was not exactly what his listeners expected from him as featured speaker for the Pumpkin Papers Irregulars, who dine each year to celebrate Whittaker Chambers hiding in his farm's pumpkins classified documents conveyed by Alger Hiss to his Soviet spymasters. The 70-year-old Silberman is a judge in senior status on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, capping a career in high government office dating back 37 years.

His most recent public service was co-chairman of the bipartisan presidential commission on intelligence failures. Its recommendations, implemented by President Bush, included a separate national security service within the FBI. The bureau's initial opposition that it would undermine the attorney general's authority over the FBI ''amused'' Silberman, considering his experience as deputy attorney general in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

Instructed by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 to report on secret files kept by Hoover (who died in 1972), Silberman told the Irregulars: ''It was the single worst experience of my long governmental service.'' He said Hoover ordered agents to report ''privately to him any bits of dirt on political figures such as Martin Luther King and their families.'' Silberman said Hoover used this as ''subtle blackmail to ensure his and the bureau's power.''

Even worse than ''dirt collection,'' Silberman continued, was Hoover's offering of bureau files to presidents. He exempted only Harry S Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower from this use of FBI files, but said, ''Lyndon Johnson was the most demanding.''

When President Johnson's aide Walter Jenkins was arrested for homosexual conduct in a men's room during the 1964 campaign, Silberman said, LBJ aide Bill Moyers directed Hoover to find similar conduct on Barry Goldwater's staff. ''Moyers' memo to the FBI was in one of the files,'' he continued. An ''outraged'' Moyers telephoned Silberman, he said, to assert that the memo was ''phony.'' ''Taken aback,'' said Silberman, he offered an investigation to exonerate Moyers. ''There was a pause on the line, and then he [Moyers] said, 'I was very young. How will I explain this to my children?' ''

''Silberman's account of our conversation is at odds with mine,'' Moyers told me.

During the 1968 campaign, Silberman said Johnson ordered FBI surveillance on Republican vice presidential candidate Spiro Agnew, not about the bribery that eventually drove him out of office, but to check whether he was in contact with South Vietnam's government. He said LBJ also used the FBI to spy on Democrats, including his aide Richard Goodwin, whom he inherited from President John F. Kennedy but suspected was too close to Robert F. Kennedy.

''I think it would be appropriate to introduce all new [FBI] recruits to the nature of the secret and confidential files of J. Edgar Hoover,'' Silberman concluded. ''And in that connection this country -- and the bureau -- would be well served if Hoover's name was removed from the Bureau's building.''

After polite applause, a conservative gentleman sitting at my table said he thought Hoover on balance was a force for good in America. I disagreed, contending he was a rogue and a law-breaker (though I may be prejudiced by his plans to tap my telephone that were undone by my FBI sources). Nearly a month now has passed without any conservative publicly rising to agree with Silberman that J. Edgar's memory should not be honored.

He slams Hoover and then pulls a Hoover and outs the guy???

As for Hoover ... that man was in the FBI way to long and had way too much power

''I think it would be appropriate to introduce all new [FBI] recruits to the nature of the secret and confidential files of J. Edgar Hoover,'' Silberman concluded.

Well, the new agents could go and see Hilary's copies.

I always laugh when I see J. Edgar Hoover attacked by some coward who didnt have the guts to attack him when he was living. I am sure Hoover had files aplenty , I am sure many of them were sought and destroyed days after his death, by those who were frightened by them.

Makes one wonder what he had on Silberman.

J. Edgar may have been a rotten so&so, and he may hav been queer, but he sure kept up the reputation of the FBI.

Maybe because he had enough on the politicians that they didnt mess with him . Now is that bad on the part of Hoover, or the politicians.

Novak and Evans used to help the CIA leak stories attacking Hoover, provided by the CIA's mole in the Bureau, William Sullivan, whose allegations didn't hold up when scrutinized by cross-examination. I see Novak's still at it.

I always laugh when I see J. Edgar Hoover attacked by some coward who didnt have the guts to attack him when he was living.

Consider this. The event where this judge spoke was organized in the memory of Whittaker Chambers, a man who willing gave up everything to speak the truth knowing the hell what he would have to endure, including the outing of a homosexual relationship he had.

J. Edgar Hoover had all the information on Hiss that Chambers had, and even more, and he had it for years, yet he sat quite and allowed Chambers to stand alone.

Hoover was only interested in protecting himself and protecting his power. He was only in national security or "fighting crime" when there was something in it for him. Hell, he claimed to his dying day that there was no such thing as the Mafia when anyone who grew up on the streets of most cities not only knew there was a Mafia, but also knew who the players were.

An ''outraged'' Moyers telephoned Silberman, he said, to assert that the memo was ''phony.'' ''Taken aback,'' said Silberman, he offered an investigation to exonerate Moyers. ''There was a pause on the line, and then he [Moyers] said, 'I was very young. How will I explain this to my children?' ''

Now you know why Moyers has been so relentlessly Left-Wing in his PBS endeavors. He had to atone to the MSM for his Johnson Administration indiscretions.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.