18 JULY 1987, Page 40

High life

Low blows

Taki

Enumclaw is a small town near the beautiful Cascade Mountains in the far north-west corner of Washington state. The local newspaper is the Enumclaw Courier, and last week a columnist of the Courier quoted the Spectator's High life correspondent on the subject of the repug- nant Arthur Liman. (A lady subscriber very kindly sent me a cutting.) Unlike the columnists who write for the two liberal mouthpieces that dominate public opinion in America, the people who write for small-town newspapers are obviously much more attuned to what's .going on. No sooner had Liman appeared on television than the great American public began to shift. It just goes to prove that sanctimony, a double standard, and a virulent anti-Americanism does not always work; even for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

I spent most of last week watching 011ie make mincemeat out of those ghastly bullies who pose as senators (the word should be changed), and the unmention- ables went down even further in my estimation. The fact that they laid off him showed what true phonies they are. Liman, needless to say, was the first to back down. No matter what anyone says, the truth is that American politicians will leak any secret, no matter now damaging it is for the country, to what Paul Johnson very aptly refers to as the seven deadly sinners (the three television networks, the two liberal mouthpieces, Time and Newsweek). In return, they get mentioned by the seven deadly ones when election time comes around. Which means that informing Con- gress about covert action is commensurate with informing the enemy. After Liman, the man who has done the biggest volte- face is Warren Rudman, the senator from New Hampshire. Rudman tore into every witness before 011ie, and as a result had his Jowly pock-marked face in every American living-room for months. I know Rudman quite well. As well as one gets to know someone while cruising the Greek islands for a week.

It was the summer of 1982, I believe, and my old man had Rudman and his military adviser, Colonel John Campbell, on board his boat for a long cruise. Rudman was accompanied by his secretary, a girl who had as much in common with Fawn Hall as Liman has with 011ie (i.e. she was plain and she was boring). I suspect she also had the sort of relationship with him that Fawn never had with 011ie. I should have known that Rudman was not solid — although back then he sounded to the right of me — by the company he kept.

And speaking of women, publicity hounds, opportunists, phonies and cow- ards, what about the scumbag from Brent East? Here is a 'man' whose low blow under the protection of Parliamentary pri- vilege would be considered cowardly even in • • . Monte Carlo, but who struts around giving us lessons about truth and democracy. I cannot mention his name because the editor has forbidden me to use swear-words, but I can tell you why he came to mind last week.

I went for dinner at Randall and Marita Crawley's house, and I was seated next to Randall's sister, the lady who almost beat the scumbag during the last election. Har- riet would not make personal comments about him, so it was left up to me to fill in some Spanish guests about the dishonour- able member. I filled them in so well that Marita finally ordered me to be silent, Which I did for the duration of dinner. Just about when I was ready to resume inform- ing the Spanish guests about Harriet's oPponent, Marita's sister, Tally Westmins- ter, arrived. Although supposedly a friend, Randall lost no time in reminding his sister-in-law what I have written about Gerald Westminster in the past. But like Liman, he did not succeed in embarrassing me because his sister-in-law has a sense of humour. What Randall did manage to do is retnind me what a fool I must be to attack People that Roy Hattersley is after, when there are Limans and members from Brent East around. Next week I'm off to Tus- cany, staying near Lord Lambton, and far away from the cheap-shot artists who go by the name of politicians.