Letterman scores hit against McCain with Gordon Liddy attack

US talk show host David Letterman finally got his own back on John McCain on Thursday night. The Late Show host was furious when, in September, the Republican presidential candidate cancelled his appearance on the show but found time to appear on Katie Couric's CBS Evening News show the same evening. And so on Thursday, when McCain did turn up, Letterman accused him of "pallin' around" with a Nixon-era criminal in the same way that the Republicans have attacked Barack Obama over his links to the 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

The no-show in September was part of McCain's ill-conceived ploy to suspend his election campaign so he could return to Washington to help sort out the economic crisis - a decision Senator McCain admitted last night was a "screw up".

Letterman gently mocked McCain's running mate Sarah Palin - he said her meeting with world leaders at the UN was like a "take-your-daughter-to-work day" - but scored his most incisive hit by raking up McCain's association with Gordon Liddy, one of the masterminds of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee HQ in the Watergate building in 1972. The attempt to cover up the Watergate scandal led to President Nixon resigning in 1974, while Liddy was sentenced to 20 years' jail on charges of conspiracy, burglary and illegal wire tapping.

"Did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?" Letterman asked, reminding McCain of his links with the criminal. (These include several contributions to the senator's funds from Liddy, and the use in 1998 of Liddy's home for a McCain fundraiser.) "I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt, he went to prison," said McCain. "I'm not in any way embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy."

Since Thursday night's show, Google searches for Liddy - who served only five years of his sentence and is now a chat show host himself - have skyrocketed. Alexander Mooney on CNN commented: "John McCain has learned his lesson: don't ever cancel on David Letterman."

Sam Stein, writing on the Huffington Post, said it was important to note that "Liddy has been publicly unrepentant for his actions, much like Ayers. In an interview with the UK Independent Liddy said he didn't regret burglarising the offices of the Democratic National Committee."

Roger Catlin, on courant.com, points out that McCain's open friendship with Liddy is "despite Liddy's famous suggestion on air twice that if federal agents are coming in to seize firearms, 'aim at their heads'."

LAST UPDATED 2:08 PM, OCTOBER 17, 2008