McCain has radical friends, too.

Barack Obama has had to repudiate his past associations with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and former 60s radical Bill Ayers. Rightly so, given that Obama doesn't share either's radical, extremist views. But as Steve Chapman sharply points out in today's Chicago Tribune, the same has not been required of John McCain. As recently as November, McCain said this to G. Gordon Liddy, who has hosted a McCain fundraiser in the past and donated generously to McCain's campaign fund:

"I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family...It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

Mind you, this man that McCain so effusively admires is a convicted felon who: orchestrated the Watergate break-in which brought down the Nixon Administration, and has repeatedly said that the only thing he regretted about Watergate wasn't his criminal act, but getting caught; advocated kidnapping anti-war activists to prevent them from disrupting the Republican National Convention; planned the murder of an hostile journalist; and advocated the killing of ATF agents who were in the act of serving their official duties.

There is little doubt that Liddy is a radical, and a belligerently unrepentant one. True, he's a radical on the right-wing end of the political spectrum, versus the left-leaning Ayers and Wright. But he's a radical all the same, one who is openly hostile to the Constitution and the rule of law. He's clearly an extremist. So why isn't John McCain expected to repudiate him, just like Obama has done with Ayers and Wright?

Like so many other issues, most of the mainstream media has given McCain a free pass on the subject of Liddy. Shame on them.