The late Howard Hunt, who died earlier this month, was an American patriot whom I was privileged to know during the time he served on the staff of President Nixon’s White House Counsel, Chuck Colson.

When he and Gordon Liddy were arrested following the Watergate break-in, his attorney was my friend, Douglas Caddy, the founder and first National Director of Young Americans for Freedom.

Hunt frequently called to pick my brain concerning Federal funding of pro-Communist Left-wing activists in the context of Lyndon Johnson’s "Great Society" programs.

At the time, I was the White House’s OEO "Watch Dog" and Special Assistant to then OEO Director Frank Carlucci who made decisions to fund many of these Marxist activists.

Hunt was, at one point, associated with the Mullen Company, a CIA asset, headed by future Utah U.S. Senator Robert Bennett.

During my tenure as Director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), I was able to meet with a number of outstanding political leaders from virtually all 50 states.

One of those who impressed me particularly was Herman Badillo, who, at one point, was a front-running candidate for Mayor of New York City.

The appointment of Shelly Uscinski as Tom Tancredo’s Presidential Campaign Manager is another indication that Pat Buchanan and his sister, Bay, are backing Tancredo for the GOP nomination.

Shelly, who is a personal friend of mine, ran Pat Buchanan’s New Hampshire campaign in Y2K.

Here follows a partial list of actual and potential Republican Party Presidential and Vice Presidential contenders:

(1) New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, (2) Columnist Pat Buchanan, (3) Florida Governor Jeb Bush, (4) Vice President Dick Cheney, (5) Oklahoma U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, (6) former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, (7) former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, (8) former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, (9) Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, (10) California Congressman Duncan Hunter, (11) Arizona Senator John McCain, (12) former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, (13) former New York Governor George Pataki, (14) Texas Congressman Ron Paul, (15) Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice, (16) former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, (17) South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, (18) Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, and (19) former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.

Please e-mail your response to webmaster@conservativeusa.org or fax it to me at 703-281-4108.

Here follows a partial list of actual and potential Democratic Party Presidential and Vice Presidential contenders:

(1) U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), (2) U.S. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), (3) U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), (4) U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), (5) former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, (6) former Vice President Al Gore, (7) U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA), (8) Illinois Congressman Dennis Kucinich, (9) U.S. Senator Barack Hussein Obama (D-IL), (10) New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, (11) former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, (12) former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, and (13) U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA).

Please e-mail your response to webmaster@conservativeusa.org or fax it to me at 703-281-4108.

William Verity, who served as Secretary of Commerce beginning in 1987, has recently died at the age of 89.

On September 10, 1987, I testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in opposition to his nomination to be Secretary of Commerce.

In my testimony, I said: "I urge respectfully that in determining whether to confirm C. William Verity, Jr. to be Secretary of Commerce the Senate recognize the underlying concern which has engendered widespread grass roots opposition to the President’s nominee.

"Simply stated, the question is whether or not the Soviet Union is in fact an enemy of the United States, at war with our vital interests worldwide, even as its Leninist faith rationalizes the systematic oppression of those unfortunate hundreds of millions imprisoned by its totalitarian yoke.

"If the Soviet Union is not our dangerous adversary, we can substantially diminish our defense expenditures and cut off additional billions of dollars in foreign aid which is urged upon us, in large measure, on the basis of its utility in fighting Communists.

"I must conclude, on the basis of his statements, his writings, and his activities, that Mr. Verity does not regard the USSR as a threat to the United States.

"Surely, if he did acknowledge the reality of Moscow’s deadly challenge to American liberty and security, he would not have established himself over the past fifteen years as a principal advocate of economic intercourse with and assistance to the oligarchs of the Soviet empire and the regimes over which they exercise control.

"Both as chairman of the U.S.-USSR Trade and Economic Council and as a private citizen, Mr. Verity has made clear that he stands for policies which would economically strengthen the Soviet Union as surely as they would profit commercial enterprises with which Mr. Verity has been associated.

"Most Favored Nation status for the Kremlin, Soviet membership in the IMF and World Bank, eligibility for credits from the U.S. Export-Import Bank---no special concession within the authority of the U.S. government to confer has been omitted from the list of proposed inducements which Mr. Verity has recommended during the decades of the 1970’s and 80’s.

"If William Verity is confirmed as Secretary of Commerce, Mikhail Gorbachev will have a voice at the Cabinet table, but representation will have been denied those of us who believe that Communism should be opposed, not subsidized."

In 1982, my wife, Peggy, and I visited Israel as part of a delegation which included Mr. and Mrs. Morton Blackwell, William A. Rusher, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Weyrich, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Truluck, Dr. and Mrs. James P. Lucier, and several other conservatives.

Prior to departure, we were briefed by Benjamin Netanyahu, then the Israeli Ambassador to the United States.

While in Israel, we visited Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea, Jericho, Macpelah, and many other historic venues.

One of those whom we met was the legendary mayor of Jerusalem, a charming socialist by the name of Teddy Kollek. Mayor Kollek died recently at the age of 95.

In 1968, I was the manager of Congressman Dick Schweiker’s successful campaign for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania in which Dick ousted incumbent liberal Democrat Joe Clark. The Schweiker victory was the only race in the nation where a Republican challenger defeated a Democrat incumbent.

During the course of that campaign, while I was living in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and visiting all 67 of its counties in behalf of Dick Schweiker, I had the opportunity to develop good relationships with virtually all the key leaders and activists in the Pennsylvania GOP. Even though Governor Raymond Shafer was far more liberal than I, he was, nonetheless, quite kind to me and invited me to sit in on his cabinet meetings, which I regularly did.

Governor Shafer died recently, a great loss.

Following the death of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, I visited Romania on several occasions.

The pain and suffering of the Romanian people and their greedy exploitation by such "Americans" as Armand Hammer and Bob Robertson, former Administrative Assistant to Paul Laxalt, was disgraceful.

On one occasion, I served as an election observer and, on another occasion, I lived in the home of a local bureaucrat whose family kept the lights turned off because of the high cost of electricity.

I met a number of Romanian political leaders, including Corneliu Coposu, the long-time leader of the National Peasants Party who had served 17 ½ years in prison because of President Franklin Roosevelt’s policy of accommodating and appeasing the Communists in Moscow and Bucharest. His plea to me and my colleagues was "Please don’t sell us again".

The good news is that finally a Romanian government has condemned the Communist tyranny which persisted under a different name long after Ceauşescu was gone.

Here follows the text of a speech I was privileged to deliver in Bucharest on May 19, 1990 (while on a fact-finding tour to Romania, serving as an observer of the Romanian elections) from the balcony overlooking University Square with a crowd of tens of thousands of Romanians committed to the end of Communism and the defeat of the Gorbachevaesk National Salvation Front led by former Ceausescu operative Ion Ilisecu:

"We are here from the people---not the government of the United States.

"We are here to express our admiration and support for your courageous struggle to be free from Communism.

"We cannot be satisfied until Communism is defeated and completely eliminated everywhere---in Cuba, in China, in Russia, and in Romania.

"Freedom and tyranny cannot live together. One or the other must perish.

"In America, the founders of our country knew that we---all men and women everywhere---have been endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights to life, to liberty, to property, and to the pursuit of happiness.

"Our rights come from God---not from the state---certainly not from the little men who control the Communist Party.

"The purpose of government is to protect our God-given rights---not to add or subtract from there.

"The struggle for liberty is a long struggle---it will not be over in six months or in six years. Romania has paid a high price for many years.

"Do not be discouraged.

"We respect your courage.

"We benefit from your example.

"May God bless you and your nation.

"Down with Communism!

"God bless Romania!

"Jos Communism ul."