CONSERVATIVE AGENDA CANNOT BE LINKED TO ACTIONS OF KOOKS

Conservatives are flinching in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Because suspects in the tragedy are connected with fringe organizations that have questionable objectives, too many folks, both in positions of power and ordinary citizens, are jumping to the conclusion that anyone with conservative views is capable of such a dastardly deed.

Gary L. Bauer, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., put it this way:

"The sourest note in the aftermath of this terrible event has been the effort by some in the media to blame conservative opposition to big government as being responsible. Over the weekend, one TV commentator after another put that idea on the table. Newt Gingrich was directly asked by a reporter whether he felt 'responsibility' for the bombing because of his opposition of 'faceless bureaucrats.' Rush Limbaugh was repeatedly attacked on Saturday and Sunday as creating an 'atmosphere of hate.' Juan Williams, a liberal reporter for The Washington Post, said that Republicans had come to power because of 'angry white men' and that the bombers were 'angry white men in their natural state.'

"These charges are absurd, but they are likely to increase in the days ahead. Few things could be worse for the country than allowing the legitimate conservative views of millions of Americans to be 'demonized,' but that is exactly what some are trying to do.

"The people responsible for the bombing are cowards and murderers, not conservatives. They should be tried and convicted, and, in my view, they deserve the severest punishment our law allows. Let's pray we can keep our focus on that goal, instead of further attempts to exploit the tragedy."

But the charges have increased, and the exploitation is continuing. Even President Clinton, who so eloquently expressed the nation's grief -- and its determination to apprehend and punish those responsible -- after the bombing, joined the fray when he assailed so-called "hate" radio.

"We hear so many loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other," the president said in a speech to the American Association of Community Colleges. "They spread hate. They leave the impression that, by their very words, violence is acceptable."

While the president didn't single out any particular radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh vigorously responded to the tone of the president's speech.

Limbaugh likened the attack on conservative radio shows to "a national hysteria." He clearly defined the conservative agenda: "Less government, not no government. Fewer taxes, not no taxes. Dissent, not hate."

It was widely reported at midweek that a key suspect, Timothy McVeigh, was refusing to answer investigators' questions and didn't show any emotion when shown photographs from the bomb scene of mangled bodies and dead children.

Americans of all persuasions, and certainly conservatives among them, are shedding real tears over the senseless deaths of what will likely be more than 200 victims. To even attempt to cast the tragedy as representative of conservatives in general or radio talk show hosts in particular is grotesque.