Edgar Hoover

"We have in our midst hatemongers, bigots, and riotou agitators, many of whom are at opposite poles philosophically but who spew similar doctrines of prejudice and intolerance. They exploit hate and fear, spread rumors, and pit one element of our people against another. Theirs is a dogma of intimidation and terror."President Clinton attacking the militia movement last week? No, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover blasting radical protesters, early 1960s. Even accepting common wisdom about politics and bedfellows, it is beyond strange when William Jefferson Clinton's speeches on domestic violence sound eerily reminiscent of J. Edgar Hoover.

Americans are accepting "a barrage of distortion" of historical fact by quick-buck artists in television, movies, tabloid magazines and newspapers, a former top FBI official said yesterday.Former FBI Deputy Director Cartha "Deke" DeLoach told the Baltimore Rotary Club that "everybody from Elvis Presley to anybody's grandmother" has been blamed for assassinating President John F. Kennedy, despite evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.The weeks leading up to the 30th anniversary of the JFK shooting produced a spate of films, books and shows rehashing events or purporting to present new facts, but few squared with the reality, Mr. DeLoach said.

Ordinarily, I am not a squeamish person. As an example, I once saw Roseanne and Tom Arnold in a hot tub together, and I was able to eat again in only a matter of days.But I've been having this vision recently that comes late at night and haunts my dreams. It's got me so shaken I'm afraid to fall asleep.As soon as I do, I always see the same thing: Walt Disney and J. Edgar Hoover doing the rumba, dancing rouged cheek to cheek.Invariably I wake up in a sweat, with the same unanswered question: Which one was leading?

Majesty's Turn continued to write an intriguing horse racing story yesterday.From claiming races to a billing as one of the top sprinters in the Delaware Valley racing region is the exciting trip that has been traveled by the 4-year-old chestnut gelding.Yesterday at Laurel Race Course, Majesty's Turn more than lived up to his reputation by closing fast to win the $43,625 J. Edgar Hoover Handicap by three- quarters of a length over Who Wouldn't.The winner equaled the stakes record of 1:09 3/5 for the 6-furlong sprint at Laurel.

History has not been kind to J. Edgar Hoover.Was he addicted to gambling and bet on fixed races arranged by the Mob?Was he so corrupt that his name will be expunged from FBI headquarters in Washington?If so, would Laurel-Pimlico track operator Joe De Francis scrap the stakes race annually run in his honor?The 21st running of the J. Edgar Hoover Handicap is scheduled for Laurel Race Course on March 21.Instead of honoring a legend, is the race now an embarrassment to the Maryland Jockey Club?

J. Edgar Hoover was gay and was a heavy gambler, says a new PBS documentary that attempts not only to confirm persistent rumors about the longtime FBI director's alleged homosexuality, but also to indict him for failing to nip organized crime in the bud."Hoover's personal corruption," says the investigation premiering on "Frontline" tonight (9 p.m., Channels 22 and 67), "corrupted the very mission of the FBI . . . it was while Hoover was director [from 1924 to his death in 1972] that the Mafia was allowed to grow rich and powerful."

In an ironic scene well into "Citizen Cohn" -- an unsettling new movie premiering on HBO tonight -- an actor portraying Cardinal Spellman says, "Evil exists, it's all around us."He is speaking of Communists. Yet ironically, evil incarnate sits right beside him at a restaurant table, stealing morsels of food from his plate.And, boy! What evil lurks in the character of controversial, Commie-hunting, unrepentant-to-the-end lawyer Roy Cohn, as worked up by actor James Woods.No hint of a shade of gray tempers this creepy portrait of the chief counsel to the infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

LAUREL -- The horse who appeared to be his major competition was scratched, so Smart Alec had things his own way yesterday in the $40,000 J. Edgar Hoover Handicap at Laurel.Without overnight favorite Flaming Emperor in the field, Smart Alec and jockey Mario Pino easily overtook the front-running Fighting Notion to win the six-furlong -- in 1 minute, 10 1/5 seconds.Smart Alec broke last while Fighting Notion, who set some rapid fractions, took his speed to the front. But at the 16th pole, the winner came flying by on the outside and was ahead by a widening three lengths at the wire.

Washington -- The man was a monster. He was also, in his twisted way, a genius. He professed to loath communism, yet he practiced the worst aspects of communism every day. During his lifetime he built a reputation as a 100 percent American. Twenty years after his death, we are beginning to see J. Edgar Hoover for what he was: the ultimate un-American.In her new study of the FBI under Hoover, ''Alien Ink: The FBI's War on Freedom of Expression,'' Natalie Robins performs a notable public service.

ONE AFTERNOON in the 1960s, two men were having lunch in the old clubhouse at Pimlico Race Course. One of them would have been familiar only to a few in the racing fraternity; he was an agent for jockeys. The other had one of the most familiar faces on Earth. He was J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI. The name was synonymous with power, visible and invisible.As recent studies of his career now make clear, Hoover had a file on anybody who was anybody. Where he saw wrongdoing -- espionage, racketeering, drugs -- he'd pounce on it. He also kept files on Martin Luther King Jr. and others whom he saw as enemies of the state.