A Hustler In The White House Sources Say Aide Linked To Fbi Files Was Out Of His Element

When the controversial film “The Last Temptation of Christ” was released in 1988, its opening was met by crowds of religious protesters at theaters around the United States.

But, as any political advance man will tell you, crowds are not born, they are built.

And D. Craig Livingstone, late of the White House Office of Personnel Security, was one of those hired by the studio in a cynical effort to build crowds to draw publicity for the film.

“A few weeks after it opened, the protesters weren’t coming around like they used to,” said another political advance aide involved in the effort. “So we had to call church people and try to get them out, saying ‘What are we going to do about this blasphemy? We got to get out there, dammit.’ Craig was into that.”

It seems a long way from that sort of street-corner manipulation to a White House job that gave him access to background investigations of hundreds of government officials, including former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former White House Chief of Staff Kenneth M. Duberstein.

But Livingstone, 37, made that journey, although it appears now that he did not leave his street hustler’s instincts behind.

Braggadocio, intimidation, abuse of authority - these are the hallmarks of the petty tyrant and the successful advance man.

They are not ordinarily expected of a White House aide with virtually unlimited access to sensitive FBI background summaries.

“Craig was definitely of what has come to be known as the ‘dinosaur mold’ of advance people,” said a former advance man who worked on numerous campaigns with Livingstone. “He ran roughshod over people, to hell with the consequences. He was impolitic, unconcerned about ramifications, extremely goal-oriented.”

The former advance man, who asked not to be named, said Livingstone frequently exaggerated his authority and bullied anyone in his way. But around the candidate or some other VIP, Livingstone’s manner changed dramatically.

“He turned into a suck-up, patronizing, butt-kissing kind of person,” the onetime associate said.

Livingstone has been a political junkie since his student days in the late 1970s, when he was active in the U.S. Student Association, according to longtime friend Michael Jones.

Jones, a special assistant in the rural development bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, decried the treatment that Livingstone has received over the past three weeks.

“There has been just a total slander on his character,” Jones said.

But Pittsburgh political consultant Dennis Casey, who worked with Livingstone on the 1984 Gary Hart campaign, testified before Congress that Livingstone and another Hart campaign worker (and later White House security office aide) Anthony Marceca urged the campaign to spread “dirt” on supporters of rival candidate Walter Mondale.

Livingstone denied Casey’s account in an appearance before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

Over the eight years after the Hart campaign aborted, Livingstone bounced from job to job, helping organize events like the Hands Across America project and the Farm Aid concerts.

He dropped into and out of political campaigns without regard to ideology, provided the candidates were Democrats.

Throughout this period, Livingstone also did consulting work, free-lance event planning and political odd jobs.

By his own account to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, Livingstone lied about his schooling when he claimed to have attended a college but in fact had only applied there unsuccessfully for a job; he was fired by a Sears, Roebuck and Co. store for a questionable exchange of merchandise; and he took “different types of drugs” until 1985.

Now investigators want to know whether Livingstone’s requisition of more than 400 FBI files on former Republican White House officials was an innocent screw-up, or part of a partisan smear campaign.

Republicans, naturally, suspect the worst. But Livingstone’s friends say the truth is more benign, if not wholly flattering.

“Craig will be the first to tell you this should never have happened,” said Jones. “But if we had a dime for every mess-up in politics, someone would be a billionaire. This is a big business, a big, big game. Craig is big enough to own up, to admit he was caught up in an overwhelming situation.”