Left and Right Clash Over Parole Board : Appointment: Liberal Sen. Tom Hayden, once a radical anti-war activist, holds up approval of nominee John Rousselot, a conservative with a radical right-wing past.

In a clash of opposites, Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), the liberal with a radical left-wing past, has called a timeout for more study of a proposed government board appointment of John H. Rousselot, the conservative with a radical right-wing past.

Gov. Pete Wilson has nominated Rousselot, a retired congressman and former official of the John Birch Society, to a seat on the panel that grants paroles. But at the request of Hayden, the Senate Rules Committee agreed this week to delay a confirmation hearing for Rousselot until June 30 so Hayden could conduct his own background investigation into the nominee’s qualifications.

Hayden said he asked for the delay--as any member of the Senate may--because of constituents’ concerns that Rousselot might not be fit for appointment to a $76,870-a-year post on the Board of Prison Terms.

“When someone with the reputation of John Rousselot is appointed to a high-ranking position in state government, it is incumbent on the Senate to closely scrutinize it,” said Hayden’s chief of staff, Duane Peterson. “He was closely associated with the John Birch Society, which I think most people view as outside the mainstream of American policy.”

The former eight-term congressman from San Marino quit the fervently anti-Communist Birch organization in 1979.

Peterson said Hayden, who has been the target of various government investigations, wants to examine Rousselot’s writings and pronouncements and his votes in Congress.

Hayden is identified with left-wing causes as much if not more than Rousselot is identified with the right. A founder of Students for a Democratic Society, Hayden was prominent as a member of the “Chicago Seven” who was tried on charges of instigating riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and was a highly vocal opponent of the Vietnam War.

Rousselot said he had no advance knowledge of Hayden’s actions and said his own membership in the Birch Society is inconsequential because he left the organization 14 years ago. He said Wednesday that he quit the society because “I was in Congress and it just didn’t serve any purpose.”

Although Rousselot’s conservative political philosophy had been expected to ignite liberal opposition to his appointment, a Rules Committee source said that only one organization, a prisoners’ rights group, had called for his rejection.

Rousselot said he had met privately with the five members of the committee during the last few weeks and indicated that his former membership in the Birch Society never came up. He said all five “seemed to be favorably disposed to me.”

He first was elected to the House in 1960 at a time when members of the John Birch Society were both praised as patriotic anti-Communists and condemned for witch hunts for subversive politicians. Rousselot served as a public relations director and West Coast governor of the group.

Rousselot was defeated for reelection in 1982. He ran for Congress again last year but lost in the primary. Wilson later appointed him to the parole board.