Endlessly respect a Liberal naval commander (7)
I believe the answer is:
admiral
'naval commander' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'endlessly respect a liberal' is the wordplay.
'endlessly' means to remove the last letter.
'respect' becomes 'admire' (admiring is a kind of respecting).
'a liberal' becomes 'al' (I've seen this in other clues).
'admire' with its last letter removed is 'admir'.
'admir'+'al'='ADMIRAL'
(Other definitions for admiral that I've seen before include "Navy rank" , "Senior officer; mad liar (anag.)" , "Commander of the fleet or butterfly" , "Benbow, say" , "Blake, for one" .)