- Begin Excerpt
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- Actually, there is no doubt who controls the Republican
Party, and it is not K-Street lobbyists, as Examiner columnist Timothy
Carney claims. These big lobbying machines work, indirectly, for the Powers
That Be (PTB) - the real forces that control both Republicans and Democrats.
The powerful and wealthy lobbyists that have historically had big offices
on K-street in Washington DC only provide a level of insurance to keep
things running smoothly. The real battle for control of the GOP is over
the conservative base that is increasingly joining the Tea Party rebellion
in opposition to mainstream control of the Republican party and its role
in growing big government. Establishment Republican leaders like Newt Gingrich
and Michael Steele continue to promote false conservative candidates with
big money backing, hoping to convince Tea Party supporters that only moderate
Republicans can win in November. Sadly, uncompromising and hardline candidates
have won only a few races in the primary season, while main-stream candidates
have generally succeeded in snookering conservatives into supporting re-branded
liberals as conservatives.
-
- Big wins by the Tea Party hardliners were Rand Paul's
victory over Tim Greyson in Kentucky, Joe Miller's slim defeat of Republican
Senator Lisa Murkowsky in Alaska, and the ouster of Utah mainstream Senator
Robert Bennett in the Utah primary. The nomination of anti-global warming
scientist Art Robinson in Oregon to challenge Democrat Peter DeFazio was
also a big win for constitutional conservatives.
-
- Big wins by the establishment, on the other hand, were
the renomination of Senator John McCain in Arizona, the Texas defeat of
Debra Medina by Gov. Rick Perry and the wins of Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina
over their respective conservative challengers for the Republican primary
in California. In most of the smaller races, mainstream (but fairly conservative)
Republican candidates won as well. There were a few outright conservative
frauds that won--Ben Quayle in Phoenix, the lackluster son of former VP
Dan Quayle, was the prime example. He was funded by former Pres. George
H. W. Bush and his entire entourage of establishment hacks from Washington.
-
- Despite the fact that most Tea Party candidates failed
to win in Republican primaries, the movement is still a huge force to be
reckoned with because of its size and uncompromising demeanor. Nothing
was more exemplary of this than the huge rally organized by Fox News commentator
Glenn Beck in Washington DC this past week, which drew an estimated 800,000
people. The media played its usually role as truth saboteur by grossly
underestimating the crowds in attendance and by giving excessive play to
the objections of black civil rights leaders who were incensed that Beck
grabbed "their spot" on the Washington mall before they could.
-
- The media was successful in taunting Beck so badly over
the "politicization of the rally" issue that Beck was forced
to downplay his rhetoric, discourage banners, and bill the event as a moral
and religious rally honoring our troops(everyone's favorite ploy) instead.
It lost some of its fire in doing so, but it made up for it by appealing
to an ecumenical spirit of cooperation among the various conservative religious
factions--which is badly needed.
-
- The establishment is in the middle of a powerful campaign
to co-opt the Tea Party movement, so we must understand how they intend
to do this. Primarily, they intend to use the power of money to make sure
that real conservatives are denied funding and that controlled conservatives
are so richly funded that they won't dare to risk losing that funding.
-
- First, I will comment on Tim Carney's piece in the Examiner
for its interesting analysis on the role of well healed lobbyists in the
Republican party. [my comments in brackets]
-
- "Bob Dole, once the standard-bearer of the Republican
Party, parlayed his political clout into personal wealth [only happens
to lawmakers who play along with the PTB during their tenure], and now
he's putting that wealth to work against a conservative Republican Senate
candidate in a general election. Dole, now a lobbyist at Alston Bird, contributed
$1,000 on Aug. 11 to the independent Senate campaign of Charlie Crist,
who left the GOP in April. Dole's may be an extreme case-- because he's
actually backing a non-Republican [this is actually a reflection of the
fact that Dole is on the globalist team and they'll support fellow liberals
like Crist even after they have been forced out of the party, when their
masquerade fails]-- but it epitomizes the fundamental split within the
Republican Party.
-
- "The current GOP fault line is not exactly conservatives
vs. moderates or new guard vs. old guard. For 2010, the rivalry is the
Tea Party wing against the K Street wing [what I call the mainstream wing,
because it is not just a matter of catering to lobbyists and big money].
To tell which kind of Republican a candidate is, see how the Democrats
attack him: If he's branded a shill for Wall Street, he's from the K Street
wing. If he's labeled an extremist outside the mainstream, he's a Tea Partier.
-
- "More tellingly, study their campaign contributions
[yes]. K Street Republicans' coffers are filled by the political action
committees of defense contractors, drug companies, lobbying firms, and
Wall Street banks. A Tea Party Republican is funded by the Club for Growth
or the Senate Conservatives Fund, which is run by the Republican leadership's
least-favorite colleague, Jim DeMint [not so. True Tea Party candidates
are supported almost exclusively from small contributions from individuals].
-
- "In Colorado's Senate primary last week, the Tea
Party trumped K Street as Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck upset
former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton. Norton, herself a former lobbyist who tried
to run from that background, raised $293,000 from PACs. Buck got only $2,500
in PAC cash. Buck got zero support from Republican lawmakers' PACs while
15 GOP incumbents funded Norton, including leaders Mitch McConnell, Lamar
Alexander, John Thune and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Two senators who have cashed
out to K Street -- Mel Martinez and Trent Lott -- also put their money
behind Norton [all mainstream insiders].
-
- "Kentucky shows an even starker contrast. Before
the May 18 Senate primary, secretary of state and McConnell acolyte Trey
Grayson had raised a half million dollars from PACs --20 times the PAC
haul of upstart Rand Paul. Paul got a check from outgoing curmudgeon Sen.
Jim Bunning, but 18 Republican senators bankrolled Grayson's campaign,
plus the Republican Mainstreet Partnership and three top House Republicans.
Grayson pocketed political action committee cash from businesses that have
sided more with Obama than with Republicans, such as $10,000 from drug
maker Pfizer -- a key champion of Obamacare. Other Grayson funders are
a rogues' gallery of subsidy sucklers and regulatory robber barons: bailout
bandits like the American Bankers Association and the Managed Funds Association;
Obamacare backers like the American Hospital Association and a dozen drug
companies; ethanol baron Archer Daniels Midland; cap-and-trade profiteers
like Duke Energy; and government contractors like the Chubb Corp. and Northrop
Grumman. A K Street lobbyist who had represented AIG during the bailouts
hosted a fundraiser for Grayson, and at least a dozen lobbying firms and
industry groups backed him with cash.
-
- "And of course, Trent Lott was a Grayson donor.
Lott is the captain of the K Street team. He told a reporter last month
his thoughts on the Tea Partiers: 'We don' t need [or want] a lot of Jim
DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them [very
telling].' Lott's proposed co-opting is not primarily ideological -- Norton
and Grayson, and their inside-the-Beltway patrons are all fairly conservative
[as only the mainstream would define it]. The main distinction between
Team Lott and Team DeMint might have less to do with policy platforms and
more to do with a politician's attitude toward the Washington nexus of
power and money."
-
- This last part is absolutely true. That is the key issue
whether or not a candidate is owned by the establishment. If he is, Tea
Party supporters don't trust them, no matter how conservative they claim
to be. One only need to view John McCain's complete reversal of position
on illegal immigration to see how essential it is not to believe what they
say, but watch who's behind them.
-
- "Nevada's Sharron Angle [battling Senate majority
leader Read] is anti-bailout and anti-subsidy [and the establishment is
pulling out all the stops to discredit her]. Paul could try to shrink defense
spending and ethanol subsidies. In Florida, Republican Marco Rubio isn't
a game player like Dole's buddy Crist is.
-
- "You can see today, by their improved personal financial
situations, what Lott and Dole were trying to accomplish in Washington.
You can also guess which current Republicans will join them on K Street
in a few years -- andplay ball with them in the meantime. But Tea Partiers
and DeMint disciples will come to Washington with an aversion to K Street.
Now that Lott and Dole have sided so clearly against them, maybe K Street
will have a harder time trying to co-opt them."
-
- In a more recent article Carney finds another gem about
Republican manipulation--trying to help re-elect Democratic Senator Reid:
"Why would the former chairman of the Republican National Committee
-- he ran the GOP for six years during Reagan's presidency -- endorse Democrat
Harry Reid in a dead-heat election? Because that GOP bigwig is from the
K Street Wing of the Republican Party [wrong--because he is part of the
PTB working to control both parties]. Frank Fahrenkopf is now head of the
American Gaming Association, the gambling industry's lobby. This cycle,
like last cycle, Fahrenkopf has funded Reid's reelection [Why is a supposedly
conservative Republican running the gambling lobby? It is just more evidence
of their true colors - they are and were only playing roles to fool conservatives]."
-
- Fortunately, there are some politicians who simply cannot
be bought, and the Ron Paul family is one of them. Sarah Palin is not.
I want to comment on what I believe is the crucial way in which Sara Palin
has been co-opted by the money issue in her quest for political power.
An interesting piece came out in Vanity Fair this week entitled, "Palin
in Private" by Michael Joseph Gross. It was clearly a hatchet job
on Palin by a Leftist, but I have to admit, it was based mostly on truths
that the Palin team does not want aired. Gross fails to balance his embarrassing
revelations with any of Palin's redeeming qualities.
-
- During her vice presidential candidacy with John McCain,
Palin underwent a painful transition from principled libertarian to controlled
Republican show girl. She's being used now and doesn't see that all the
attention the media is lavishing upon her is not intended to promote her,
but to set her up for a fall. During the 2008 campaign she started out
bucking the establishment advisors that were clearly attempting to control
her. But despite initial resistance to the fame, fancy hotels and celebrity
treatment, she eventually succumbed to the new lifestyle and learned to
like it.
-
- When Palin returned to Alaska, vowing to rise again and
break loose from the coercion of the establishment, the PTB sicced their
media dogs on her to set her up for failure and to bring her back into
their arena. Legal and media pressure were applied almost constantly while
she was governor of Alaska and nearly drove her to bankruptcy with various
ethics charges and the resulting legal challenges. As I indicated, I'm
convinced it wasn't their purpose to destroy her, but rather to drive her
into the arms of the monied Republican king-makers who could offer to be
her "saviors" (a book deal worth at least $10M was a good start)
and then set traps to control her once she had become used to the lavish
lifestyle of a political celebrity. Look at what she has become, according
to interviews conducted by Michael Gross:
-
- "Warm and effusive in public, indifferent or angry
in private: this is the 'pattern of Palin's behavior toward the people
who make her life possible.' A onetime gubernatorial aide to Palin says,
'The people who have worked for her--they're broken, used, stepped on,
down in the dust.' On the 2008 campaign trail, one close aide recalls,
it was practically impossible to persuade Palin to take a moment to thank
the kitchen workers at fund-raising dinners. During the campaign, Palin
lashed out at the 'slightest provocation, sometimes screaming at staff
members and throwing objects. Witnessing such behavior, one aide asked
Todd Palin if it was 'typical of his wife.' He answered, 'You just got
to let her go through it... Half the stuff that comes out of her mouth
she doesn't even mean.' When a 'campaign aide gingerly asked Todd whether
Sarah should consider taking psychiatric medication' to control her moods,
Todd responded that she 'just needed to run and work out more.'
-
- "Her anger kept boiling over, however, 'and eventually
the fits of rage came every day. Then, just as suddenly, 'her temper would
be gone. Palin would apologize and promise to be nicer.' 'Within hours,
she would be screaming again.' At the end of one long day, 'when Palin
was mid-tirade,' a campaign aide remembers thinking, 'You were an angel
all night. Now you're a devil. Where did this come from?' The intensity
of Palin's temper was first described to me in such extreme terms that
I couldn't help but wonder if it might be exaggerated, until I heard corroborating
tales of outbursts dating back to her days as mayor of Wasilla and before.
One friend of the Palins' remembers an argument between Sarah and Todd:
'They took all the canned goods out of the pantry, then proceeded to throw
them at each other. By the time they got done, the stainless-steel fridge
looked like it had got shot up with a shotgun.' This friend adds, 'She
has a horrible temper, but she has gotten away with it because she is a
pretty woman.'
-
- "When Palin was mayor, she made life for one low-level
municipal employee so miserable that the woman quit her job, sought psychiatric
counseling, and then left the state altogether to escape Palin's sphere
of influence--this according to one person with firsthand knowledge of
the situation. Palin's former personal assistants all refused to comment
on the record for this story, some citing a fear of 'reprisal.' Others
who have worked with Palin recall that, when she feels 'threatened, she
does not hesitate to wield some version of a signature threat: 'I have
the power to ruin you.'
-
- "William Kristol [a neocon globalist], editor of
The Weekly Standard, and Fred Malek, aide to Presidents Richard Nixon and
George H. W. Bush are advisors. Lawyer Robert Barnett, the most successful
literary agent in Washington--his clients range from Hillary Clinton to
Dick Cheney to Tony Blair--negotiated Palin's reported $7 million advance
for Going Rogue, and he helps oversee her 'speaking schedule, which is
arranged by the Washington Speakers Bureau.
-
- "The small inner circle that shapes Palin's voice
day to day includes lobbyist Randy Scheunemann, a director of the neoconservative
think tank 'Project for the New American Century,' [which provided the
theoretical "New Pearl Harbor" impetus for the government's false
flag attack on the WTC] who advises Palin on foreign affairs [which explains
her neocon positions supporting more wars of intervention]. Palin's speechwriter
is Lindsay Hayes [from the McCain camp]. Doug McMarlin and Jason Recher,
both of whom did advance work for George W. Bush, serve as 'bodyguards
and confidants. Both Hayes and Recher were on Palin's 2008-campaign road
team, and both were known for indulging her whims, according to their colleagues."
-
- In short, her life is very different now than before.
When initially presented with a fancy and expensive new outfit during the
McCain campaign, she expressed horror that the campaign would spend huge
sums on designer clothes. Now she only buys expensive clothes, demands
first class airfare when her private jet isn't available, and drives a
new Cadillac Escalade with tinted windows. FOX pays her over a million
dollars a year for her pat, unoriginal commentary (broadcast from her own
studio at her home), and she still commands huge 6 figure fees for speaking
engagements which guarantees that the most principled Tea Partiers (who
are poor) can rarely afford to attend. A new 6,000-square-foot stone-clad
château style home is being built for her, complete with an airplane
hangar for Todd Palin's Piper Cub.
-
- End Excerpt
-
-
- World Affairs Brief - Commentary and Insights on
a Troubled World
-
- Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution
permitted.
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