GOP WOES: "SLEAZO-CON" now even conservatives aptly use it to describe the right-wing conspiracy

"Sleazo-Cons" SOURCE: THE DCCC NEWSLETTER

The alert went out on the internet before the paper had even hit the stands. David Brooks, conservative columnist for the New York Times and generally reliable advocate of the GOP line, had turned his guns squarely on his own with a column entitled "Masters of Sleaze"...

"Back in 1995, when Republicans took over Congress, a new cadre of daring and original thinkers arose. These bold innovators had a key insight: that you no longer had to choose between being an activist and a lobbyist. You could be both. You could harness the power of K Street to promote the goals of Goldwater, Reagan and Gingrich. And best of all, you could get rich while doing it!

"Before long, ringleader Grover Norquist and his buddies were signing lobbying deals with the Seychelles and the Northern Mariana Islands and talking up their interests at weekly conservative strategy sessions - what could be more vital to the future of freedom than the commercial interests of these two fine locales?

"Before long, folks like Norquist and Abramoff were talking up the virtues of international sons of liberty like Angola's Jonas Savimbi and Congo's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko - all while receiving compensation from these upstanding gentlemen, according to The Legal Times. Only a reactionary could have been so discomfited by Savimbi's little cannibalism problem as to think this was not a daring contribution to the cause of Reaganism.

"Soon the creative revolutionaries were blending the high-toned forms of the think tank with the low-toned scams of the buckraker. Ed Buckham, Tom DeLay's former chief of staff, helped run the U.S. Family Network, which supported the American family by accepting large donations and leasing skyboxes at the MCI Center, according to Roll Call. Michael Scanlon, DeLay's former spokesman, organized a think tank called the American International Center, located in a house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., which was occupied, according to Andrew Ferguson's devastating compendium in The Weekly Standard, by a former 'lifeguard of the year' and a former yoga instructor.

"Ralph Reed, meanwhile, smashed the tired old categories that used to separate social conservatives from corporate consultants. Reed signed on with Channel One, Verizon, Enron and Microsoft to shore up the moral foundations of our great nation. Reed so strongly opposes gambling as a matter of principle that he bravely accepted $4 million through Abramoff from casino-rich Indian tribes to gin up a grass-roots campaign.

"As time went by, the spectacular devolution of morals accelerated. Many of the young innovators were behaving like people who, having read Barry Goldwater's 'Conscience of a Conservative,' embraced the conservative part while discarding the conscience part.

"Abramoff's and Scanlon's Indian-gaming scandal will go down as the movement's crowning achievement, more shameless than anything the others would do, but still the culmination of the trends building since 1995. It perfectly embodied their creed and philosophy: 'I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!!' as Abramoff wrote to Reed. They made at least $66 million.

"This is a major accomplishment. And remember: Abramoff didn't do it on his own. It took a village. The sleazo-cons thought they could take over K Street to advance their agenda. As it transpired, K Street took over them."


So while one has to hand it to Brooks for deviating from the GOP script, the column does leave much unaddressed. Norquist is a scoundrel, but he is only a scoundrel with any influence because Karl Rove and Tom DeLay let him run the show. Abramoff and Scanlon are both scoundrels, but the only reason anybody's ever heard of them is that Scanlon was DeLay's spokesman and Abramoff was "director of travel for DeLay Inc." Ralph Reed is not just some hypocritical figure on the religious right, he was the chief southern strategist for the Bush campaign. All of these people are nothing but Rove & DeLay's foot soldiers, and yet Brooks does not see fit to lay one iota of blame at their feet, attacking only those who will not have to face a voter in a national election any time soon (Ralph Reed, however, is making a run at Lieutenant Governor in Georgia). And left completely unmentioned is the fact that Rep. Bob Ney, Chairman of the powerful House Administration Committee, is now being looked into by the Senate Finance Committee in addition to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and an overdue date with the House Ethics Committee for his involvement in precisely this affair.

So kudos to David Brooks on an honest assessment of some of the GOP's most nefarious characters, but as he said, "It took a village." Hopefully he'll look at some of the elder statesmen of that village next time.