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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (78336)	9/9/2006 11:56:18 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 362366

The Path to Scaife Posted by Jon Ponder \| Sep. 9, 2006, 9:57 am The VRC Lives, and All Paths in It Lead Back to Mr. Scaife If you are among the millions whose eyes have been opened over the past six years to the true depravity of Republican malfeasance, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the skullduggery didn’t start at George W. Bush’s inauguration. Not hardly.Max Blumenthal’s expose at HuffPo on the rightwing cabal behind ABC’s controversial miniseries, “The Path to 9/11,” is a must-read. According to Blumenthal, the show’s producer, director and writer are part of a conservative insurgency within Hollywood. They have connections to David Horowitz, the often-disgraced rightwing media critic who is based in Los Angeles. The connection into the conservative power grid that may be the most interesting, however, is the production’s ties to Richard Mellon Scaife: Since the inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1992, Horowitz has labored to create a network of politically active conservatives in Hollywood. His Hollywood nest centers around his Wednesday Morning Club, a weekly meet-and-greet session for Left Coast conservatives that has been graced with speeches by the likes of Newt Gingrich, Victor Davis Hanson and Christopher Hitchens. The group’s headquarters are at the offices of Horowitz’s Center for the Study of Popular Culture, a “think tank” bankrolled for years with millions by right-wing sugardaddies like eccentric far right billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife. (Scaife financed the Arkansas Project, a $2.3 million dirty tricks operation that included paying sources for negative stories about Bill Clinton that turned out to be false.) Secretive people usually have something to hide, and “secretive” is among the first words that come to mind regarding Mr. Scaife, who is an heir to the Mellon fortune and lives in Pittsburgh where he publishes a daily newspaper known for its rightwing slant. (The other word most-often associatied with him is “eccentric.”) If you are among the millions whose eyes have been opened over the past six years to the true depravity of Republican malfeasance, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the skullduggery didn’t start at George W. Bush’s inauguration. Not hardly. In fact, the current Bush-Rove reign of political terror has its roots in the early days of the Clinton presidency, and from the start one of its major sponsors has been Mr. Scaife. While Scaife openly funds numerous conservative organizations like Horowitz’ Center for the Study of the Popular Culture — including the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution and the Cato Institute — there is one rightwing effort he has never fully ‘fessed up to funding. Code-named the “Arkansas Project,” it was a vicious campaign of personal destruction against the Clintons that was launched in 1993 and was funded by Scaife. (It was the Arkansas Project that Hillary Clinton once referred to as a “vast rightwing conspiracy.”) The case could be made that the Arkansas Project paved the way for the Bush presidency. Spurious accusations about the Clintons brought forth by the project’s operatives led to years of useless investigations by Congress and the special counsel, Ken Starr and ended with President Clinton’s impeachment. Issues arising from the impeachment — particularly the Monica Lewinsky matter — hobbled Al Gore’s campaign in 2000. Had the impeachment not been an issue, Gore would have beaten Bush handily, even with the drain of liberal votes by Ralph Nader. Paula Jones’ sexual harrassment charge against the president was central to the impeachment. But Jones’ case against Clinton was weak and was only kept alive through various appeals by funding from Scaife and others. So now we know that Scaife is still at it — and that he still has a bug up his ass about the Clintons. But here’s the thing: If Scaife, Horowitz and the producer, director and writer of “The Path to 9/11? are right about President Clinton, why do they always lie about things he has and has not done. They lied about him repeatedly in the 1990s — from Whitewater to Travelgate, Troopergate, the Rose law firm billing records, Vince Foster’s suicide and the rest were all faked up scandals — and they’re lying about him now in “The Path to 9/11.” Update: As our friends at BuzzFlash pointed out, the production reportedly cost $40 million but, according to Fox News (no less), “the series … is to be aired without commercials as a public service.” So who is picking up the tab? (It sure ain’t George Soros.) pensitoreview.com