A driving force behind the Conservative storm front in America will quite likely be the Governor\'s mentor -- and in the course, steer the socially-liberal Arnold toward a starkly Conservative agenda.
Yesterday, California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger named Stephen
Moore to the Audit Committee. Said Moore of the announcement, "I look
forward to serving his administration and will work to implement solutions
that will put gold back in the Golden State."
But as you will soon discover, the driving force behind the Conservative
storm front in America will quite likely be the Governor's mentor -- and in
the course, steer the socially-liberal Arnold toward a starkly Conservative
agenda.
A BRIEF BIO ON STEPHEN MOORE
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Stephen Moore is the President of "The Club for Growth," an organization
that funds the most free-market oriented candidates in targeted
congressional races. The Club for Growth has grown six-fold since the 2000
election cycle and the Club and its members raised or donated over
million to help elect 17 new Members of Congress in the 2002 elections.
Stephen Moore is also a Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute with degrees in
Economics from the University of Illinois and George Mason University. He is
a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily,
The Washington Post, National Review and many other publications.
See: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=135-11052003
1. "THE CORE PROBLEM IS HOMOSEXUALITY"
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Club For Growth fires May for being gay
Arizona Capitol Times, September 30, 2003
...One of the club's most prominent Arizona members, Goldwater Institute
chairman and former state Sen. Tom Patterson, said he feels Mr. May's
homosexuality is the reason he was fired and he is angry about it. "I'm very
upset," he said, "disappointed to the point of almost being bitter. This has
to do with right and wrong. I am a big booster of the Club for Growth and
give them what few shekels I can, and I was thrilled that they were coming
to Arizona. I suggested Steve, and it was not a decision that they made
lightly. I'm not a big advocate of the gay rights agenda, but this has
nothing to do with that. This is an area Steve has just been outstanding on.
Then a few days ago Len Munsil distributed this list, and somehow they got
to the Club for Growth...
"I thought Steve Moore was a really savvy guy and he would know it's not
good to change direction like this. Things were going well, contributions
were being lined up, and then all of a sudden Steve Moore let these guys
throw some sand in the gears. I think there's no question the core problem
is the homosexuality issue. Everything May's ever done he's been great at. I
know he gets a lot of pressure to get more active in gay politics and he
took a big risk with them to volunteer to work for the Club for Growth, and
now he gets that crammed in his face."
See:
http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=
290
2. SENIOR CITIZENS -- "THE MOST SELFISH GROUP IN AMERICA"
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Upper Brackets: The Right's Tax Cut Boosters
The Club for Growth has made a name for itself as the GOP's "tax-cut
enforcer," the group has a larger agenda. It is an advocate of school
vouchers, free trade, and social security privatization. On issues of
concern to senior citizens, Moore is vitriolic. Senior citizens are, he
says, "the most selfish group in America today. . . Their demands on
Washington are: 'Give us more and more and more.' They have become the new
welfare state, and given the size and political clout of this constituency,
it's very dangerous. One of the biggest myths in politics today is this idea
that grandparents care about their grandkids. What they really care about is
that that Social Security check and those Medicare payments are made on a
timely basis."
See: http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=9518
3. A DIRECT OPPONENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT
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Condensed from "Getting Out the Vote"
Jim Motavalli, editor of emagazine.com
The most direct opponent of League of Conservation Voters (LCV) and other
green electoral strategists is the Washington, D.C.-based Club for Growth,
which like Christian Coalition (CC) is not environmentally oriented but
picks its candidates based solely on their position on "tax cuts and
growth." Founded in 1999 by the presidents of the libertarian Cato Institute
and the conservative magazine National Review, among others, the Club for
Growth achieved victory in 17 of the 19 House and Senate races it worked on.
In 2002, it raised and spent more than million.
See: http://www.emagazine.com/may-june_2003/0503feat1.html
4. "A CONSERVATIVE MORAL STRAIN"
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GOP Faces Battle Within - Republicans On Right Target Party Moderates
Liz Halloran, The Hartford Courant, May 9, 2003
The club's contributions come, Krumholz said, from an elite class of donors
- managing partners, CEOs, investment analysts. Of the more than .2
million collected last year, only 2,000 came from donations to be given
directly to candidates. The remainder was counted as part of the unlimited
amount groups such as the Club for Growth can collect and spend on issue
ads, get-out-the-vote efforts, or any other political effort short of a
direct contribution. It's in that realm of unlimited donations that the club
swings the big bat.
"They're huge," said Craig Holman of Public Citizen, who has reviewed the
club's IRS filings, under which it is registered as a "527 group" -
tax-exempt and chartered by the IRS to influence elections. "They are the
eighth-largest section 527 group that's filed with the IRS," Holman said,
"and very clearly they're going to become a major, major powerhouse if
campaign finance laws are changed."...
...Moore, who describes himself as a Libertarian, does not deny that a
conservative moral strain runs through the club's membership, but he says
members are not allowed to discuss such issues as abortion and gun control.
"We truly do not look at the person's positions on issues like abortion, but
the one thing I have found though is that there is a high overlap - strong
conservatives tend to be strong moral conservatives, too," he said.
See:
http://www.ctnow.com/news/custom/newsat3/hc-gop0509.artmay09,0,7864522.story
?coll=hc-headlines-newsat3
5. "THE 'CLUB' IS A CLUB WE HOLD OVER THEIR HEADS"
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Club for Growth looks to back Daschle rival
Rapid City Journal, South Dakota, 5/20/03
The Club was started in 1999 to try to help elect pro-tax-cut,
pro-free-enterprise candidates for Congress who shared the Ronald Reagan
vision on economic policy. We modeled the Club for Growth after EMILY's
List, which is a Democratic group of feminist women who support candidates
on abortion. We thought that was a neat model. They were able to raise
hundreds of thousands of dollars. We decided to use that same model,
expanding our membership and recommending candidates...
There was a group of people in New York City who were Wall Street investment
bankers, very interested in helping get the thing off the ground. The idea
behind it was Pavlovian. We want to help the good guys with money and bash
the bad guys for doing the wrong thing. We view the club as a carrot and a
stick.
We offer an ability to raise money for good candidates. The stick is, if
they defect or don't see the light, we'll use the club. The club is a double
entendre. The club is a club we hold over their heads.
The one charge I find most frustrating is that we represent the rich Wall
Street fat cats. There's no question that there are many Wall Street fat
cats who are members. But one thing that surprises candidates -- when they
start getting contributions from our members -- they've always marveled that
most of the checks are , and 0. They're not ,000 contributions.
For the most part, the demographics are people who are ideologically
conservative first and Republican second. We view the Republican Party as a
means to an end, not an end in itself. We're willing to take on the RINOs
(Republicans in Name Only) when they are misbehaving. A lot of our members
are owners of a business. They have to make a payroll and understand how
taxes impact their bottom line.
See:
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2003/05/20/news/local/news04.txt
6. "ZEALOTS WHO BEHEAD COMRADES FOR IDEOLOGICAL PERFECTION"
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GOP purists push anti-tax agenda at almost any cost
Knight Ridder News, July 6, 2003
Some critics have likened the club activists to the Jacobins of the French
Revolution, the 18th-century zealots who beheaded their own comrades in a
bid for ideological perfection. (Stephen) Moore likes the comparison --
"When your opponents attack you like that, you've got to feel good about it"
-- and has even circulated a guillotine picture among his allies. But
there's a modern context for these tensions.
GOP conservatives have scorned moderates at least since 1964, when followers
of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater booed New York Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller at the national convention. Generally, however, the purists --
often from the religious right -- stressed social issues, notably abortion.
The new purists stress economics.
There are other groups in this purist coalition -- notably Americans for Tax
Reform -- but the club is the most electorally active. It evolved in 1999
from a small cadre of Wall Street executives and free-market economists
(including CNBC host Larry Kudlow and Milton Friedman), and now boasts
nearly 10,000 members.
They give money to club-endorsed candidates, but more often they give money
directly to the club, which, under federal law, can spend unlimited amounts
on "independent" attack ads as long as they don't explicitly tell the
audience whom to vote for.
See:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/07/06/bui
ld/world/n-30-antitax.inc
7. "THE CONSCIENCE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY"
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What's at stake in the 2004 elections?
The Club for Growth
We need to elect congressmen with backbone. Leaders who are committed to
making our economy-and our country-as strong as possible. Leaders who will
resist the corrosive tax and spend temptations of Washington and work
tirelessly to cut taxes and unleash the power of the free market...
There's a lot at stake in the 2004 elections... We can't let Democrats like
Minority Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Tom Daschle take the gavel, and control
the flow of all legislation in the Congress. In fact, it's up to us to
strengthen and expand the Republican majority by electing more free market,
pro-growth conservatives.
...Ed Crane of the Cato Institute has praised the Club for Growth as "the
conscience of the Republican Party." And as you know, even the GOP needs a
conscience.
So if you believe as we do that the only candidates worth supporting are
those who understand the way the world really works-that a strong economy
and a strong America are one and the same-and who will, therefore fight
relentlessly for cutting taxes, controlling federal spending and minimizing
government's role in our daily lives, please join the Club for Growth today.
See: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/whats.php
8. THE CLUB BACKS JEB BUSH IN 2008
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Governor Can Do No Wrong With Florida Voters
Peter Wallsten, Miami Herald, May. 12, 2003
Even when his fellow Republicans in the Florida Legislature earn
humiliatingly low ratings, Jeb Bush is riding high with some of the most
adoring numbers of any second-term governor in the nation. The striking
contrast -- 56 percent of registered voters in a Herald poll published
Sunday approve of Bush's job performance, while 58 percent object to the
performance of his friends in the Legislature -- shows that the Florida
governor continues to amass enormous political capital.
If his good fortunes persist, the Florida governor would again become a
leading surrogate next year to help reelect his brother, nationally and in
his own politically important home state. ''He has enormous leverage now,''
said Gov. Bush's GOP pollster, Neil Newhouse, referring to the poll results.
The survey is likely to fuel speculation among leading conservatives that
the governor is emerging as one of their best hopes to succeed his own
brother and retain the White House in 2008 -- a desire expressed most
recently in a Weekly Standard column penned by the head of the powerful GOP
business group Club for Growth.
See: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/5839278.htm
Original: 8 Simple Rules for Schwarzenegger to follow, or else get 'Clubbed'