{"article":{"id":93228,"heading":"8 Simple Rules for Schwarzenegger to follow, or else get 'Clubbed'","author":"non-member","created":"2003-11-07 16:58:44","modified":"2004-03-22 11:44:45","last_modified":"Mon, 22 Mar 2004 18:44:45","article":"\n

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 $10

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<\/a>

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=<\/a>

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<\/a>

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 $10 million.

See: http:\/\/www.emagazine.com\/may-june_2003\/0503feat1.html<\/a>

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 $4.2

million collected last year, only $452,000 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<\/a>,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 $50, $75 and $100. They're not $1,000 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<\/a>

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<\/a>

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<\/a>

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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"A driving force behind the Conservative storm front in America will \r\nquite likely be the Governor\\'s mentor -- and in the course, steer the \r\nsocially-liberal Arnold toward a starkly Conservative agenda.","numcomment":10,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/11\/93228.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":93233,"heading":"socially liberal?","article":" What makes you think that the new gov. is "socially liberal"? The fact that he realized that he had to give lip service to abortion rights and gay rights in order to get elected? What about his comments on the harmless rowdyness of groping women or his announced intention of depriving the undocumented of their new right to drivers' licences? Arnold ran a campaign that directly appealed to the baser impulses of white males and a few macho types who belonged to other races or ethnic groups.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":93228,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-07 17:22:24","modified":"2003-11-07 17:22:24","fileurl":""},{"id":93235,"heading":"Point taken","article":"But if you're the very conservative Stephen Moore, then Arnold does seem liberal in comparison (even if real liberals would never agree)","author":"non-member","parent_id":93228,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-07 17:57:27","modified":"2003-11-07 17:57:27","fileurl":""},{"id":93240,"heading":"da governator","article":"There's a difference between being "socially liberal" and being "socially overboard". Being pro-choice or not standing in the way of some gay issues is socially liberal. Granting drivers licenses to illegal aliens so they can further mooch of the government titty is socially overboard.","author":"slvsso","parent_id":93228,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-07 18:49:13","modified":"2003-11-07 18:49:13","fileurl":""},{"id":93241,"heading":"We need less of Moore","article":"Firing people for being gay and labeling senior citizens as dangerous is "socially overboard" too!","author":"da people","parent_id":93228,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-07 18:51:23","modified":"2003-11-07 18:51:23","fileurl":""},{"id":93244,"heading":"More Moore","article":"If he was fired for being homosexual, I would agree. So far, that's only heresay and his opinion. There's no evidence that was the reason.\r\n\r\nSenior citizens are an increasing strain on the federal budget. Social Security should have never been implemented. It gave people an unrealistic sense of security. It was economically unsound legislation from the beginning. But, it's here now and we need to honor our committment.\r\n\r\nBut, it's things like SS and other entitlement programs that will eventually bankrupt the USA, another reason that the America haters want more just like it.","author":"da lord","parent_id":93228,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-07 19:19:35","modified":"2003-11-07 19:19:35","fileurl":""},{"id":93252,"heading":""This has to do with right and wrong"","article":"You're the problem when you can't tell the difference between opinion and discrimination.\r\n\r\n"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.","author":"da people","parent_id":93228,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-07 20:15:33","modified":"2003-11-07 20:15:33","fileurl":""},{"id":93253,"heading":"da people (not)","article":">You're the problem when you can't tell the difference between opinion and discrimination. \r\n\r\nYOU'RE the problem when you can't tell the difference between opinion and evidence.\r\n\r\n"...former state Sen. Tom Patterson, said he FEELS Mr. May's homosexuality is the reason he was fired...."\r\n\r\nNo evidence of why he was fired, other than what he FEELS the reason he was fired. I go on documented evidence, not on speculation based upon why he FEELS is the reason.","author":"lookit","parent_id":93228,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-07 20:32:19","modified":"2003-11-07 20:32:19","fileurl":""},{"id":93304,"heading":"It's called a cover-up -- SOP for the GOP","article":"And did you look at his reasoning or did you stop reading after running into that one word?!\r\n\r\n"I suggested (Steve May), 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 May) has just been OUTSTANDING on. Then a few days ago Len Munsil distributed this list, and somehow they got to the Club for Growth...\r\n\r\nNow remember, this isn't just anyone's opinion, but the Goldwater Institute's Chairman and former State Senator (AZ), considered "one of the (Club for Growth's) most prominent Arizona members" \r\n\r\nThis is not someone who is going to make unsubstantiated claims against his own organization.\r\n\r\nIn addition there were others who agreed that Steve May's firing was due to his homosexualty:\r\n\r\n"Several individuals who professed inside knowledge of the situation -- but did not want to be identified by name -- said the firing was engineered by prominent local conservative activist Tracy Thomas of Paradise Valley. They said Mr. Thomas is a significant contributor to the Club for Growth, is averse to the gay-rights agenda, and gave the club\u2019s director and founder, Steve Moore, an ultimatum to fire Mr. May or he would quit the club."","author":"da people","parent_id":93228,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-08 03:29:34","modified":"2013-11-11 00:27:28","fileurl":""}]}