Ney Gradually Fading Away

(Written after reading an AP story on Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) quitting a House Committee until his legal problems are resolved.)

What does it say
on the AP today?
Old Bob Ney is
gradually fading away.

First it's this post,
then another --
'Freedom Fries'will
soon be a-blubber.

Just like Randy Duke
and his mea culpa wail
Bob will be bawling 'Guilty'
to save his corrupt tail.

Goodbye Top Gun,
Frist, Hastert and Ney;
next up on the screen
the resignation of Tom DeLay.

They'll all go to their families
to "spend more time"
Would that be the Manson,
Trafficante, or Genovese
fiefdoms of crime?
-- L. Abram Jakov Smirnoff
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The Bush Administration, the Federalist Society, the College Republicans and the 1968 Nixon Campaign

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and likely Associate Justice Samuel Alito were both Federalist Society members, as are many infesting the Bush Administration. The Federalists are an outgrowth of the College Republicans, the same College Republicans that spawned Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed and other sparkling lights in the neocon cosmos. The College Republicans' concept, so I've been told, was in turn a brainchild of the 1968 Nixon campaign, designed to blunt the influence of antiwar/anti-Nixon protestors by any means possible, including Donald Segretti-style dirty tricks.

Here's a brief introduction to these two organizations by Frankie Lake, but read the whole article at CounterPunch; it shows how both groups operate to undermine the opposition with sleazy, cheesy and underhanded tactics, methods that continue today in the highest reaches of the Republican Party.

(Incidentally, this article, written before Roberts was confirmed by the Senate, notes that Roberts had "no memory" of belonging to the Federalist Society, even though he was listed in their 1997-1998 leadership directory. Interestingly, Alito had a similar lapse of memory when he was questioned about his membership in the ultra-right Concerned Alumni of Princeton while in college and afterwards.)

"There is a good reason why the White House is trying so hard to dissociate John Roberts from his Federalist Society affiliation. The Federalist Society has its roots in the College Republicans and derives its membership from them. While I can't discuss the earlier history of the College Republicans with any authority, I do know this: the members now are enamored of dirty tricks. These people specialize in distraction, deception, and intimidation in order to advance their extremist agenda on the unwary.

"I have spent the last seven years of my life working cheek-by-jowl next to members of the Federalist Society and the College Republicans. The Federalist Society is a law school student organization that began in the 1970s, and has 'adult' chapters throughout the United States. According to the Washington Post and other news reports, its present secret membership lists contain those at the highest levels of the Bush Administration. (1) The same goes for College Republicans, the college campus organization that feeds into the Federalist Society.

"I encountered the Federalists in my role as a member of other campus organizations and as a member of student government. After viewing their objectionable and offensive mode of operation, and suffering the results of their radically destructive and deceptive behavior, I understand why advancement of their members to high government office should concern ethical and honest Americans."

[...]

"[T]hese are the 'moral, honest, upright' Americans whom we are supposed to believe in and follow blindly...who seethe with hatred for anyone who might disagree with them and will stoop to any tactic in order to advance their extremist agenda of creating divisions among people of good will and common sense.

"The College Republicans and the Federalists claim to merely want to foster discussion of Constitutional issues. This is sham position, designed to discredit reasonable analysis of facts and policies that help to build a just and peaceful society. Only a few people at law school wanted to listen to their shrill high-pitched whining about the problems of the greedy, so they had to hold debates with the other side in order to gain an audience. Some of my Republican friends were outright contemptuous of their tactics. One noted that, 'They would probably have supported the divine rights of Kings a thousand years ago.'"
-- Frankie Lake, "Dirty tricksters: How the Federalist Society operates," CounterPunch.org, August 20, 2005.