If Liz were Queen

QUEEN’S COMMENTS: When I heard that Tom Coburn of Oklahoma was involved in the Ensign mess, I wondered WTF is Tom Coburn’s connection to the likes of Ensign, the son of a Las Vegas Casino owner?  It didn’t make any kind of sense to me.  Now it does.

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Tonight I happened to be watching Rachel Maddow.  One of her guests was Jeff Sharlet, author of THE FAMILY.  This book is about an influential evangelical elite that few Americans even know exists. Their history begins as corporate foes of the New Deal to the Congressional lawmakers who gather each year at the National Prayer Breakfast.

They consider themselves the new chosen, congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a “leadership led by God,” to be won not by force but through “quiet diplomacy.” Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have written from inside its walls.

Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the Far Right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a “family” that thrives to this day. In public, they host prayer breakfasts; in private they preach a gospel of “biblical capitalism,” military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao, the Family’s leader declares, “We work with power where we can, build new power where we can’t.”

Known members include Sam Brownback, Joe Pitts, Jim DeMint, Pete Domenici, Chuck Grassley, James Inhofe, Tom Coburn, John Thune, Mike Enzi, John ensign, Bill Nelson, Mark Pryor, and yes, Mark Sanford.  There are others.

You may have noticed that these religious types commit the same kinds of trangressions that other congressmen commit:  HOWEVER, you will notice that the conservatives stay in office.  It’s because to these men, Power is their “god-given” mission.”  Notice Vitter remained, Sanford will remain if the GOP doesn’t kick him out, Ensign will remain if at all possible.

CREEPS–ALL OF THEM.

NONE OF THEM SHOULD BE RE-ELECTED. They are definitely on my list of people to donate money to their opponents.

Here is a great article on THE FAMILY from Harpers June 2008

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Just when I think that the bunch in Washington DC running our country cannot possibly be more weird or psychologically disturbed or more twisted and amoral, I learn that I didn’t know the half of it.  I remember back in the late 1980’s that I laughed at a friend who told me about the Bohemian Club.  That was just too silly.  It took me 15 years to finally affirm it for what it is–the truth.  There is a Bohemian club and they do really perform all those silly and perverted acts–leaders of our nation and other nations.

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This whole health care thing and the Blue Dog and other Conservatives unwillingness to compromise on a public option has NOTHING to do with money.  It has everything to do with power.  THAT’S WHAT THEY ARE AFTER–POWER.  After all many of them have more money they they could ever spend.

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FROM THE AUTHOR:  “I remember one day Jeff C., one of the house leaders, said, “You oughtta write a book about us. But nobody would believe it.” It was like he was daring me, but he felt safe doing so because he didn’t think the truths of The Family would translate to the outside world. They believe Christ had one message for those closest to him, and then another, diluted message for the rest of the twelve, and so on out to the masses.”

Queen’s Addendum: I believe it.  I can hardly believe this book was published five years ago.  Maybe now Americans like me are ready to read it and then clean house.