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March of the racketeers
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May 15, 2000 | Rarely has a liberal assault of this sort against a conservative leader attracted less support. Even Democrats and their allies in the press are not jumping on the bandwagon this time. The New York Times did give the announcement a screaming headline -- "Democrats' Lawsuit Accuses DeLay of Racketeering In Fund-Raising" -- but it buried the story on page 20. Most damning of all, the two law professors responsible for drafting the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), both Democrats, denounced the suit in unmistakably clear terms.
David Horowitz David Horowitz's column appears on the News site every other Monday.
One of them, Notre Dame law professor Robert Blakey, who served in Robert Kennedy's Justice Department, described it as "the kind of case that gives RICO a bad name." Congressman Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., also disassociated himself from the suit, describing it as "almost the criminalization of politics." Equally blunt was the judgment of USA Today's Walter Shapiro, normally considered a liberal, who began his column by grousing, "It is hard for anyone, save rabid conservatives, to muster up much compassion for DeLay." But Shapiro then went on to call the suit "frivolous" and said it was contributing to a "poisonous" political atmosphere. Washington, he observed, "has lost all claim to civility, but there are still boundaries and the DCCC lawsuit has crossed them." Even a professional Clintonian like Paul Begala was embarrassed. In an op-ed piece, he warned his political brethren: "The Congressional Democrats' racketeering lawsuit against Tom DeLay, the House majority whip is wrong, ethically, legally and politically." To be fair, Begala tried to put the blame on the other partisan foot by comparing Democrats' move to the Republican investigations of Clinton. Begala seems to have forgotten that there were 25 investigations conducted by Democrats against members of the Reagan and Bush administrations, including the hounding of dedicated civil servants by the Office of the Independent Counsel (a Democratic creation). Begala also failed to note that the allegations against Clinton were crimes -- perjury, obstruction of justice, fraud and sexual harassment -- and not, as in the RICO suit, perfectly legal activities regularly engaged in by politicians on both sides of the aisle. Since Pandora's box has been opened, it is instructive to peek inside. In particular, look who's leading the Virtue Squad in its crusade to purge the House of campaign finance excess. Why it's young Patrick Kennedy, latest issue of the Kennedy machine, and in all other respects a political nobody, a face familiar only as having thrust itself into the camera eye during the impeachment process with a display of barroom incivility which the Kennedys are noted for. Notwithstanding such handicaps, and the lack of any legislative acheivements to date, Patrick has managed -- in three short congressional terms -- to elevate himself to a position adjacent to the throne. He is Minority Leader Dick Gephardt's chief fund-raiser, right-hand man, and executive director of the DCCC, the Democrats' campaign arm that turns the money spigot on and off for the party's congressional candidates. The reason Kennedy has this job is simple: the high-octane fund-raising power of the Kennedy machine, which is the best example of the excess that crusader Patrick now proposes to correct. This is hardly a partisan judgment. In a recent survey of campaign finance abuse, the National Journal summarized educated opinion on the subject in these terms: "For reformers bent on cleaning up political campaigns, the Kennedys epitomize what's wrong with the system." Talk about the fox and the chicken coop! Patrick's father, Senator Ted, let us not forget, survived political ruin by deploying cash -- an estimated $1 million -- to the family of the woman he left for dead at Chappaquiddick. The disbursement helped ensure that the family of the dead woman would refrain from seeking the appropriate manslaughter prosecution he had earned. Patrick's cousin, Congressman Joe, made his own career possible by ponying up another Kennedy million to palliate the girl he left behind in a wheelchair, after a reckless driving episode. Eventually, Joe was forced into premature retirement when his brother (and campaign-manager) Michael was caught in an affair with an underage babysitter. Then Joe himself was exposed by a discarded wife as having tried to get the Church to annul a 16-year marriage by claiming he didn't know what he was doing when he said "I do." These are neither idle nor merely prurient reminiscences. Celebrity, as every politician knows, is money. And once established, celebrity drives itself. No one has yet proposed a ban on political fund-raising by individuals who have been on the cover of People magazine, but a good case could be made for it if anyone were really serious about controlling money in politics. Once upon a time, the Kennedy money machine was powered by the celebrity of achievement. "Camelot" was more than just a public-relations idea. But in the last thirty years -- one could date the moment Ted Kennedy's driving lapse at Chappaquidick -- the Kennedy fame has been most frequently powered by the celebrity of tragedy and scandal, and of celebrity itself -- Kennedy vehicular recklessness, Kennedy drug abuse, reckless skiing episodes and flying accidents, along with just plain old Kennedy glamour and nostalgia and celebrity couplings.
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