Scientology

And, of course, like any other moneymaking American enterprise, it has good friends in Washington.

As far as I know, the only Scientologist to ever actually serve in Congress was the late Sonny Bono. His widow, Mary Bono Mack, who inherited his seat, attended courses, but never took to the religion.

Former Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y., received thousands from the church, and, in return, as chairman of the International Relations Committee, he complained on several occasions that European nations were discriminating against Scientology. Or, put another way: “[On] the same day (July 2, 1998), ten prominent Scientologists donated a total of $7,400 to Congressman Benjamin A. Gilman’s coffer — three months before he signed on as a co-sponsor to Matt Salmon’s House of Representatives bill that was critical of Germany’s protection of religious freedom …” He was also thanked with this glowing profile in the church’s Freedom magazine.

Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., are two of the church’s best friends currently serving in Congress. They were both honored at a 2004 Celebrity Centre gala. (Here’s Ros-Lehtinen with John Travolta and Kelly Preston, and here’s Brad Sherman praising the church publicly.)

The church avoids “official” political donations (it is, after all, a tax-exempt religious organization), but prominent members still support politicians and politicians return the favor. Florida’s Mark Foley was a Scientology ally. (It was rumored that he checked into a church-affiliated recovery center after his resignation from Congress.) As a state legislator, Nevada’s Sharron Angle supported a Scientology-affiliated drug treatment therapy program for prisoners.

Craig Jensen, founder of the software company Diskeeper, and his wife, Sally Jensen, are major Scientologists, and their donations help identify which politicians are friendliest to the church. Former congressman James E. Rogan, now a Bush-appointed judge on the Superior Court of California, received thousands of dollars from prominent Scientologists throughout the 1990s. Even Ron Paul gets Scientology love, because he supports its tax-exempt status and opposes mental health screening for children.

And, of course, Sarah Palin is personal friends with prominent Scientologists Greta Van Susteren and her husband, attorney John Coale. Coale helped Palin start her PAC — and he once proposed starting a Scientology PAC, in the 1980s. At the time, the idea fizzled out.

But Scientology actually had a semi-open PAC for a few years, called “Citizens for Social Reform.” The church hasn’t donated anything in the last two cycles, but before that, it gave to the following pols:

• Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind.
• Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif.
• Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.
• Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif.
• Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill. (also a friend of the Reverend Moon)
• Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
• Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y.
• Rep. Dylan Glenn, R-Ga.

The church has had, throughout its history, plenty of friends on both sides of the aisle. Or, at least, plenty of people willing to cash its checks. Few prominent politicians, that I know of, have said much about the things we’ve learned about the church more recently.

[Correction: Judge James Rogan serves on the Superior Court of California. He was nominated for the seat by then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, and won election to the seat in 2008. He was nominated by President Bush for a seat on the U.S. District Court, but his nomination stalled in the Senate. I apologize for the error.]

The reason Angle is unable to answer questions is because she is an Outsider. Also, she only has two full-time staffers. She needs a couple weeks with the campaign pros behind Scott Brown’s victory before she’s qualified to say what she believes to reporters. Once she owns a truck, you can ask all the question you want, lame stream media.

Texas Republican John Cornyn explained:

And Cornyn acknowledged that Angle is not yet prepared for what he considers to be a coming onslaught of attention. “I don’t think anybody would be prepared for a race. where 20 or 30 million dollars is going to be spent in negative advertising,” he said. “It’s going to take a few weeks, I would think, but, you know, it’s really up to her.”

But as I said, Angle did make time for the National Review.

Angle apparently referred to herself as an “accidental politician,” though once you’ve been in politics for a dozen years, you should probably just own up to being a professional accidental politician.

Her statement on Social Security is a series of completely incompatible buzz-phrases borrowed from both parties. She admires Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, and Michele Bachmann. She seems to tell a verifiable untruth about removing the “issues” page from her website. (It is now back.) She also defends her advocacy for a Church of Scientology-developed quack drug therapy program by claiming Scientologists are the victims of religious persecution.

What we’re seeing here is a very slippery slope. Whenever religion becomes the focal point — we saw this during John F. Kennedy’s race and also, to some degree, in Mitt Romney’s race — whenever this becomes the focus, we Americans should be very, very concerned. We have a First Amendment that guarantees us all the right to worship as we please. We as Americans should, even if we don’t agree, should defend their right to have that right. It shouldn’t come into play in any political arena.”

God, if a real journalist manages to get anything out of her before the consultants do their work, she’ll be a goldmine of nuttiness.