The American Spectator

Robbins Mitchell| 2.4.09 @ 6:31AM

For a faux 'messiah' personality cult,the Obama bunch is straight out of "Amos & Andy"......we have the consummate huckster and grifter 'Kingfish',his shrewish wife 'Sapphire' and even her momma 'Ruby Begonia' herself....Eric Holder at DoJ is dutifully playing 'Algonquin J. Calhoun',the slickest shyster in Harlem, Robert Gibbs as the hapless but well meaning 'Andy',who believes everything that 'Kingfish' tells him....the slow witted janitor at the lodge hall,'Lightin',played by the equally slow witted Joe Biden who will gladly sweep up behind the 'Kingfish' just so he can be part of things...and finally an oily financial scheme that 'Kingfish' is trying to put over and hoping that nobody catches on before the cash changes hands.... Abe Lincoln became known as 'The Great Emancipator' and Ronaldus Magnus was tabbed 'The Great Communicator'.....Obama may be remembered by posterity as 'The Great Okeydoke'

Targeted4demise| 2.4.09 @ 7:48AM

Please Lisa, they, the secularists, don't just hate Christians. Move over and make room room for guys like me, who are common sense based Americans, and dare be skeptical of their dreams and schemes. If only you movement conservatives could wake up, and see you have many natural allies in the fight against these goofballs we would again have a power house second party in America. But no, you'd rather argue with me for accepting the reality of legal abortion, than put aside our differences and fight against the real menace to our nation,the current nuts in power.

WRTolkas| 2.4.09 @ 7:49AM

Dear Mr. Mitchell,

Gosh that's cold but unfortunately truthful and, if not so on the mark, would be darn funny. I'll never see Joe "Lightin'" Biden the same again. I’ll be chuckling about that all day, thanks.

As for the comparisons, I just hope 'We da People" hasn’t bought the "rare long-eared chinchillas" (you'd have to be a true A&A;fan to remember that episode).

Regards

Michale J, Casey| 2.4.09 @ 8:45AM

Dear Mr. Mitchell,

You just have to be from my generation to come up with Amos & Andy. Not many of the younger set could ever make that connection.

I must say that you have nailed it, like WRTolkas I'll never look at Biden the same way again.

From the 'Great Emancipator' and the 'Great Communicator' to the 'Great Okeydoke'; marvelous and outstanding.

Mary Grabar| 2.4.09 @ 9:31AM

Somebody get on this. These videos satirize themselves! Come on people! Where are our creative minds? I'll write the scripts. Can anyone do the music and video? contact me at marygrabar@marygrabar.com

Bilwick| 2.4.09 @ 9:42AM

Do you think Lear and his peiople ever sense the disconnect between their alleged devotion to the anti-statist, classical-liberal Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, and their loyalty to the very pro-statist pseudo-liberalism of the Democratic Party? Just wondering.

Pancake| 2.4.09 @ 9:48AM

Right on!!

I would only change predicted to foretold in the last paragraph.

Tenn Slim| 2.4.09 @ 10:45AM

ALL
From the Midwest, on the Big Muddy.
We understood the above, fully, on Jan 20. It is sad that we did not understand fully on November 4.
HOWEVER, we get it, and how. The cotton will still get planted, the rice sown, the wheat harvested, and G.. is still in control. Yep. we messed up. Now, as in times past, we will not simply go into the night, rather we will stand for our rights, our G.. given Freedom, our fought for and attained Liberty. The Fly Over land still stands strong, able and willing. We will survive.
Oh, by the way, New Hampshire has a resolution that essentially says, No thanks to the Obama Nation.
G.. is with his creations, have no fear.
end

RM| 2.4.09 @ 11:08AM

To: Targeted4demise
You don’t' seem to understand us conservatives. We are principled people and we live our lives by those principles. To accept abortion for political convenience would go against one of our cardinal beliefs, the right to life. For conservatives it’s more about staying true than winning at all costs. Thanks for the offer though.

Marty| 2.4.09 @ 11:45AM

Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism" called the turn a year or 2 ago, just layer the cult of personality on top and you have American liberalism, 2009.

rw| 2.4.09 @ 12:04PM

Targeted4demise,

Yes, conservatives have a problem with killing the unborn, even more so with partial-birth abortion. But, conservatives are willing to take the issue to the ballot box and accept the results. Where as liberals know they will never win on this issue at the ballot box. Instead liberals like to do an end run around the constitution through activist judges whenever they don't get their way.

Appleby| 2.4.09 @ 12:43PM

Even here in Kanukistan the Honeymoon is fading fast ... the ghost of Pierre Trudeau smiles on King O and his memory is still putrefying in too many sets of nostrils up here to overcome their weak kneed rapture. This week's Smoot-Hawley pronouncement about "Buy American Only" coupled with the common dislike of Sanctimonious Twittery from the First Teacher's Pet, and when his magic Reebocks touch down in Ottawa on the 19th, saith the RCMP, there shall be NO busloads of worshippers on Parliament Hill and the brat will not appear to the lumpenproletariat. He will only talk to those people who are about to remind him that the USA gets a very large proportion of their gas and oil from up here and if he wants a Trade War, they're ready to play. [I'd love to use the word paleface but I can't figure out how to fit it in.]

bill carson| 2.4.09 @ 12:45PM

I don't mind saying that I want Obama to fail, without qualification. Anyone who makes international funding of even more abortions around the world his first priority should fail.

Additionally, any politician, from any party, who stakes his power claims based upon a personality cult as Obama has, should fail too. No good ever comes from worshiping a personality cult figure.

tony| 2.4.09 @ 1:03PM

Targeted4demise:

I am a Catholic who also happens to be pro-life. I do not wear my religion on my sleeve and while many Evangelicals do, I've yet to meet one who felt compelled to try and change me. What Evangelicals and all Christians want more than anything else is to be left alone. It seems that they are truly your natural allies.

So the question is what to do about abortion. I would submit to you that while abortion and the rights of the unborn are uppermost in the thoughts of many Christian pro-lifers, there is so much more to what we believe. For me, it's not even a primary issue because before we can get to the point that poster RW suggests, allowing state legislatures to vote on the issue as the 10th amendment requires, we need to capture a majority on the Supreme Court and overturn Roe v. Wade.

Again, Christians want to be left alone. They want to be able to send their kids to school and not have a secular, pro-homosexual, anti-religion curriculum shoved down their throats. They don't want government taking an ever increasing cut of what they earn from their pay checks. They don't want the UN enforcing radical environmental policies designed to destabilize our free market system. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture.

All too often, it is the pro-lifers who are lectured about the need to be tolerant and open-minded. I think it's high time that those who are doing the lecturing ask themselves what they've done to come to an accord with those who do not share their views.

Rick Josey| 2.4.09 @ 3:16PM

Right on the money, Lisa. To think that anyone of this day and age would glorify or worship a man is amazing. But to see the fawning and adulation of the news media itself is something pathetic to behold.

It's really going to get interesting when Obama's policies fail and his followers start rationalizing those situations. Meanwhile, Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck and others can turn up the heat and continue to expose the ridiculous things the liberal loons are doing. Most importantly, their worship of a flawed leader.

Me, I'll stick with worshipping the one true God. His creation is still working like clockwork. That's a lot more than one can say for Obama's short transition efforts.

www.PatriotHangout.com

Targeted4demise| 2.4.09 @ 3:31PM

Tony and RM just answer one question. Do we need a viable second party in America ?

Alan Brooks| 2.4.09 @ 4:02PM

Obama 's administration HAS to succeed and be re-elected, or we'll have more riots in Watts, Detroit, Newark, etc.

Brian B| 2.4.09 @ 4:25PM

"But no, you'd rather argue with me for accepting the reality of legal abortion, than put aside our differences and fight against the real menace to our nation,the current nuts in power. "

Leaving aside the discussion regarding principles and human life; except for a few of the largest metropolitan areas, where conservatives are uncompetetive anyway, the pro life position is a long-proven political winner.
If pro abortion conservatives and libertarians want to forge a viable second party with the rest of us why don't they quit whining about an issue that is a winner for us and try fighting against the real enemy themselves?

Alan Brooks| 2.4.09 @ 5:00PM

libertarian morality might surprise you. many of them like to party, so you'll find little conservatism in them to work with.
i've seen it all-- but will let you find out the hard way.

tony| 2.4.09 @ 5:17PM

Target4demise:

Let me guess. I say yes, then you tell me we must either jettison Evangelical Christians or tamp down the morality stuff. What I would appreciate is a response to what I wrote. I got the sense from your post that you're up for an intelligent discussion, but we shouldn't talk past each other. So once you respond to what I wrote, then I will respond to what you write, and so forth.

WRTolkas| 2.4.09 @ 5:23PM

Here is one of the best discussions I have read in many a day. Lack of insults, meeting of like-minds, humor, religion, and intelligent dialog of differences. Gosh, we must be conservatives.

Be safe.

r| 2.4.09 @ 5:53PM

Here you can find a photo of Obama with his very own halo!
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/obamas-new-bid-to-tame-wall-street-excess/2009/02/05/1233423348437.html

Alan Brooks| 2.4.09 @ 6:00PM

yeah, people dont really want to talk at cross- purposes, but their bloated egos force them to.

Quartermaster| 2.4.09 @ 6:10PM

Targeted4Demise doesn't understand that abortion is a menace in its own right, and the country is in the first stage of suffering for allowing it to continue for over 35 years.

tgt4demo| 2.4.09 @ 6:44PM

We must be a party of many big tents. There are worst things than softening the language of our pro life plank; they are happening now. A degenerate Hollywood is more emboldened that ever, and will push things even further. Minds can be polluted by a pornographic culture. They seek to make it routine. Can't we maybe express some concern for the young women exploited by that industry. It is not a pretty story. Many of these girls are afflicted of mental disorders that strike young women these days. The predators of porn seek them out and ruin them. There is a moral issue even our airhead suburban women might respond to. Then connect this billion dollar industry(much more under the table money to be added) to the democrat party, especially in Kalipornia. They give money to all sorts of left and radical groups. I suspect if the ACLU ever divulged its donor list they'd be shown to benefit quite nicely from this degenerate industry. And, I am no prude. This should be our morality issue. As far as abortion elimination being a winner I am sorry, but do not agree. It and the embryonic stem cell matter have damaged the party with suburban women. Even in South Dakota they voted out a severely limiting abortion law. Our new , rebuilding message must somehow rope in a party of many big tents. Tony why doesn't your American Catholic Church do what it used to do and emphasis the concept of babies being born in wedlock. They seem elated by the out of wedlock birth rates of guess which group of newcomers to our shores. My Catholic friends new you make a baby, you marry and raise the baby. Actually, tamp up the morality stuff, the responsible behavior stuff, but in a different manner, new voice and perspective. But preaching the word of the lord to eastern seaboard, cosmopolitan liberals and moderates won't. And it won't do it in the midwest and the southwest. The GOP has what 41 senators ? 177 members in the house ? How low we gotta go ? Once again, many big tents and we save America. Maybe.

bob montgomery| 2.4.09 @ 7:59PM

Time to issue a fiat putting cap on Hollywood compensation.

tony| 2.4.09 @ 8:29PM

tgt4demo:

I simply disagre with any analysis concluding that we must reach out to liberals. That is a waste of time. Think about what we have to do to get libs on our side; a total capitulation of our principles. Besides, why would a liberal vote for a republican enunciating liberal values when they can just vote for the genuine article.

Poll after poll shows that there are many more people who regard themselves as conservative than liberal. The way to win is to stand strong on ALL conservative principles. For example, for 2010, we need to run candidates who are absolutely committed to the concept of limited government. When conservatives articulate their views in a heartfelt manner, they succeed. When they are perceived as wishy-washy like Sen. McCain, they lose. The record is very clear on this.

jd| 2.5.09 @ 1:18AM

Reaching out to the liberals is exactly what the GOP has done in the past two elections and especially this past election. McCain was not conservative and certainly he was no Reagan Conservative. The moderate "can't we all get along" types such as McCain, Specter, Collins and so on, have brought our party to its knees. It is time to get back to what actually made the GOP a viable alternative. But our course of [renewed] action cannot be centered in political concepts and a well worded conservative agenda. There needs to to be the accompaniment of action and that action needs to be the defining polemic in the debate typified by "rgiht" and "left." The notion of "compassionate conservative" had a certain rhetorical resonance but it was never actually put into action. The Dems understand that all the action they need is that which causes one to hope for more. The problems are never solved. Only the voter is pacified.

The Conservative has no clue as to how to act compassionately, a course of action that is our only alternative. But, for starters, lets get rid of the likes of McCain.

John Thomas| 2.5.09 @ 4:21AM

All human attempts to make a perfect world fail - have always failed - and end in disillusionment, or maybe tyranny (Russian revolution, Hitler, whatever). But there will always be another one, since hope springs eternal in the human breast. Obamaism is just the latest dream. It, also, will end badly.

Dave| 2.5.09 @ 6:36AM

Does the thinnest resume include a passing grade in an undergraduate course in economics?

SmalltownOhioan| 2.5.09 @ 7:44AM

You've nailed it, Ms. Fabrizio.
Dems have a long history of worshipping their secular saints, from FDR to JFK and not to O. Such worship falls hard and fast in the face of politics as usual.
As John Thomas just wrote, "It will end badly."
From the Anglican Book of Common Prayer: " Come back, ye children of men."

SmalltownOhioan| 2.5.09 @ 7:46AM

"...and now to O." (Sorry.)

Don L| 2.5.09 @ 8:15AM

A famous quote I just made up:

Government without God, is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the bread.

The purpose of the secular religion is but one - to thwart and destroy Gods plan to save souls. If yo havent noticed the liberal's sacraments all used to be called sins and the atheists who dont believe in God spend all their time and energy fighting him.
St. Paul spelled it out -so did C.S.Lewis. The left is the agent of Satan, who pretends not to exist, but is winning his war in America. The list of lost battles is too long to list, but the election of an openly aggressive advocate of infanticide is a good place to start - and no one seems to care.

tgted4extinct| 2.5.09 @ 8:22AM

Tony, everybody who does not see everything your way or Rushbo's way is not necessarily a liberal. You can be conservative and vote for prescription drug plan, ever hear of Saxy Chambliss. You are applying a litmus test on every issue under the sun, and if you disagree one time you are a bum. Here in the northeast a lot of people besides republicans are tired of being pushed around by public sector unions. This would be a good place for a second party that can compete in all 50 states to make a move. But, it might require a less than absolutist stance on certain social issues. You movement conservatives will not allow this to happen. You are absolutist, but me I am pragmatic. I sent a few bucks to republican candidates who are far more conservative than me on certain issues. You would never send a nickel to a republican candidate who deviates from your litmus tests in even one area. Thus, the beat and beatings go on for the GOP.

Cedarbend| 2.5.09 @ 8:40AM

As to watering down conservative principles so as to win over liberals, that won't work....they just get emboldened. I think much of the reason why our country is in the state it is lies with the clergy watering down the message as far back as the 70s....now it's rampant. Much of Christianity is about feeling good about yourselves, empowering yourselves (see Joel Osteen) not committing your life to Christ for His sake and the Kingdom (respect for life, love for others, etc.). Our country IS Christian. They've fooled a lot of people into thinking that it isn't. You would think the majority is black or muslim or gay (or, in a "lucky" trifecta, all three!). it's not.

Karcarius| 2.5.09 @ 11:44AM

I wish I could see the comparison between this and Amos and Andy.Unfortunately the NAACP had it pulled and I never got to watch it.Amazing how left-wing organizations prevent you from watching certain things.And they think we conservatives try to censor things.

t4e| 2.5.09 @ 2:47PM

Cedarbend, nobody is asking you to water down your principles, just don't ask me to water down mine. The, we must coexist is a political party that takes on the liberals and democrats. Why can't you fight side by side with me against them because I believe outlawing abortion is a futile enterprise ? And, do you know how many of these Christians are liberal Cederbend ?The American Catholic Church wants open borders . Do you ? What is more damaging to our future ? RoevWade or open borders?

t4e| 2.5.09 @ 2:54PM

And Cedarbend, 20 per cent of so called conservatives in exit polls voted OBama. Wait till he forms his rural America Acorn and community outreach, it will be 50 per cent at least. You need to get beyond talk radio, those guys do not have the answers. And, how many of these Christian believe in God, as you know it. Flash oodles of them believe in something they call " my God ". Wake up man. Do you know what time it is ? Do you even care ?

Andrea Freiboden| 2.6.09 @ 1:52PM

Obama-ism is more like Stalinism or Maoism than Hitlerism.

Sandi| 2.6.09 @ 4:39PM

Lisa, this article is PERFECT!!!! Thanks so very, very much! It's exactly how I'd hope you would write it! God Bless You and your work for Him!!!

Bilwick| 2.6.09 @ 5:01PM

I think those of us in the pro-freedom camp should reach out to liberals.

I want to reach out, with one hand, and seize the liberal paw trying to lift my wallet; while my other hand, in the form of a fist, reaches out swiftly to liberal nose.

Figuratively speaking, of course.

Gazinya| 2.7.09 @ 7:59PM

There is one thing the libs can count on. When the time comes they will be in complete control of this country and will never have to suffer those horrible Christians again. They will not have to have ANY special elections to continue on doing their godless work.

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Editor’s Note: As the nuclear crisis with North Korea worsens, a little-known part of the story is how one of America’s favorite right-wing financial benefactors, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, secretly funneled money to the communist leadership in Pyongyang while also supporting the Bush Family in the United States.
Though holding an American residency permit and boasting about the influence that his Washington Times gives him in the U.S. capital, Moon breezily ignored U.S. legal embargoes against financial dealings with North Korea’s dictatorship, as Consortiumnews.com reported on Oct. 11, 2000, less than a month before the election that restored the Bush Family to power: (editors Note – Consortium News)
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s business empire, which includes the conservative Washington Times, paid millions of dollars to North Korea’s communist leaders in the early 1990s when the hard-line government needed foreign currency to finance its weapons programs, according to U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents.
The payments included a $3 million “birthday present” to current communist leader Kim Jong Il and offshore payments amounting to “several tens of million dollars” to the previous communist dictator, Kim Il Sung, the partially declassified documents said.
Moon apparently was seeking a business foothold in North Korea. But the transactions also raise legal questions for Moon and could cast a shadow on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, given the Bush family’s longstanding financial and political ties to Moon and his organization.
Besides making alleged payments to North Korea’s communist leaders, the 80-year-old founder of the South Korean-based Unification Church has funneled large sums of money, possibly millions of dollars as well, to former President George H.W. Bush.
One well-placed former leader of Moon’s Unification Church told me that the total earmarked for former President Bush was $10 million. The father of the Republican nominee has declined to say how much Moon’s organization actually paid him for speeches and other services in Asia, the United States and South America.
At one Moon-sponsored speech in Argentina in 1996, Bush declared, “I want to salute Reverend Moon,” whom Bush praised as “the man with the vision.”
Bush made these speeches at a time when Moon was expressing intensely anti-American views. In his own speeches, Moon termed the United States “Satan’s harvest” and claimed that American women descended from a “line of prostitutes.”
During this year’s presidential campaign, Moon’s Washington Times has attacked the Clinton-Gore administration for failing to take more aggressive steps to defend against North Korea’s missile program. The newspaper called the administration’s decisions an “abdication of responsibility for national security.”
A Helping Hand
Yet, in the 1990s when North Korea was scrambling for the resources to develop missiles and other advanced weaponry, Moon was among a small group of outside businessmen quietly investing in North Korea.
Moon’s activities attracted the attention of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for monitoring potential military threats to the United States.
Though historically an ardent anticommunist, Moon negotiated a business deal in 1991 with Kim Il Sung, the longtime communist leader, the DIA documents said.
The deal called for construction of a hotel complex in Pyongyang as well as a new Holy Land at the site of Moon’s birth in North Korea, one document said. The DIA said the deal sprang from a face-to-face meeting between Moon and Kim Il Sung in North Korea from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8, 1991.
“These talks took place secretly, without the knowledge of the South Korean government,” the DIA wrote on Feb. 2, 1994. “In the original deal with Kim [Il Sung], Moon paid several tens of million dollars as a down-payment into an overseas account,” the DIA said in a cable dated Aug. 14, 1994.
The DIA said Moon’s organization also delivered money to Kim Il Sung’s son and successor, Kim Jong Il.
“In 1993, the Unification Church sold a piece of property located in Pennsylvania,” the DIA reported on Sept. 9, 1994. “The profit on the sale, approximately $3 million was sent through a bank in China to the Hong Kong branch of the KS [South Korean] company ‘Samsung Group.’ The money was later presented to Kim Jung Il [Kim Jong Il] as a birthday present.”
After Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994 and his succession by his son, Kim Jong Il, Moon dispatched his longtime aide, Bo Hi Pak, to ensure that the business deals were still on track with Kim Jong Il “and his coterie,” the DIA reported.
“If necessary, Moon authorized Pak to deposit a second payment for Kim Jong Il,” the DIA wrote.
The DIA declined to elaborate on the documents that it released to me under a Freedom of Information Act request. “As for the documents you have, you have to draw your own conclusions,” said DIA spokesman, U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Stainbrook.
Moon’s Right-Hand Man
Contacted in Seoul, South Korea, Bo Hi Pak, a former publisher of The Washington Times, denied that payments were made to individual North Korean leaders and called “absolutely untrue” the DIA’s description of the $3 million land sale benefiting Kim Jong Il.
But Bo Hi Pak acknowledged that Moon met with North Korean officials and negotiated business deals with them in the early 1990s. Pak said the North Korean business investments were structured through South Korean entities.
“Rev. Moon is not doing this in his own name,” said Pak.
Pak said he went to North Korea in 1994, after Kim Il Sung’s death, only to express “condolences” to Kim Jong Il on behalf of Moon and his wife. Pak denied that another purpose of the trip was to pass money to Kim Jong Il or to his associates.
Asked about the seeming contradiction between Moon’s avowed anti-communism and his friendship with leaders of a communist state, Pak said, “This is time for reconciliation. We’re not looking at ideological differences. We are trying to help them out” with food and other humanitarian needs.
Samsung officials said they could find no information in their files about the alleged $3 million payment.
North Korean officials clearly valued their relationship with Moon. In February of this year [2000], on Moon’s 80th birthday, Kim Jong Il sent Moon a gift of rare wild ginseng, an aromatic root used medicinally, Reuters reported.
Because of the long-term U.S. embargo against North Korea – eased only within the past several months – Moon’s alleged payments to the communist leaders raise potential legal issues for Moon, a South Korean citizen who is a U.S. permanent resident alien.
“Nobody in the United States was supposed to be providing funding to anybody in North Korea, period, under the Treasury (Department’s) sanction regime,” said Jonathan Winer, former deputy assistant secretary of state handling international crime.
The U.S. embargo of North Korea dates back to the Korean War. With a few exceptions for humanitarian goods, the embargo barred trade and financial dealings between North Korea and “all U.S. citizens and permanent residents wherever they are located, … and all branches, subsidiaries and controlled affiliates of U.S. organizations throughout the world.”
Moon became a permanent resident of the United States in 1973, according to Justice Department records. Bo Hi Pak said Moon has kept his “green card” status. Though often in South Korea and South America, Moon maintains a residence near Tarrytown, north of New York City, and controls dozens of affiliated U.S. companies.
Direct payments to foreign leaders in connection with business deals also could prompt questions about possible violations of the U.S. Corrupt Practices Act, a prohibition against overseas bribery.
Alleged Brainwashing
Moon’s followers regard him as the second Messiah and grant him broad power over their lives, even letting him pick their spouses. Critics, including ex-Unification Church members, have accused Moon of brainwashing young recruits and living extravagantly while his followers have little.
Around the world, Moon’s business relationships long have been cloaked in secrecy. His sources of money have been mysteries, too, although witnesses – including his former daughter-in-law – have come forward in recent years and alleged widespread money-laundering within the organization.
Moon “demonstrated contempt for U.S. law every time he accepted a paper bag full of untraceable, undeclared cash collected from true believers” who carried the money in from overseas, wrote his ex-daughter-in-law, Nansook Hong, in her 1998 book, In the Shadows of the Moons.
Since Moon stepped onto the international stage in the 1970s, he has used his fortune to build political alliances and to finance media, academic and political institutions.
In 1978, Moon was identified by the congressional “Koreagate” investigation as an operative of the South Korean CIA and part of an influence-buying scheme aimed at the U.S. government. Moon denied the charges.
Though Moon later was convicted on federal tax evasion charges, his political influence continued to grow when he founded The Washington Times in 1982. The unabashedly conservative newspaper won favor with presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush by backing their policies and hammering their opponents.
In 1988, when Bush was trailing early in the presidential race, the Times spread a baseless rumor that the Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis had undergone psychiatric treatment. The Moon-affiliated American Freedom Coalition also distributed millions of pro-Bush flyers.
Bush personally expressed his gratitude. When Wesley Pruden was appointed The Washington Times’ editor-in-chief in 1991, Bush invited Pruden to a private White House lunch “just to tell you how valuable the Times has become in Washington, where we read it every day.” [Washington Times, May 17, 1992].
Moon’s Vatican
While Bush was hosting Pruden in the White House, Pruden’s boss was opening his financial and business channels to North Korea. According to the DIA, Moon’s North Korean deal was ambitious and expensive.
“There was an agreement regarding economic cooperation for the reconstruction of KN’s [North Korea's] economy which included establishment of a joint venture to develop tourism at Kimkangsan, KN [North Korea]; investment in the Tumangang River Development; and investment to construct the light industry base at Wonsan, KN. It is believed that during their meeting Mun [Moon] donated 450 billion yen to KN,” one DIA report said.
In late 1991, the Japanese yen traded at about 130 yen to the U.S. dollar, meaning Moon’s investment would have been about $3.5 billion, if the DIA information is correct.
Moon’s aide Pak denied that Moon’s investments ever approached that size. Though Pak did not give an overall figure, he said the initial phase of an automobile factory was in the range of $3 million to $6 million.
The DIA depicted Moon’s business plans in North Korea as much grander. The DIA valued the agreement for hotels in Pyongyang and the resort in Kumgang-san, alone, at $500 million. The plans also called for creation of a kind of Vatican City covering Moon’s birthplace.
“In consideration of Mun’s [Moon's] economic cooperation, Kim [Il Sung] granted Mun a 99-year lease on a 9 square kilometer parcel of land located in Chongchu, Pyonganpukto, KN. Chongchu is Mun’s birthplace and the property will be used as a center for the Unification Church. It is being referred to as the Holy Land by Unification Church believers and Mun [h]as been granted extraterritoriality during the life of the lease.”
North Korea granted Moon some smaller favors, too. Four months after Moon’s meeting with Kim Il Sung, editors from The Washington Times were allowed to interview the reclusive North Korean communist in what the Times called “the first interview he has granted to an American newspaper in many years.”
Later in 1992, the Times was again rallying to President George H.W. Bush’s defense. The newspaper stepped up attacks against Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh as his investigation homed in on Bush and his inner circle. Walsh considered the Times’ relentless criticism a distraction to the criminal investigation, according to his book, Firewall.
That fall, in the 1992 campaign, the Times turned its editorial guns on Bush’s new rival, Bill Clinton. Some of the anti-Clinton articles raised questions about Clinton’s patriotism, even suggesting that the Rhodes scholar might have been recruited as a KGB agent during a collegiate trip to Moscow.
A Bush Salute
Bush’s loss of the White House did not end his relationship with Moon’s organization. Out of office, Bush agreed to give paid speeches to Moon-supported groups in the United States, Asia and South America. In some cases, Barbara Bush joined in the events.
During this period, Moon grew increasingly hateful about the United States and many of its ideals.
In a speech to his followers on Aug. 4, 1996, Moon vowed to liquidate American individuality, declaring that his movement would “swallow entire America.” Moon said Americans who insisted on “their privacy and extreme individualism … will be digested.”
Nevertheless, former President Bush continued to work for Moon’s organization. In November 1996, the former U.S. president spoke at a dinner in Buenos Aires, Argentina, launching Moon’s South American newspaper, Tiempos del Mundo.
“I want to salute Reverend Moon,” Bush declared, according to a transcript of the speech published in The Unification News, an internal church newsletter.
“A lot of my friends in South America don’t know about The Washington Times, but it is an independent voice,” Bush said. “The editors of The Washington Times tell me that never once has the man with the vision interfered with the running of the paper, a paper that in my view brings sanity to Washington, D.C.”
Contrary to Bush’s claim, a number of senior editors and correspondents have resigned in protest of editorial interference from Moon’s operatives. Bush has refused to say how much he was paid for the speech in Buenos Aires or others in Asia and the United States.
Going After Gore
During the 2000 election cycle, Moon’s newspaper has taken up the cause of Bush’s son and mounted harsh attacks against his rival, Vice President Al Gore.
In 1999, the Times played a prominent role in promoting a bogus quote attributed to Gore about his work on the toxic waste issue. In a speech in Concord, New Hampshire, Gore had referred to a toxic waste case in Toone, Tennessee, and said, “that was the one that started it all.”
The New York Times and The Washington Post garbled the quote, claiming that Gore had said, “I was the one that started it all.”
The Washington Times took over from there, accusing Gore of being clinically “delusional.” The Times called the vice president “a politician who not only manufactures gross, obvious lies about himself and his achievements but appears to actually believe these confabulations.” [Washington Times, Dec. 7, 1999]
Even after other papers corrected the false quote, The Washington Times continued to use it. The notion of Gore as an exaggerator, often based on this and other mis-reported incidents, became a powerful Republican “theme” as Gov. Bush surged ahead of Gore in the presidential preference polls.
Republicans also have made the North Korean threat an issue against the Clinton-Gore administration. Last year, a report by a House Republican task force warned that during the 1990s, North Korea and its missile program emerged as a nuclear threat to Japan and possibly the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
“This threat has advanced considerably over the past five years, particularly with the enhancement of North Korea’s missile capabilities,” the Republican task force said. “Unlike five years ago, North Korea can now strike the United States with a missile that could deliver high explosive, chemical, biological, or possibly nuclear weapons.”
Moon’s newspaper has joined in excoriating the Clinton-Gore administration for postponing a U.S. missile defense system to counter missiles from North Korea and other “rogue states.” Gov. George W. Bush favors such a system.
“To its list of missed opportunities, the Clinton-Gore administration can now add the abdication of responsibility for national security,” a Times editorial said.
“By deciding not to begin construction of the Alaskan radar, Mr. Clinton has indisputably delayed eventual deployment beyond 2005, when North Korea is estimated to be capable of launching an intercontinental missile against the United States.” [Washington Times, Sept. 5, 2000]
The Washington Times did not note that its founder – who continues to subsidize the newspaper with tens of millions of dollars a year – had defied a U.S. trade embargo aimed at containing the military ambitions of North Korea.
By supplying money at a time when North Korea was desperate for hard currency, Moon helped deliver the means for the communist state to advance exactly the strategic threat that Moon’s newspaper now says will require billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to thwart.
That money bought Moon influence inside North Korea. It is less clear how much influence Moon and his associates will have inside a George W. Bush White House, given Moon’s longstanding — though little known — support for the Bush family.
To see two of the DIA documents, click here.

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