American Conservative Union Endorsements For Sale

Read it and weep, conservatives. I read it all to be certain. And here's the letter. The conclusion is inescapable due to what both contain.

The letter specifically mentions editorials, including by David Keene. The smoking gun is that, when Fed Ex didn't bite on the 2.1 million dollar deal:

Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and / or other members of the ACU’s Board of Directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)

Keene put his and ACU's names on a document backing UPS. That means his position, or backing was, in effect, for sale.

In the three-page letter asking for money on June 30, the conservative group backed FedEx. After FedEx says it rejected the offer, Keene signed onto a two-page July 15 letter backing UPS. Keene did not return a message left on his cell phone.

This is what happens as a result of a conservative lobby that road Reagan's coat-tails to Washington and stayed too long. Obviously, the American Conservative Union is now as much a part of Washington given this pay for play move, than they are about principles.

Activists who support the ACU, especially those that have given it money, should be appalled. Keene has to go if they ever expect to have any credibility, again and the entire organization overhauled. Though, I suspect as long as it is a part of DC that is a waste of time.

The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as “pay for play” — was contained in a private letter to FedEx that was provided to POLITICO.

The letter exposes the practice by some political interest groups of taking stands not for reasons of pure principle, as their members and supporters might assume, but also in part because a sponsor is paying big money.

Comments

[syn]

When CPAC promoted Grover Norquist and his Islamist associations I lost all respect for David Keen.

RONPAULS!!! to the right of me and OBAMARONS!!!! to the left; good, decent people are stuck in between.

[Brad Schwartze]

All this Republican can say is to throw-me-under-the-bus "conservatives" like David Keene is this:

Not my problem. Also: Karma. It affects more than just Republicans.

[Brad Schwartze]

Even better: Grover Norquist's fingerprints are on this pay-to-play scheme. This means that the Arizona GOP, among others, now has an escape hatch vis-a-vis having to vote in a potential tax increase to help close AZ's budget deficit.

Michelle Malkin, your thoughts.

[RogerCfromSD]

As a "grassroots Conservative activist," I find this news to be very disappointing. It makes suspect any campaign with any group I might participate in from this point on. I believe in the principles espoused by President Reagan, and do not support groups blindly simply because they claim to be Conservative. Actions speak louder than words. This letter, and the action it represents, are deafening. And absolute NOT Conservative in spirit.

[Brad Schwartze]

"I believe in the principles espoused by President Reagan, and do not support groups blindly simply because they claim to be Conservative."

So did David Keene and Grover Norquist. Until they realized how PROFITABLE conservative principles were. BTW, I'm pretty sure Sarah's fanbase is pointing to this with glee.

[methinks]

http://gunowners.org/a062609.htm

Repubs are sadly useless. Now the same suspects who prevented any possible filibuster of a anti gun nut last month, will vote for another anti-gun nutter and proven racist. If Sotomayor cannot be voted against much less filibustered, the GOP will compromise and give away the store on anything, including health care socialism.

[seekeronos]

Yup. The GOP is a dead and useless party.

But conservatives are not out of the fight yet... we must continue the grass roots fight to restore this Republic, and bring her back to her Constitutional roots.

http://www.constitutionparty.org

[Rob Crawford]

All this does is prove some of the most basic tenets of conservatism:

o People are imperfect.
o Too much government power attracts corruption
o The way to protect against the first and limit the second is to sharply limit the power of the government.

[wally sandaver]

So let's eee. Because Keene (who works for a nongovernmental organization) is an unethical and corrupt, Judge Sotomayor is unethical and all government is corrupt. Okay. Sure. Those lines of reasoning will get you really far. So do all the recent philandering by sanctimonious supposedly Christian Repubican politicians also mean that Sotomayor is unethical and all government is corrupt? Please do tell.

[Michael]

This is yet another one of those "I'm so shocked the emperor has no clothes!!" moments for conservatives. Unfortunately the myopic conservatives of the Republican party are so intent on navel gazing and obstructionism the world is passing us by.

It seems every other day some pillar of the conservative movement is outed for ethical and moral lapses or good old fashioned greed.

This sort of thing along with overt racism, rampant cronyism, blatant opportunism and no clear stated vision for the future of the USA is why the Republican party no longer has any credibility or standing with the majority of Americans.

I suppose we can always fall back on the old favorite conservative canard that we tend to use whenever a conservative fails to live up to the purported conservative ethical standard: "He's not a real/true conservative" to make us all feel better for a few moments before the next fall from grace occurs.

[North Dallas Thirty]

The funny part is, Michael, that Republicans actually criticize people who break the rules.

You can't do that to the Obama Party that you so obediently serve.

[Jeff Dunham]

As a conservative, it kills me to see how the American Conservative Union is totally a sellout. But evidently, this sort of phoniness has been going on for a while. A writer, "JFK" wrote an article I saw last night about his time working at ACU and how they often changed their position to match a crowd: http://bit.ly/s1ojC . This seems like the next logical step.