I've recently been doing research on a number of threads digging out information on right-wing dirty tricks. It's getting clearer and clearer that the Republican dirty tricksters and direct-mail scam artists all know each know each other and form a network with extensive cross-connections.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1154535#1156503One of the most striking findings that has emerged is that a small subset of this network -- consisting of people who were involved in the production of the Willie Horton ad during George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign against Michael Dukasis -- has multiple links with a man who was closely involved in the production of "Stolen Honor."
There are many similarities between "Stolen Honor" and the Willie Horton ad. Both are smear-jobs. Both were produced on behalf of a Bush campaign but in such a way that they could not be tied directly to the campaign. And the elder Bush's campaign manager, Lee Atwater, was a long-time friend of Karl Rove. (In fact, it was Rove who first introduced Atwater to Bush.)
The man who links the producers of the Willie Horton ad to "Stolen Honor" is Charlie Gerow, a small-time politician in Harrisburg, PA. Gerow is named in various sources as a spokesman or publicist for "Stolen Honor," but he is clearly more than that. For example, the only address ever given for Red, White and Blue Productions, which made "Stolen Honor," is c/o Gerow's public relations firm, Quantum Communications. Also, Gerow has connections in the Republican Party and among anti-government groups that Carlton Sherwood of Red, White and Blue Productions lacks.
When Gerow ran unsuccessfully in a Republican congressional primary in 1998, he was helped by a few prominent figures on the right, such as Grover Norquist, who may have been attracted by his anti-government agenda. However, when Gerow ran again in 2000, his list of contributors included several notable out-of-state figures with no obvious reason for taking an interest in a two-bit conservative from rural Pennsylvania. The names in question are Lewis Lehrman, Jack A. Abramoff, Frank J. Donatelli, and Ronald Robinson.
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/charlie_gerow.aspI've been puzzling over those names for a month now, and I finally think I've found the common denominator. It turns out that all four men have ties with one or another of the major figures behind the Willie Horton ad -- David Carmen, Craig Shirley, and Floyd Brown. Floyd Brown was the political director of Americans for Bush, which commissioned the ad. David Carmen is CEO of the Carmen Group, which produced the ad. Craig Shirley handled the public relations. (Brown and Shirley were also later connected with the anti-Clinton smears of the 90's.)
http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/08/25/horton/print.htmlLew Lehrman has a long history of involvement in right-wing Republican causes (including investing in George W. Bush's failed Arbusto Energy in 1977), but he is probably most notable as the founder in 1983 of an important pro-Reagan lobbying group, Citizens for America. Jack Abramoff became executive director of this group in 1984, while David Carmen played a major role as head of its Policy and Communications Group.
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/groupwatch/cfa.phphttp://www.lew82.com/candidate/citizens/main_print.htmlRon Robinson has been a leading figure in two different right-wing groups along with Floyd Brown. He was director of Brown's own organization Citizens United, and he was president of Young America's Foundation, of which Brown was executive director.
Frank Donatelli is an old acquaintance of Ron Robinson's, going back to their Young Americans for Freedom days in the 1970's. (Young America's Foundation was originally a spin-off from Young Americans for Freedom.)
http://hoohila.stanford.edu/firingline/programView.php?programID=382Donatelli has some other interesting connections. According to an official summary of his career, "He served on White House Chief of Staff James Baker's team that negotiated presidential debates in early 1984 and ran Baker's 1978 campaign for Attorney General of Texas. He also assisted Baker in the 2000 Florida recount on behalf of the Bush-Cheney team. Frank was a senior advisor to Bob Dole in 1996 and previously worked in the presidential campaigns of George Bush and Ronald Reagan."
http://www.mwcllc.com/people/individuals/donatelli_f.aspIn 2003, Frank Donatelli, Craig Shirley, and a man named George Terwilliger formed an organization called Americans for a Better Country, dedicated to re-electing George W. Bush. It was this group that recently pressured the FEC to interpret the guidelines for Section 527 non-profit groups in a way that would have radically limited their effectiveness: "According to People For the American Way, 'The chilling effect of the proposed rules on free speech cannot be overstated. Merely expressing an opinion about an officeholder's policies could turn a nonprofit group overnight into a federally regulated political committee with crippling fund-raising restrictions.' "
http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000089.php(For more on Donatelli and Terwilliger, please see my posts on the DU thread at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1146495#1161950)
Now, none of this proves that, say, Frank Donatelli and Craig Shirley were the actual instigators of "Stolen Honor." Even the fact that the National Rifle Association, rumored to be a possible source of funding for the film, is a client of Shirley's does not constitute proof. (
http://www.stealthpacs.org/agent.cfm?agent_id=204)
However, the density of the network of connections is, at the very least, highly suggestive and warrants further research.
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