MONEY AND POWER | 2006-08-23
When the Practical Man stops shouting, "Power comes from the barrel of a GUN!" He goes on to shout, "Politics is all about
MONEY!"
Every time I head this I think of a guy I was drinking with in Washngton at the beginning of hte Reagan Administration. He
was from California, and his SALARY was half a million bucks a year. As you know, a business executive's salary is just
icing onteh cake. His REAL money comesf rom stock options and the like.
This man was literally choking back tears. He had been denied a presidential appointment at about the level of Deputy
Assistant Secretary of some department. He had to go back to old job and his millions a year.
That job he was crying about being denied paid about sixty thousand, with no options. But it represented his opportunity at
some POWER. Being a Deputy Asistant Secretary of something is not exactly like being appointed Fuhrer. But it represented
a chance for him to have SOME influence over policy in one area in the most powerful country on earth.
No, politics is not about money. Money is in California. Money is in New York City. Washington is all about POWER.
If you have no water, life is all about water. You simply cannot obtain power if you are dying of thirst.
Water HELPS. But politics is not all about water.
In Washington, good looks help. When Steve Forbes was running for president, I pronounced his obituary early:
"He is just too UGLY to be elected."
But power is NOT all about good looks.
In Washington, money is essential. But power is NOT all about money. When you are dying of thirst, there is almost nothing
you won't do for water.
In some cases people with power in Washington get desperate for money. When they sell out, the Practical man shouts, "See,
politics is all about MONEY!"
In the third world, when an American DOES got so desperate for money they can bribe him, they MARVEL at how LITTLE money the
Ameican sells out FOR.
This should tell you something nobody ever seems to notice. Third world politics IS about money. They routinely trade
power for BIG money. If American politics WERE about money, it would be money in stupendous amounts. If the Practical Man
had any sense, he would realize that the example he is quoting, sellouts for what, in third world terms, is a pittance, demonstrates that this is a rare case, a desperate case.
Money is watched like a hawk in Washington. The best work I did in intelligence and in politics COST me money. If those who HAD the money, those who were "on the budget," those who were on record, had done their jobs, what I did would not have been necessary. Real intelligence work had to be done AROUND the intelligence bureaucracy.
Exactly the same rule applies in real politics. Those who raise all that money are ON THE RECORD. Nixon's disastrous slush fund was not unique.
Those who RAISE money are experts in RAISING money. They look at the latest headlines and go get money to Do Something About the Crisis by hitting their usual round of big-money supporters or sending out a fund mailing. No one who raises money in big amounts knows or cares about preventing the NEXT crisis, because none of tehe people on mailing lists, who live by today's headlines, none of the big money types, who also live by the headlines, want to be bored by planations of what is coming around the pike.
George Soros spent $27 million to defeat his old enemy, George Bush, Jr. He had not the slightest effect onthe election.
Like all big-money types, he started too LATE. He started when Bush was already at the top, headed for power.
James Buckley, brother of Willaim Buckley, was senator from New York. He is one of three Buckley brothers who detest me.
In the New York Democratic primary two candidates were contending to run against James Buckley for his Senate seat. One was
the one who later beat Buckley, and the ohter was Bella Abzug. It was a VERY close contest. But Bella, backed by the
militant majority of far-left Democrats, lost by a hair.
If Bella had been nominted, Buckley would have been re-elected easily. When the mainline candidate beat Bella, Buckley spent
a fortune and lost his seat.
I could have kept Buckley's Senate seat for him. I would have filtered some well-placed money into Bella's campaign and
gotten HER the nomination. Once a strong candidate was nominated to oppose him, Buckley started TOO LATE to spend millions
to win, and lost.
Money can be USEFUL to power. Atrillery can be useful in war.
But war is not artillery and money is not power.