Here is a nugget by way of Limited, Inc. and The Virginian-Pilot. It's a profile of just one of the current players involved in the tangled evils of Blackwater. His name is Joseph Schmitz, and he is the "chief operating officer and general counsel of the Prince Group," Blackwater's parent company.
It briefly traces his connection to scandals ranging from the predictable fraud and abuse at the Pentagon through a littany of less likely connections including Ed Meese, George Wallace, Joseph McCarthy, and Mary Kay LeTourneau!
I would have trouble believing one person could have connections to so many scandals, past and present, if this were a made for TV movie, yet our reality seems to have become exactly this twisted and unbelievable now.
The Virginian-Pilot writes:
JOSEPH SCHMITZ, 49, became chief operating officer and general counsel of the Prince Group in September 2005 after a stint as inspector general at the Defense Department.
Schmitz was the senior Pentagon official responsible for investigating waste, fraud and abuse. Now he faces a congressional inquiry into accusations that he quashed two criminal investigations of senior Bush administration officials. The inquiry is continuing, according to a spokeswoman for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Schmitz was a special assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese III in the Reagan administration. He was awarded the Defense Department Medal for Distinguished Public Service on his retirement from the Pentagon.
Schmitz’s father, John G. Schmitz, was a two-term Republican congressman from California and a prominent member of the John Birch Society, an ultra-conservative group that flowered during the Cold War. He ran for president in 1972 as the candidate of the American Independent Party after its founder, George Wallace, was paralyzed by a would-be assassin.
John Schmitz’s political career ended with the revelation that he had a mistress who bore two of his children. He then moved to Washington, where he bought a house once owned by Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Joseph Schmitz’s sister, Mary Kay LeTourneau, also became embroiled in a scandal. As a married teacher in Washington state, she went to prison after being convicted of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student with whom she ultimately had two children. The two have since married.
As Limited, Inc. writes:
Could you make things like this up? If you did in a novel, you would be denounced for creating Leftist caricatures. That Schmitz’s father’s career ended not because he was a racist and crazed semi-fascist, but because he had an affair with a younger student, speaks to the fact that there are congressional districts in which lunacy equals electability. So Joseph Schmitz was obviously set up to be an early achiever in the Great Bushian Post 9/11 Orgy. And party he did.
You can read more about life and times of Joseph Schmitz and other Blackwater figures online at Limited, Inc. and The Virginian-Pilot.