Remember them? Stolen photograph of two men getting married, etc.? Well, this morning the
Chicago Tribune had a front-page story about the group, where it came from, its scummy connections and funders, and so forth. I highly recommend reading the whole thing, though I'll excerpt some of the highlights below
Update [2005-4-10 14:36:19 by dmsilev]: Some of the links between DeLay, Abramoff, and USANext were discussed here a few months ago. Thanks to Google, I dug up the diary: Link. I haven't gone through all ~100 comments in that diary, but it goes into some more detail about the financial links.
Again, the source of this is
link, front page of the April 10 Chicago Tribune.
Jarvis is chairman of the United Seniors Association, an organization he markets as the small but scrappy conservative alternative to the venerable AARP. Brash and blunt, Jarvis has taken on a high profile in the capital this year--on television, in print and on the Internet--as he savages AARP for its opposition to President Bush's plan for private accounts within Social Security.
But the story of his fight with the nation's best-known seniors group is hardly one of David versus Goliath. The group is also known as USA Next and is funded primarily with millions of dollars from pharmaceutical and energy companies, among others.
The overall theme of the article. There's going to be lots of detail of where the money came from and how it's used, but these intro paragraphs pretty much sum up the whole thing.
USA Next's powerful connections, however, extend beyond contributors. In fiscal year 2003, other records show, USA Next mistakenly filed with the IRS a list of its top five contractors. The top contractor for that tax year, earning more than $1.3 million, was a firm whose founder is also a principal in another firm with strong ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
THis little oopsie may end up costing them. When you lift up the rock, all sorts of creepy crawlies are exposed and start scurrying around.
And United Seniors has packed its board with prominent Republican consultants over the years. Board members include Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist under investigation by the Justice Department and Congress who also has links to DeLay.
Everything seems to come back to Abramoff and DeLay in the end. This isn't highly reported on; I googled on 'Abramoff USANext' and only got ~40 hits, two of which were dKos diaries from February. For those keeping score at home, United Seniors is another name for USANext.
In the next two years, just as Congress and the White House worked out details for a prescription drug benefit for Medicare, United Seniors received $24.8 million from a single source, records show. A redacted copy of the tax filing obscures the name of the donor, other than the first letter, "P," in 2003. A $20.1 million donation was reported in 2002 from a single source, but that donor's name is completely blacked out.
Asked whether PhRMA was the donor, Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the trade group, said, "I'm not confirming it or denying it."
For his part, Jarvis simply said: "It is up to our donors whether they want to reveal gifts."
They don't.
$45 million in two years. That's quite a bit of money. Shame about the redacting, though the implication is clear that the money came from the drug industry.
Now the group has clawed its way into the Social Security debate with AARP as the primary adversary. To make its case, Jarvis has adopted the scorching tactics of negative campaign advertising and employed some of the best practitioners of political dark arts to do it.
His group has benefited from donations and consultant work from operatives and donors associated with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
"I'm trying to kill, destroy the bad public policy of AARP," Jarvis said.
Ah, the Swifties. Gee, I thought they were just a bunch of honorable war veterans upset with John Kerry. Now, you tell me they're a bunch of partisan political operatives? My illusions are shattered. My life is ruined. What's the next icon to fall? Will I learn that George Bush doesn't have Social Security's best interests at heart?
Sarcasm aside, it seems that more and more media people are treating the Swifties as smear artists, not people with a serious issue. Now, it's a crying shame that they didn't come to this revelation 8 months ago, but at least there's an inkling of an awakening.
United Seniors has shown lethal capacity. But its most notorious effort--an ad that showed two photos, one of two men kissing and the other of a soldier, with the not-so-subtle message that AARP supported the gay couple and not the soldier--may also be one that costs it dearly.
The couple in the photo recently sued USA Next and a subcontractor for $25 million, alleging defamation. Jarvis said his only regret is that his subcontractor didn't get a proper commercial release of the couple's photo.
And PhRMA, prodded by a strongly worded letter from Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is openly gay, condemned the ad as well. "PhRMA and its member companies are absolutely opposed to discrimination and appeals to prejudice based on sexual orientation," Johnson, the spokesman said.
The ad, the photograph, and the subsequent lawsuit have received extensive coverage here and elsewhere in Left Blogistan. I haven't, until now, seen any mention of Barney Frank's letter. I think that as groups like USA Next/United Seniors and other far-conservative activist groups continue to shoot off their mouths, we may start to see some backing away by big business. Big business wants to make money, and doesn't care about installing a new Moral Majority [sic]. The more that the money men become uncomfortable with the monster they fed and nourished, the better.
A spokesman for Abramoff's law firm said "he performed all duties expected of him as a board member" and did not "facilitate funding" for United Seniors or "issue consulting agreements to any of his clients or business associates."
"He was leaving the board when I came over," Jarvis said. (Their tenure overlapped by nearly 18 months, records indicate.) "To be honest, he was not active.
Now, what was the term that Hillary Clinton used? Ah, yes, Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. I'm also somewhat amused that the reporter more or less called Jarvis a liar.
"We focus on people who have networks, and networks of networks," he said.
That network includes people who also do business for USA Next. Typically, a 501(c)(4) organization doesn't have to disclose whom it pays as contractors. But in the form United Seniors inadvertently filed in 2003, it listed the five top contractors. Listed first was Advocacy Technologies, a Washington company that was paid $1.3 million for media placements.
Michael Mihalke, founder of Advocacy Technologies, declined to reveal his clients. Mihalke is also listed as a principal in the strategic communications firm Alexander Strategy Group, whose lead partner is Edwin Buckham, a former DeLay chief of staff who is also connected with Abramoff. In an e-mail, Mihalke said that "neither ASG, nor any of its principals or employees, has ever had any ownership interest in Advocacy Technologies." Buckham could not be reached.
The Alexander group also lists PhRMA as a client on its Web site.
I'd love to know what the other 4 contractors are. I'll go out on a limb and predict that at least 2 of them can be traced to have linkages with either Abramoff or DeLay. Just a guess, mind you... In any event, kudos to the reporter for mapping out a few more strands in the web.
The article sort of ends on a whimper, not a bang, so I'll stop here. There's a bit more about how they run ads in favor of Republican candidates, but no real meat.
For people who have been following this since the infamous ad appeared a couple of months ago, this story doesn't have too many revelations. For the vast majority of the population who aren't paying attention, on the other hand, a major newspaper Sunday front-page story on what scum these people are is one more drop of water eroding the rock of 'I don't care'.
-dms