Can someone please tell me what it is about Florida Republicans and pedophilia? Now we learn, via the Huffington Post, that Boy Band creator Lou Pearlman was not just accused of a serious thief, not just a pedophile, but a significant Republican donor to the NRSC and Congressman Ric Keller.
Via the New York Post, we learn that the architect of several famous boy bands, Lou Pearlman, has allegedly taken something more than a professional interest in the talent he's, er, mentored, over the years. He's currently in federal custody on other charges related to a ponzi scheme, wherein he scammed more than one thousand investors of more than $315 million. According to Wikipedia,
Nice money quote:
"I would absolutely say the guy was a sexual predator. All the talent knew what Lou's game was," Steve Mooney, an aspiring singer who was Pearlman's assistant, told VF's Bryan Burrough. "Some guys joked about it. I remember [one singer] asking me, 'Have you let Lou [fellate] you yet?' "
Mooney said he once asked Pearlman, who was known as "Big Poppa," what it would take for him to get into a band. "I'll never forget this as long as I live. He leaned back in his chair, in his white terry cloth robe and white underwear, and spread his legs," Mooney told Burrough. "And then he said, and these were his exact words, 'You're a smart boy. Figure it out.' " Mooney added that a singer groped by Pearlman told him, "Look, if a guy wants to massage me, and I'm getting a million dollars for it, you just go along with it. It's the price you got to pay."
And yes, he was a dedicated financier of the Grand Old (Corrupt) Party to the tune of $16,000 over a six year period, with $6,000 going to Keller and the balance to the NRSC. So now the question is whether they will give the "boy money" back. Money, I should emphasize, that was largely made with the help of the same young boys he is accused of victimizing. I'm not counting on it.