To illustrate, the careers of Republicans Bob Taft and Duke CUnningham were ended because of relatively minor corruption scandals. Whereas Democrat politicians like John Street in Philadelphia, John Corzine in New Jersey, Kwame Kiltpatrick in Detroit, and even Bill Clinton (remember the pardons?) all but ooze corruption from every pore and are easily elected, re-elected, and lionized by their party.

I was reading Washingtonian magazine last night while waiting for my physical therapy “rendition”. While flipping through the pages I came upon a picture of Michael Scanlon, laid out next to a yearbook photo from Walter Johnson High School of Sean Scanlon. Under the two photos was a caption stating something about how Michael “Sean” Scanlon was known as Sean at Walter Johnson High School.

“That’s funny,” I thought. “I went to WJ and I knew a guy there named Sean Scanlon who was a complete fucking asshole.”

I checked the photo, and his graduation date, and it dawned on me that this was the very same fucking asshole who once, while wandering round
drunk after leaving a party that had been busted up by the cops, threatened me by waiving a large tree limb in my face and saying “If you ever put a curse on my sister again, I’m going to kill you.” Not only was he an asshole and a bully, he was also delusional. I’m not sure where he got the idea that I had put a curse on his sister but he apparently found teenagers dressed all in black to be mysterious and scary, even when they were 5’2″ tall 14 year old girls.”

You were not the first “South Park Republicans” by the way. What about George W. Bush? And of course his frat boy demeanor wasn’t new either.

We can say that those people weren’t truly “strong” if they indulged… but that misses the fundamental point that we only learned they weren’t strong when we discovered they were seduced by opportunity. Prior to that knowledge –they were of strong moral character; our reference point is prior to opportunity.

I’m not sure JA was ever in that camp of strong moral character corrupted and debased. Did he help out CRs? You say so and I defer. But he had a career of helping out House/Sen GOP and House/Sen Dems; in a corrupted fashion. But they’d have said he was helpful.

Was he of strong moral fiber corrupted by the opportunities of power? I think not from my vantage. He was inherently corrupt to have began and continue in his various frauds –if not for the opportunity, maybe he’d still be a visionary. No man need sell his soul unless the price is right for him. JA didn’t come on the cheap. And are there lesser JAs in DC? Probably. But there are others equal to your subject operating in DC right now on a daily basis.

If someone had a strong moral character, he would be able to resist the blandishments of the political process (i.e., when the opportunity arises). Such an individual would know where to draw the line.

Jack did not and hence his downfall.

I accept your claim that JA’s vision and effort contributed to the CRs.

I would offer that corruption is more about opportunity than character. I know of strong moral characters who, when the opportunity was present, allowed corruption to cloud or overtake prudent judgement… it’s kind of a genie that, once let out of the bottle, is tough to push back in even with the strongest of wills. But with JA, it isn’t a question of a singular instance… he’s practiced it to nearly an artform –corrupting others while corrupting self.

And there are a lot of JAs practicing inside the beltway.

#36 JackAllen, I’ve read that about LBJ… and JE Hoover… and HHH and even SCOTUS CJ Earl Warren of the period. But I’ve yet to meet a Goldwater workerbee who didn’t stay-the-course… you guys were the first unflinching conservatives in DC since Hamilton. And frankly, DC today– 40 yrs later– wouldn’t be without the AuH2O conservatives.

And the Dems hardly have a leg to stand on after Tammany Hall. Democratic ethics is an oxymoron.

The larger questions is whether or not is appropriate to conduct this sort of investigation while we are at war. I’m sure Abramoff is a crook but if this takes Tom DeLay down, we will have lots a valuable leader in the war on terror.

I think if Jack Abramoff had been called on this sort of thing, earlier in his career, he would never have gotten out of control over this. Power does corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

You have a greek tragedy in you, Dan. I hope you write a greek tragedy – and get it in film.

I think Abramoff has alot of Bill Clinton in him – Bill Clinton was also idealistic – and also quite morally flawed.

As a high student my ego was stroked for much of a year by one of the greatest people collectors of modern politics, Lyndon B. Johnson — who at the time was Senate Majority Leader. The seduction came close to being realized three years later when Vice President Johnson remembered me by name and recalled our encounters in the Capitol building. But I did not let it happen and in 1964 worked my butt off for Barry Goldwater.

I guess people collecting isn’t easy across party lines, although I greatly admired many of the things President Johnson did, especially in civil rights and voting rights.

Those who defined us as stuffed shirts seemed to want to stereotype us in some way rather than describe the reality of the youthful face of the Reagan Revolution. They wanted to dismiss the vast numbers of young people who supported the Gipper and to compare us unfavorably to the ’60s generation whose presence was rapidly fading on college campuses in the ’80s. We wore jeans, we drank, some of the libertarians did drugs, we had a good time. Indeed, we may well have been the first college generation of, what we would now call, South Park Conservatives.

The College Republicans of my generation were a very diverse lot. There were a number of Jewish State chairman. And I have been surprised at the number of state chairman (from my era) who later came out as gay. Five men come to mind right away, two of whom, when last I heard, had been coupled since shortly after they met in College Republicans.

And there was, alas, as is often the case in youth political movements, a disturbing degree of ideological rigidity.

I occasionally hear about some of my former CR colleagues in the news, including Ralph Reed (with whom I used to go drinking) and Grover Norquist (whom I knew but not well).

You ask a fair question.

In my defense, let me say that I did see Jack in interaction with other people and while I recalled that at times he was abrasive, more often than not he was gracious. He did have a vision and, in my era, accomplished a number of good things for the College Republicans. (Since I didn’t know him in the years after he left the CRNC, I can’t comment on that.)

If anything, the point of this post is that politics can corrupt even men (& women) with vision. One sure test of the character of a man (or woman) in the political arena is how he reacts to the blandishments of power and pecuniary gain. And Jack, despite his past idealism, clearly failed on that score.

“Dan, I think you should write more about your time in MA College Republicans. Is it true what they said about Reagan’s regiments in the 1980’s? Did y’all really wear navy blazers and khakis and look like a bunch of stuffed shirts? Do you often hear in the news names you were familiar with back then? “

In my short life, I’ve felt the tug of collecting from Mitch Daniels and Dick Lugar, Elliot Richardson, Al Haig, Malcolm Baldridge, Bob Teeter, Bill Kristol, Jeannie Kirkpatrick and waaaaaay back, Don Riegle, Dale Kildee, and the Levin brothers.

But even the limited public affairs lobbying I do in DC 2-3 times a year, I’ve heard from contemporaries that JA was dirty… and not in a good way. And long before any stories broke in the MSM –and there are lots of JA’s around, guy.

You might have been seduced, Dan. It’s easy to be recruited and, frankly, ego-boosting. But it is simply part of the game played at this level –and it’s been so since Washington’s recruitment of Hamilton and Jefferson into his elite club. And Jefferson’s of Monroe… and on and on.

If you could have seen JA in action with others, I’m sure you’d be informed of his true nature. Vision? Leadership to advance the cause? Corruption by power? I don’t know. Crooked? Oh yeah.

Novel? Nope. Keating 7 revisited –only now the number will probably be closer to 40.