Soros Fingerprints on DeLay Frame-Up

by Richard Poe
Monday, October 10, 2005
12:00 am Eastern Time

Soros Fingerprints on DeLay Frame-Up

by Richard Poe

October 10, 2005

THREE SEPARATE FORCES are attacking Congressman Tom DeLay. Outwardly, these forces seem independent. On closer inspection, however, we find that all three have something in common.

All have significant links to leftwing billionaire, Democrat kingmaker and convicted insider trader George Soros. (1)

The first of these attackers is Texas prosecutor Ronald Earle, who has indicted DeLay for alleged violations of state campaign finance laws. The second attacker is Republican Senator John McCain, whose Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is probing certain of DeLay’s associates for their dealings with Indian casino interests. (2) The third attacker is a network of bogus “ethics watchdog” groups, activist organizations, fundraising groups and paid media hatchet-men, all working together in tight coordination to fan the flames of anti-DeLay hysteria. DeLay calls this network a “leftwing syndicate“, but the term “Soros Noise Machine” may describe it more precisely.(3)

All three of DeLay’s leading foes have ties to Soros and to his political machine – ties of sufficient strength as to cast doubt on their motivations.

Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle has a long history of abusing prosecutorial power in the service of political patrons. (4) His best-known patron is former Texas governor Ann Richards. (5) The Richards family is tightly bound to the Soros machine. Governor Richards was an early champion of Soros’ campaign finance reform movement. Her daughter, Cecile Richards, heads America Votes, an umbrella group of leftwing get-out-the-vote organizations which the Soros machine launched and funded in 2003.(6)

Senator John McCain is allied even more closely with Soros. In 1994, Soros and a cabal of leftwing foundations undertook a $140-million crusade to pressure Congress into passing what is now known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) or, more popularly, the McCain-Feingold Act.(7)

McCain rode Soros’ coattails to media celebrity. Campaign finance reform made him the darling of Washington’s press corps. Carrying Soros’ water also brought financial benefits. Soros’ Open Society Institute has donated generously to McCain’s Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues. (8)

The Soros Noise Machine

Tom DeLay’s most dangerous and persistent foe is the network of “public interest” non-profit groups and corrupt media hacks which together constitute the Soros Noise Machine. Ronnie Earle and John McCain may or may not succeed in making their charges against DeLay stick. But, as long as Soros and his donor network keep pouring money into the Soros Noise Machine, it will continue pounding DeLay, year after year, with a ceaseless drumbeat of accusations, in the form of books, films, press releases, push polls and TV ad campaigns.

DeLay’s most vocal accusers include a cluster of self-styled “ethics watchdog” groups, among which Common Cause, Democracy 21, Public Citizen, Public Campaign and The Campaign Legal Center have special prominence.(9)

All of the above-named groups have received large contributions from Soros’ Open Society Institute. Common Cause has received $650,000; Democracy 21, $300,000; Public Citizen, $275,000; and Public Campaign, $1.3 million.(10) The Campaign Legal Center acknowledges on its Web site that it too has received “generous financial support” from the Open Society Institute as well as from other leftwing foundations.

In March of this year, the activist group Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) joined forces with the Public Campaign Action Fund to launch a $75,000 TV ad campaign in targeted Congressional districts, portraying Tom DeLay as corrupt.

Both partners in the anti-DeLay ad campaign have received heavy funding from Soros. CAF – a subsidiary of the Institute for America’s Future (IAF) – has received more than $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Institute. The other partner, the Public Campaign Action Fund, is an affiliate of the afore-mentioned Public Campaign, which has received $1.3 million from Soros.(11)

The propaganda din from Soros-sponsored “watchdog” groups helps feed the ever-hungry media with anti-Delay stories.

The Soros Book Machine

The Soros Noise Machine also struck through an investigative book called The Hammer: Tom DeLay – God, Money and the Rise of the Republican Congress, written by two Texas journalists named Lou Dubose and Jan Reid.

Co-author Dubose appears as a commentator in the still-unfinished documentary film The Big Buy, in which leftwing filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck chronicle Ronnie Earle’s pursuit of Tom DeLay.(12)

Dubose’s and Reid’s book The Hammer was published in October 2004 by Public Affairs Books of New York, an imprint of The Perseus Books Group, which in turn is owned by Perseus LLC, a merchant bank and fund management company, with offices in New York and Washington, DC.

The chairman and CEO of Perseus LLC, Frank H. Pearl, also happens to be the founder and chairman of Perseus Books. More to the point, Mr. Pearl and Mr. Soros are business partners, whose collaborations include such ventures as Perseus-Soros Management LLC, Perseus-Soros Partners LLC and Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund.

Given the close partnership between these two men, we should hardly be surprised to learn that Mr. Pearl’s Public Affairs book imprint – the same imprint which published the anti-DeLay title The Hammer – also happens to have published many books by George Soros, including The Crisis of Global Capitalism, Underwriting Democracy, George Soros on Globalization, The Bubble of American Supremacy and the forthcoming George Soros on Freedom.

Transparency

The money trail strongly suggests that George Soros is implicated in the plot to frame Tom DeLay.

Before we allow a crooked county prosecutor to unseat one of America’s valued leaders, it behooves us to investigate further. We must demand of Mr. Soros what he and his hired retainers have long demanded of Tom DeLay – transparency and accountability.

No longer can we allow wealthy puppeteers to manipulate our government from the shadows. It is time to flood those shadows with light.

Posted to RichardPoe.com, August 16, 2006, 04:58 pm ET

Cross-posted from FrontPageMagazine.com 10.10.05

Cross-posted to FreeRepublic.com 10.10.05

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NOTES

1. Marc Morano, “Soros Conviction for Insider Trading Upheld in French Court,” Cybercast News Service (CNSnews.com), March 24, 2005

2. Lou Dubose, “Senatorial Courtesy: Will John McCain Let Republican Perps Walk?“, The Texas Observer, August 26, 2005

3. Sharon Kehnemul Liss, “DeLay Blasts `Leftwing Syndicate’“, FoxNews.com, April 20, 2005; Richard Poe, “The Soros Noise Machine,” MoonbatCentral.com, March 20, 2005

4. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Ronnie Earle Should Not be a Prosecutor“, National Review Online, October 6, 2005; Byron York, “Dollars for Dismissals,” National Review Online, June 20, 2005; Peter Flaherty, “Texas Smear Machine Targets DeLay“, Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com), September 23, 2004

5. “Hammer Time: Ronnie Earle Finally Gets His Man,” The Wall Street Journal Online (OpinionJournal.com), September 29, 2005

6. S.C. Gwynne,”The Daughter Also Rises“,Texas Monthly, August 2004, p 112; David Horowitz and Richard Poe, “The Shadow Party” (Parts I-III), FrontPageMagazine.com, October 6, 7, 11, 2004

7. Cliff Kincaid, “George Soros and the Press“, Accuracy in Media (AIM.org), April 13, 2005; Ed Morrisey, “Inside McCain’s Reform Institute“, Captain’s Quarters, March 9, 2005; Richard Poe, “John McCain Gets Soros Cash,” MoonbatCentral.com, March 10, 2005

8. Richard Poe, “Pewgate: Battle of the Blogosphere,” FrontPageMagazine.com, March 25, 2005

9. Alexander Bolton, “Watchdogs in Soros’s Pocket: GOP,” The Hill (CNSnews.com), March 23, 2005; Michelle Malkin, “Wobbly Watchdogs,” michellemalkin.com, June 22, 2004

10. “The Soros Agenda: Free Speech for Billionaires Only,” The Wall Street Journal Online (OpinionJournal.com), January 3, 2004

11. Anne E. Kornblut, “The War Against Tom DeLay,” The New York Times, October 2, 2005

12. Byron York, “Coming Soon, the Ronnie Earle Movie,” National Review Online, September 29, 2005; Byron York, “The Movie: Ronnie Earle on a Mission from God,” National Review Online, September 30, 2005