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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Rob Levine
July 14, 2000
Bradley Foundation makes $13 million omission in its 1997 IRS Form 990 Report
Discovery by Media Transparency forces conservative funder to re-file with IRS
Philanthropy claims "Software Error"AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PHILANTHROPIC GIVING of the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation by Media Transparency (MT) has revealed a $13 million omission in the philanthropy's required 1997 Form 990 report to the Internal Revenue Service, and forced the three-quarters of a billion dollar organization Lion House: Home of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundationto re-file with the agency or face large financial penalties. According to Bradley’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Berkopec, the foundation has since filed an amended return with the IRS. Among the largest mistakes made in the report is an under-reporting of $581,000 given to the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, out of a total of $853,000 given to the organization. The largest single omission is the $1.7 million not reported that was given to the Milwaukee based Partners Advancing Values in Education (PAVE), an organization created primarily by the Bradley foundation to generate support for school voucher programs. Also omitted were a number of grants made to the Center for The Study of Popular Culture, which received $568,000 from the Bradley foundation in 1997, only $221,000 of which was reported. The CSPC and its founder, David Horowitz, run, among other things, the website called "Political War", which purports to give ongoing strategic advice specifically to Republicans running for national office, and who is said to be a major advisor to Republican Presidential candidate George W. Bush. (This wouldn't be the first time that Bradley money has been used to create the underlying political strategy for the Republicans -- see Marvin Olasky: Godfather of "Compassionate Conservatism".) Media Transparency purchased the Form 990 reports of the Bradley Foundation for the years 1985-1998. By Federal law, philanthropies can charge citizens up to 15 cents per page for copies of their Form 990 IRS reports. The Bradley foundation, which makes grants of over $30 million per year, and has assets of over $750 million, charged MT researchers more than $200 for the reports. After entering the philanthropy's 1997 grants (all 828), we performed a routine validity test to see if the data had been entered correctly. To our surprise, our total added up to some $13 million less than the total granted shown at the end of the foundation's 990 report. Upon analyzing our grants database we determined that the error was either in the Bradley foundation's grant list, or in the amount they had reported as given. Following repeated attempts to contact Bradley CFO Berkopec, we were finally able to speak with him. Berkopec had been unaware of the error, and reported back to us that our find had sent he and his staff into a flurry of activity to isolate how the error had occurred, indicating that MT was the first to find the error -- even though it was more than two years after the IRS report had been filed. Berkopec stated that the false report stemmed from a computer software printing error that omitted some grants from the printed report. The error turned out to be especially difficult to catch, because the grants omitted were usually the second, third or fourth grants to a recipient in that particular year, and didn't appear uniformly, i.e. in some cases the second and third grants were printed, and for other recipients they were not. A check with the foundation's 1997 Annual Report seemed to confirm Berkopec's description of the error, because all the grants were listed in it. Nevertheless, the Bradley foundation’s 1997 IRS Form 990 report was grossly in error, underreporting its grant making by over 40 percent. IRS regulations specify steep penalties for filing false tax returns, especially for 501(c)(3) organizations such as the Bradley foundation. However, the same regulations make exceptions for honest mistakes, which, giving them the benefit of the doubt seems to have been what happened in 1997. In June of this year, MT again contacted the Bradley foundation, this time looking for its 990 report for 1999. Berkopec informed us that the foundation had filed for an extension in filing the report, which is its right, and that it wouldn't be available until the middle of August 2000. Media Transparency then requested that the report be sent to us at that time. Berkopec requested that MT put the request in writing, which we agreed to. He then reminded us that the Bradley foundation, worth three quarters of a billion dollars, and a public charity, required us to send $40 to cover the copying cost. Given that MT had already paid the Bradley foundation $200 for previous grant reports, and had found an enormous reporting error that no one else had found, including Berkopec (despite his $125,000 annual salary for his part-time work for the foundation), it didn't seem right that Bradley should want this fee. "That's our policy," answered Berkopec. In hindsight it shouldn't have surprised us that besides being the number one funder of conservative policy, action and advocacy organizations in the country, besides being poor accountants of their own activities, the folks at the Bradley foundation are not eager to have the public, in whose tax-exempt benefit they operate, closely examine how it carries on its business.
| Recipient/description |
#unreported grants |
Total unreported amount |
| American Council of Trustees and Alumni |
2 |
100,000 |
| American
Enterprise Institute |
2 |
405,000 |
| American Foreign Policy Council |
1 |
18,750 |
American
Jewish Committee
(Commentary fund) |
1 |
37,500 |
American
Spectator Education Foundation
("special projects" ) |
1 |
42,500 |
| American Studies Center |
1 |
25,000 |
| Argus Project |
1 |
56,250 |
| Association of Literary Scholars and Critics |
1 |
12,500 |
| Becket Fund, Inc. |
2 |
84,000 |
University of Wisconsin
(evaluation of Wisconsin Works welfare reform) |
3 |
206,250 |
| Boston College |
5 |
144,296 |
| Boston University |
1 |
50,000 |
| Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee, Inc. |
1 |
25,000 |
| Capital Research Center |
1 |
28,375 |
| Carnegie Mellon University |
4 |
170,000 |
| Catholic University of America |
1 |
49,505 |
| Cato Institute |
1 |
37,500 |
| Center for Individual Rights |
2 |
70,000 |
| Center for Parental Freedom in Education |
2 |
50,000 |
| Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments |
1 |
25,000 |
| Center
for the Study of Popular Culture |
3 |
337,500 |
| CESA Foundation, Inc. |
1 |
1,000 |
| Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Inc. |
1 |
25,000 |
| Christian Methodist Episcopal Church |
1 |
50,000 |
| Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation |
1 |
12,500 |
| Claremont
Graduate University |
1 |
15,000 |
| Claremont
Institute for the Study of Statesmanship. |
4 |
187,500 |
| Claremont
McKenna College |
1 |
15,000 |
| Collegiate Network |
1 |
80,000 |
| Columbia University |
1 |
15,000 |
| Community Enterprises of Greater Milwaukee, Inc. |
4 |
133,000 |
| Competitive Enterprise Institute |
1 |
20,000 |
| Corporation for the Advancement of Policy Evaluation |
1 |
25,000 |
| Discovery World: James Lovell |
2 |
50,000 |
| Empire Foundation for Policy Research |
1 |
25,000 |
| Environmental Defense Fund |
2 |
77,000 |
| Esperanza Unida, Inc. |
1 |
37,500 |
| Ethics
and Public Policy Center, Inc. |
3 |
243,750 |
| Family House Incorporated |
1 |
36,250 |
| Family Service of Milwaukee |
3 |
150,000 |
| Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies |
2 |
90,000 |
| First Stage Milwaukee |
2 |
22,500 |
| Florentine Opera Company, Inc. |
1 |
50,000 |
| Fordham University |
1 |
25,000 |
| Foundation for Cultural Review |
3 |
115,000 |
| Foundation Saint-Simon (Paris) |
1 |
15,000 |
| Free
Congress Research and Education Foundation |
2 |
284,000 |
| Freedom House, Inc. |
2 |
100,000 |
| Fund for American Studies |
1 |
25,000 |
| George C. Marshall Institute |
2 |
107,000 |
| George Mason University Foundation |
3 |
45,000 |
| Georgetown University |
2 |
30,000 |
| Harvard University |
5 |
107,500 |
| Heritage
Foundation |
4 |
581,250 |
| Houghton College |
1 |
31,786 |
| Hudson
Institute |
7 |
319,213 |
| Indiana University |
2 |
50,000 |
| Institut Fur Die Wissenschaften Vom Menschen |
1 |
40,000 |
| Institute for American Values |
1 |
50,000 |
| Institute for Contemporary Studies |
3 |
158,500 |
| Institute for International Economics |
1 |
25,000 |
| Institute for International Studies |
2 |
134,000 |
| Institute for Justice |
1 |
60,000 |
| Institute for Policy Innovation |
1 |
37,500 |
| Institute on Religion and Democracy, Inc. |
1 |
25,000 |
| Institute
on Religion and Public Life |
4 |
296,250 |
| Intercollegiate Studies Institute |
1 |
45,000 |
| International Center for Economic Growth |
1 |
50,000 |
| International Republican Institute |
1 |
25,000 |
| Johns Hopkins University |
10 |
410,275 |
| Kenyon College |
1 |
15,000 |
| Libro Libre |
1 |
20,000 |
| Manhattan
Institute for Public Policy |
2 |
100,000 |
| Marquette University |
2 |
120,000 |
| Medical College of Wisconsin |
1 |
20,000 |
| MHS., Inc. Messmer High School |
3 |
150,000 |
| Michigan State University |
2 |
30,000 |
| Middle East Forum |
1 |
22,500 |
| Milwaukee Area Technical College Foundation, Inc. |
3 |
150,000 |
| Milwaukee Art Museum |
1 |
25,000 |
| Milwaukee Ballet Company |
1 |
50,000 |
| Milwaukee Brewers Student Achievers Account |
1 |
48,251 |
| Milwaukee County War Memorial Center, Inc. |
4 |
350,000 |
| Milwaukee Foundation |
1 |
25,000 |
| Milwaukee Kickers Soccer Club Foundation, Inc. |
1 |
12,500 |
| Milwaukee Public Museum |
1 |
50,000 |
| Milwaukee Public Schools |
1 |
30,000 |
| Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Inc. |
2 |
60,000 |
| Milwaukee Rescue Mission |
1 |
12,500 |
| Milwaukee School of Engineering |
3 |
225,000 |
| Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra |
1 |
12,500 |
| MMAC Community Support Foundation |
1 |
32,475 |
| Morley Institute |
1 |
62,500 |
National
Affairs>
(Public Interest, National Interest) |
2 |
175,000 |
| National Association of Scholars |
1 |
75,000 |
| National Bureau of Economic Research |
3 |
150,000 |
| National
Center for Neighborhood Enterprise |
13 |
282,000 |
| National Center for Policy Analysis |
1 |
50,000 |
| National Council for History Education, Inc. |
2 |
64,448 |
| National Endowment for Democracy |
3 |
115,000 |
| National Fatherhood Initiative |
2 |
90,000 |
| National Forum Foundation |
1 |
37,500 |
| National Strategy Information Center |
2 |
117,500 |
| New Citizenship Project, Inc. |
1 |
25,000 |
| New York University |
3 |
65,000 |
| Next Door Foundation |
1 |
25,000 |
| Nixon Center |
1 |
37,500 |
| Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School |
1 |
3,000 |
| Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy |
1 |
37,500 |
| Partners
Advancing Values in Education (PAVE) |
3 |
1,700,000 |
| Penfield Children's Center |
1 |
20,000 |
| Peterhouse College |
1 |
10,000 |
| Progressive Foundation |
1 |
25,000 |
| Puebla Institute |
1 |
35,000 |
| Reason Foundation |
1 |
37,500 |
| Roper Center for Public Opinion Research |
2 |
123,000 |
| St Camillus Ministries, Inc. |
1 |
50,000 |
| St. Francis Children's Center |
1 |
20,000 |
| St. Mary's and St. Nicholas Joint Education... |
1 |
3,000 |
| Salvation Army Wisconsin & Upper Michigan |
1 |
17,500 |
| Sand County Foundation |
1 |
55,000 |
| Skylight Opera Theatre Corp |
1 |
30,000 |
| Social Philosophy and Policy Foundation |
2 |
84,000 |
| St. Leo School, Inc. |
1 |
10,000 |
State of Wisconsin
"legal fees in defense of const. of the amended Milwaukee School
Choice program" |
1 |
50,000 |
| Taliesin Preservation Commission, Inc. |
1 |
25,000 |
| Texas A & M University |
2 |
82,500 |
| Thomas Aquinas College |
1 |
50,000 |
| Thoreau Institute |
1 |
22,500 |
| TransCenter for Youth, Inc. |
1 |
50,000 |
| United Negro College Fund, Inc. |
1 |
25,000 |
| University of California-Irvine |
1 |
33,903 |
| University of California-Malibu |
1 |
17,500 |
| University of California-Berkely |
1 |
15,000 |
| University
of Chicago |
7 |
105,000 |
| University of Maryland Foundation |
2 |
78,000 |
| University of Notre Dame |
1 |
15,000 |
| University of Oklahoma |
1 |
15,000 |
| University of Toronto |
2 |
30,000 |
| University of Virginia |
3 |
45,000 |
| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee |
1 |
75,000 |
| UWM Foundation |
2 |
97,900 |
| Washington University |
1 |
15,000 |
| Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth |
2 |
92,500 |
| Wisconsin Conservatory of Music |
1 |
17,500 |
| Wisconsin Correctional Service |
1 |
25,000 |
| Wisconsin Foundation for Independent Colleges, Inc. |
1 |
12,500 |
| Wisconsin
Policy Research Institute, Inc. |
1 |
200,000 |
| Wisconsin Public Radio |
1 |
1,500 |
| Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars |
1 |
31,500 |
| Yale University |
2 |
50,000 |
| Youth Leadership Academy |
3 |
60,000 |
| |
|
|
| Total unreported grants |
|
13,058,677 |
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Bill Berkowitz
March 16, 2007
Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism'
On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
In a story written just before Anderson's northern California appearance, Truckee Today's Karen Sloan described PERC as an organization that "contends that private property rights encourage good stewardship of natural resources." The story, headlined "'Enviroprenuer' scholar to speak at Resort at Squaw Creek," pointed out that "PERC scholars argue that government subsidies often degrade the environment, that market incentives can spur individuals to conserve and protect the environment and that polluters should be liable for the harm they cause others."
On its website, PERC -- a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1980 -- calls itself "the nation's oldest and largest institute dedicated to original research that brings market principles to resolving environmental problems." PERC maintains that it "pioneered the approach known as free market environmentalism."
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
March 10, 2007
During recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy'
In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Neil Mallon Bush, the son of President George H. W. Bush and the brother of President George W. Bush, attended the forum to renew old family friendships and to drum up a little business for his educational software company. "The Jeddah Economic Forum has been very productive," Bush told Arab News. "I have been to this conference four times since 2002. I have seen it develop from the very beginning. There was less participation in the past, now there is more international participation."
These days, Neil Bush is the chairman and CEO of Ignite Learning, a company devoted to developing technology-assisted curriculum. Ignite calls it COW: "Curriculum on Wheels." In an interview with Arab News' Siraj Wahab, Bush talked enthusiastically about his company's mission: "We are building a model in the United States for developing curriculum that is engaging to grade-school kids, and our model is to deploy this engaging content through a device. So it is easy for any teacher to use our device through projectors and speakers. The curriculum is loaded on the device. We use animation and video and those kinds of things to light up learning in classrooms for kids. It helps teachers connect with their kids. We are planning to develop an Arabic version of that model."
A video on Ignite!'s website makes clear the enervating, rote approach to learning taken by the Bush family. While this may not be an advance in actual education, it does serve to enrich Neil Bush and commodify teachers. In concept it is much like Channel One, whereby Chris Whittle enriched himself forcing millions of primary school students to watch repackaged TV News sandwiched between corporate advertising.
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
March 2, 2007
American Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances
Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
These days, Gingrich, who is simultaneously a "Senior Fellow" at the American Enterprise Institute and a "Distinguished Visiting Fellow" at the Hoover Institution, is making like your favorite uncle, fronting a YouTube video contest offering "prizes" to whoever creates the best two-minute video on why taxes suck. Although the prizes may not be particularly attractive to the typical YouTuber, nevertheless Gingrich recently launched the "Winning the Future, Goose that laid the Golden Egg, You Tube Contest." According to Newt.org, participants are to "Create a 120 second video explaining why tax increases will hurt the American economy, leading to less revenue for the government, not more. Or in other words, explain why we shouldn't cook the goose that laid the golden eggs (the American economy) by raising taxes."
Although he hasn't formerly announced his candidacy -- and he probably won't anytime soon -- Gingrich definitely has his eyes on the White House. He's just still figuring out how he will get there. Over the past several months Gingrich has been ubiquitous on the media and political scenes.
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
February 25, 2007
Despite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran
After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Long before the Bush Administration began escalating its rhetoric and upping the ante about the supposed "threat" posed to the US by Iran, well-paid inside-the-beltway think tankers were agitating for some kind of action against that country. Some have argued for ratcheting up sanctions and freezing bank accounts, others have advocated increasing financial aid to opposition groups, and still others have argued that a military strike at Iran's nuclear facilities is absolutely essential. For all, the desired end result is regime change in Iran.
If President Bush plunges the U.S. into some kind of military conflict with Iran, you can thank the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a key player in the current debate over Iran.
President Bush acknowledged as much when he recently appeared at the AEI for a much-publicized speech on his War on Terror, which focused on the front in Afghanistan.
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
February 18, 2007
Unmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups
With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The other item that didn't get any State of the Union play is a project that was once envisioned to be the centerpiece of the president's domestic agenda: his faith-based initiative. As Joseph Bottum, editor of the conservative publication First Things -- "The Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life" -- pointed out, Bush "didn't mention faith-based initiatives, which...[he] once claimed would be his great legacy."
The president's faith-based initiative is facing several tough court battles.
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
February 10, 2007
On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California
He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
In a 10-page addendum to his new book ""Words that Work -- It's Not What You Say Its What People Hear," Luntz, formerly a top political pollster for the Republican Party, may have written so critically of the party's recent efforts that he has become persona non grata. Luntz used to be one of the party's go-to-guys for political guidance and strategy, a counselor to such GOP stalwarts as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former New York City Major Rudy Giuliani and Trent Lott.
"The Republican Party that lost those historic elections was a tired, cranky shell of the articulate reformist, forward-thinking movement that was swept into office in 1994 on a wave of positive change," Luntz wrote. According to syndicated columnist Robert Novak, Luntz went on to say that the Republicans of 2006 "were an ethical morass, more interested in protecting their jobs than protecting the people they served. The 1994 Republicans came to 'revolutionize' Washington. Washington won."
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
February 4, 2007
Fueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director
As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Flash forward some 30-plus years and an Internet entrepreneur believes that it is time for a new conservative movement. He too has seen an entity on the left he admires enough to want to emulate: MoveOn.org.
"The left has been brilliant at leveraging technology," said Rod Martin, founder of TheVanguard.org, "and so have we to a point: our bloggers and news sites are amazing, and the RNC's get-out-the-vote software is unparalleled. But no one on our side has even begun to create anything like MoveOn. And after 2006, if we want to survive, much less build a long-term conservative majority, we better start, and fast."
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
January 29, 2007
Founder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives
Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
During a mid-December conference call Connerly allowed that he had scheduled visits to Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah during the upcoming months to get a handle on how many campaigns he might launch.
"Twenty-three states have systems for putting laws directly before voters in the form of ballot initiatives," the Chronicle pointed out. "Three down and 20 to go," Connerly boasted. "We don't need to do them all, but if we do a significant number, we will have demonstrated that race preferences are antithetical to the popular will of the American people."
"The people of California, Washington and Michigan have shown that institutions that implement these [affirmative action] programs are living on borrowed time," Connerly said.
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
January 25, 2007
The Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics
These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Now, Tancredo, who has represented the state's Sixth District since 1999, has joined the long list of candidates contending for the GOP's 2008 presidential nomination. In mid-January Tancredo announced the formation of an exploratory committee -- Tom Tancredo for a Secure America -- the first step to formally declaring his candidacy. While his announcement didn't cause quite the stir as the announcement by Illinois Democratic Senator Barak Obama that he too was forming an exploratory committee, nevertheless Tancredo's move did not go completely unnoticed.
While voters' concerns over the war in Iraq and the GOP's "culture of corruption" predominated in the 2006 midterms, Tancredo will be doing his best to make immigration an issue for the presidential campaign of 2008.
Read the full report >
Bill Berkowitz
January 18, 2007
New report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations
If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
For those who remember a similar IRD-led attack on the World Council of Churches two decades ago the IRD's latest blast appears to be -- to borrow a phrase from New York Yankee great Yogi Berra -- "déjà vu all over again."
The IRD excoriated the World Council of Churches (WCC) for allegedly being tools of the anti-American left over its support of the Nelson Mandela-led African National Congress in South Africa, and its opposition to President Ronald Reagan's contra wars in Central America; wars that destabilized governments and were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. And now it is doing a similar job on the NCC.
"The institute, a Washington-based think tank, is allied with conservative groups on issues such as same-sex marriage. From its founding in 1981, its primary effort has been to challenge what it calls the 'leftist' political positions of mainline Protestant denominations, such as the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)," the Washington Post recently reported.
Author and longtime right wing watcher Frederick Clarkson recently described the IRD as an "inside the beltway, neoconservative agency [that] has waged a war of attrition against the historic mainline protestant churches in the U.S."
Read the full report >
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