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RELATED LINKSInternal LinksProfiles:
External Links"Merchants of Deception" website Evelyn J. Pringle series on "Bush + Republicans + Amway = Fraud" Mercy Corps International website PBS' Frontline "The Ressurection Of Reverend Moon" Robert Parry on the Wead Tapes Wead bio at "The 3 Percent Club" website Cursor.orgMediaTransparency.org sponsor More stories by Bill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs' Media Transparency writersAndrew J. Weaver FundometerEvaluate any page on the World Wide Web against our databases of people, recipients, and funders of the conservative movement. |
ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz Wead in the Rose GardenDoug Wead, former advisor to George H.W. Bush and counselor to Dubya, has a history of self-promotion and crass opportunism. The release of the Bush Tapes is only the latest exampleMost of Doug Wead's political career has been spent out of the public eye. Except for a failed run for an Arizona congressional seat in the early nineties, he's Wead put in yeoman's work during Bush Senior's administration, serving as liaison to the evangelical community. (The full story of his resignation, or dismissal, has yet to be told.) It was not surprising then that Wead would befriend George W., and become a sounding board during the period he was considering a run for the presidency. Wead's input on how to navigate the challenging waters between the religious and secular right and mainstream voters was valuable to the aspiring candidate. Unlike his father, who never fully gained the trust of fundamentalist leaders nor was able to fully engage Christian right grassroots activists, George W. knew the terrain; he'd been there and done that. In what was to become an oft-repeated tale, Bush's conversion to Christ had been facilitated in part through conversations and consultation with the Reverend Billy Graham and one of the Christian right's most well known televangelists, the Rev. James Robison. That Doug Wead chose, without the consent or knowledge of George W., to tape their conversations -- which began in 1998 and ended just before the Republican National Convention in 2000 -- was certainly surprising. That he decided to let the world in on the conversations by releasing the tapes to the New York Times was shocking to many. Negative reactions to Wead's tape and tell was instantaneous. "Doug Wead Betrays Bush?" was the headline at RedState.org, a blog "focused on politics, and [which] seeks the construction of a Republican majority in the United States." "Bush was betrayed by a 'friend' and so-called Christian" headlined a piece by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker. Other former friends and allies of Wead quickly branded him a "Judas" for releasing the tapes. Some observers accused him of trying to pump up the volume for his recently released book "The Raising of a President: The Mothers and Fathers of Our Nation's Leaders" (Atria, $26, 512 pages) -- the second volume, following the New York Times bestseller "All the Presidents' Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of the First Families" in Wead's trilogy on first families. Wead denied the profiteering charge, telling CNN that he "lost a million dollars by delaying the book after the election, where it would have been driven by partisan interests." According to the Associated Press, One of the things the "tapes show [is] Bush...repeatedly worrying that evangelicals would be angered by a refusal to bash gays and that secular Americans would be turned off by meetings with evangelical leaders." Writing for his Consortium News Web site, investigative reporter Robert Parry pointed out that the tapes "reveal an ambitious Gov. Bush in 1998 honing his religious pitch to conservative Christians, rehearsing how he would nail down their support by stressing his devotion to Jesus Christ". Parry wrote about Wead's influence on the Bush family in his book "Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq" (The Media Consortium Inc., 2004): "Wead's motto was 'signal early and signal often,' meaning that sprinkling speeches with references to God and meeting with celebrity evangelists sent a message to this important political group that would pass over the heads of non-evangelicals." George W. became a big "fan of the memos." "George would read my memos, and he would be licking his lips saying, 'I can use this to win in Texas,' Wead said. Later, Bush would demonstrate that he could use Wead's strategies to win by attracting evangelicals throughout the South and across the country." "As you said, there are some code words," Bush said on one of the tapes given to the New York Times. "There are some proper ways to say things and some improper ways...I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement." Bush said, "I'm going to tell them the five turning points in my life: accepting Christ, marrying my wife, having children, running for governor, and listening to my mother." Acknowledging "immature" actions without delineating them is "part of my shtick" said Bush. When the Times story hit Wead had his story ready: First he claimed he released the tapes for the sake of history. Then he maintained his publisher made him do it. However, according to Ronald J. Watkins, the author of SunnyBlog.com, "it turns out his publisher isn't in control of the tapes at all -- Doug Wead is, as he has always been, despite his protestations." At his own website, Wead issued a brief statement of regret: "My thanks to those who have let me share my heart and regrets about recent events. Contrary to a statement that I made to the New York Times, I know very well that personal relationships are more important than history. I am asking my attorney to direct any future proceeds from the book to charity and to find the best way to vet these tapes and get them back to the president to whom they belong. History can wait." The White House hasn't denied the authenticity of the tapes: "The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, referring to Bush. Out of the WeadworkIn a short bio posted at a website called "The 3 Percent Club", Wead is praised for his willingness to work behind the scenes and stay out of the spotlight: "Whether he's speaking to 10,000 people at a city arena, or sitting at a negotiating table with a handful of the world's most powerful people, Doug Wead is the epitome of what he teaches: He never promotes himself." The bio continues, "Participate in a conversation with him for an hour and you still won't know a thing about him. But talk to anyone who really knows Doug Wead, and you discover unsurpassed respect and -- more importantly -- unshakable faith and reliance upon this man..." In fact, Wead has been a master of self-promotion within the evangelical community. He has written 27 books and they have sold over five million copies. For years he has been a well-paid motivational speaker. He has been interviewed on numerous television programs including The Today Show, The O'Reilly Factor, CNN, MSNBC and CBS. In 1979, along with Entertainer Pat Boone, Dan O'Neil and Archbishop of Boston, Bernard Cardinal Law, Doug Wead established Mercy Corps International (website), a charity which claims to have given more than $500 million in famine relief and medical supplies. Marketing schemes seem to be Wead's specialty. Over the years he has had a major league association with Amway -- he was a Diamond distributor -- the pyramid scheme founded by Richard DeVos and Jay VanAndel. These two founders contributed millions to the Republican Party and conservative organizations and causes over the years. (click here for more on the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation). Wead has been a regular speaker at Amway conventions, according to a highly documented two-part series, "Bush + Republicans + Amway = Fraud" by Evelyn J. Pringle. (For more on Amway and its relationship to the GOP see the "Merchants of Deception") According to Pringle: "Wead and another kingpin, Jean Godzich, eventually branched out and set up an Amway in France. In 1986, the French government began investigating it and decided the company was a dangerous mind-control cult, and a fraudulent business. Amway France terminated the distributorship of Godzich, from whose group most of the complaints had originated. "So what do Wead and Godzich do next? They set up a new MLM in France, called Groupement or GEPM. Its product line consisted of Amway products, its business structure was identical to Amway France, and its cultic activities were just as blatant as they were in the first operation. "After receiving numerous complaints about GEPM, French authorities moved in to shut it down, but this time it issued criminal arrest warrants, 13 for the company's distributors, and 2 for Godzich and Wead. Godzich took all the cash and fled the country and Wead never returned to France." Wead also sits on the board of Global ProNet, "a network marketing distributor training services company serving a community of over 400,000 independent distributors." He is a member of the Advisory Board of AtlasMall.com, another marketing venture that describes itself as a "network of Members and Merchants." According to its website, which as of February 26th featured an announcement of Wead's appointment, "As an Agent of AtlasMall you...receive commissions for shopping at stores in your local community that are Merchants in the AtlasMall system. Getting others to become Members will also reward you. Any time they shop at Merchants in their community you will receive commissions and so will they." Wead also sits on the Board of faith healer Benny Hinn's ministry, the World Healing Center Church. According to the Los Angeles Times, Hinn's outfit received $89 million in donations in 2002. His ""Miracle Crusades" (really mass faith-healing events) draw thousands to sports arenas, while his "This Is Your Day" television show "is one of the most-watched Christian TV programs in the world, with viewers in 190 countries." Politically, Wead has been the consummate inside player: He served as Special Assistant to the President in the Bush Senior White House; Time magazine described him as an "insider in the Bush orbit"; and, in a 2001 interview with the Unification Church-owned Insight magazine (website) Wead claimed to have coined the phrase "compassionate conservatism," a key phrase in the Bush arsenal that has been more publicly associated with Marvin Olasky. Wead also may have ties to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. On January 19, 2001, one day before George W. was inaugurated, the Washington Times Foundation, an operation that is part of the Moon empire, held an Inaugural Prayer Luncheon for Unity and Renewal at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington D.C. According to the True Light Education Ministry, the committee that sent out the letter for the luncheon wasn't part of the Washington Times Foundation and included Doug Wead as a signatory. In a January 21, 1992 broadcast of PBS' Frontline titled The Ressurection Of Reverend Moon, Wead had words of praise for the Rev. Moon's American Freedom Coalition (AFC): Narrator: The American Freedom Coalition's Desert Storm rallies are only the latest effort by Sun Myung Moon to influence American public opinion. Moon's Unification Movement has long supported the projection of American military power overseas. Moon has also consistently promoted a conservative political agenda in the United States. His efforts have not gone unnoticed at the White House. Douglas Wead was a Special Assistant to President Bush responsible for liaison with conservative groups. Wead: I'd say right now there are probably two groups among conservative organizations that really have an infrastructure, that have grassroots clout -- Concerned Women of America would and the American Freedom Coalition would. Narrator: During the 1988 election, the AFC printed and distributed 30 million pieces of political literature, including these glossy voter scorecards. Wead: I think the scorecards and some of the independent literature published had an enormous effect. In fact, we had huge notebooks filled with published materials from a wide variety of organizations. The best was probably the AFC's. It was by far the slickest and the finest produced material. And when that doesn't cost you anything, and it is not charged against the campaign and is widely distributed to mailing lists across the country, that has a very important impact. Narrator: The AFC's activities have prompted renewed questions about Sun Myung Moon's involvement in American politics. The AFC calls itself a grassroots organization committed to supporting conservative causes. AFC leaders deny that their group is an "appendage" of Moon's movement, and they are sensitive about the issue. When we asked Robert Grant (who is he?) to discuss AFC ties to Moon, he refused. In a letter to FRONTLINE, Grant stated, "I see no point in speaking with you either on camera or off camera." On December 19, 2002, while many Americans were caught up in Trent Lott's troubles, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced the appointment of David Caprara, the former president of the American Family Coalition, as director of AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). Caprara was recently named director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives for the federal government's Corporation for National and Community Service. If there is anything positive to come out of Doug Wead's tape-and-tell episode for Team Bush it is that the story managed to shove embarassing headlines about the Jeff Gannon Affair out of the spotlight. No Goldwater endorsement, no victoryIn 1992, Wead was one of three Republicans candidates vying for a seat in Congress from Arizona. By amassing a much larger treasure chest than the other candidates and by trying to hitch himself to Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater's legacy, Wead won the primary. In the election, however, Wead was handily defeated as Goldwater endorsed the Democratic candidate. We will give Ronald J. Watkins who knows, but is not a friend of Wead, the last word. He recently detailed his impressions about the man and his character on his blog, SunnyBlog.com: "He'd arrived in Arizona fresh from his former career as an Assembly of God minister with a new young wife on his arm. No mention was made of the wife he'd divorced to marry this one, even though he campaigned hard on family values, as I recall. He was with Amway then, was reportedly a Diamond. Most of his sizable war chest was from out-of-state money, unlike his two opponents. Wead had been a Special Assistant in Bush Senior's White House, but had been asked to leave, or elected to leave, under cloudy circumstances. One current report holds he left because he objected to gays being on the White House guest list. My recollection has something to do with the improper use of the White House mailing list for personal advantage. "Wead campaigned hard on Barry Goldwater's tailcoats, claiming he worked on the Goldwater presidential campaign in 1964, though no one ever came forward to support the assertion. He displayed a portrayed of Goldwater in his office and released a video wrapping himself firmly in the Goldwater mystique. On it he claimed to have gladly suffered ridicule because of his support of Goldwater. 'I'll never forget in 1962, in speech class, our teacher assigned us to nominate someone for president,' he said. 'So I nominated Goldwater, and everybody laughed. The teacher laughed. But I've lived to see the principles of Barry Goldwater vindicated all over the world.' "What I found most disturbing, however, was Wead's association with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of PTL fame. Wead had been a frequent guest on the Bakker show and an active fundraiser for him. I spoke at length with Jessica Hahn, to whom Bakker paid hush money over his tryst. She found Doug Wead's political aspirations quite amusing, as she did his attempts to distance himself from Bakker. She told me that Wead and his first wife were the only regular guests on the Bakker show who stayed in the Bakker private residence. "Money talked in the primary and Wead buried his opponents, including my man, a distinguished pubic servant with long ties to the state. It reportedly came as a surprise to Wead a few weeks later when Barry Goldwater endorsed his Democrat opponent and lifted her to victory. I don't think Barry liked being used by a self-promoting opportunist. 'Doug Wead does not know or understand Arizona,' Goldwater said, 'and his record in Washington D.C., is not the best.' But the more famous Goldwater comment is, 'I don't think God should be sold for money.' "Wead went on to France where, with a shady partner, he started a French clone of Amway, a company ultimately shutdown by the French government. There are reports a warrant was issued for his arrest there. "The man I saw speak, and with whom I shook hands, struck me as an opportunist. Now we know he befriended the current President Bush, secretly tape recorded him, and has now released those tapes to huckster his latest book. As an author myself, one who has had several publishing contracts, I find his claim that his publisher made him release the tapes amusing. It doesn't work that way. Really. "No, Doug Wead was an opportunist when he shilled for Jim Bakker, an opportunist when he ran for Congress in Arizona, an opportunist when he taped the president and he's an opportunist today as he generates publicity to sell his book, all the while claiming the devil made him do it." sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'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.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring 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."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican 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.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite 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.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned 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.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'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."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled 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.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder 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."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe 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.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew 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.
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