Keene's American Conservative Union: For Sale For Years?

Every post that I have read - at least those written by conservative bloggers - has reacted with shock, shock, shock to the American Conservative Union's attempt to extract $2 million from FedEx. Who had ever heard before that the ACU’s support might be available for purchase or lease? The point is this: The, shall we say, “accessibility” of ACU’s policy positions has been a notorious fact of Washington life for many years. It’s one of the big themes of the last chapter of my book Comeback.

When David Keene and the American Conservative Union attempted to extract $2 million or more from FedEx to run an activist campaign on FedEx's behalf - and then punitively switched sides after FedEx refused to pay - the package carrier did a remarkable thing: It went public. FedEx or somebody acting on its behalf handed over ACU's funding request letter to Mike Allen at Politico, and the subsequent story has triggered a blogospheric frenzy: Almost 300 posts as of 11 am. Every post that I have read - at least those written by conservative bloggers - has reacted with shock, shock, shock. Who had ever heard before that the ACU's support might be available for purchase or lease? Maybe I am getting cynical here, but I recommend the following exercise Google "American Conservative Union" + Microsoft and see what happens. Or "American Conservative Union" and AT&T. Look up the story of "Citizens for State Power" a group that lobbied against proposals to shift the regulation of electrical utilities from the state to the federal level, and see if you recognize any familiar conservative names. I could go on and on. The point is this: The, shall we say, "accessibility" of ACU's policy positions has been a notorious fact of Washington life for many years. It's one of the big themes of the last chapter of my book Comeback. You hear a lot of chatter in the Internet about the allegedly alluring power of the Georgetown cocktail party circuit. Believe me, it takes a lot more than a cocktail to buy a conservative leader. Thanks to FedEx, everybody now knows exactly how much it costs - and exactly who is on the take.