Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The group that Vitter wants to give $100,000 of our tax money to has quite an interesting history. It was founded by Tony Perkins, how the head of the Family Research Council, the political wing of Focus on the Family, in 1998. Guess how he may have built up the membership for this group? By purchasing the mailing list from a KKK group:
In 1996 Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list. At the time, Perkins was the campaign manager for a right-wing Republican candidate for the US Senate in Louisiana. The Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke.
But that's not all. Even more recently than that, he has spoken to white supremacist groups:
Four years ago, Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), America's premier white supremacist organization, the successor to the White Citizens Councils, which battled integration in the South.
One need only look at the statement of principles for this group to understand exactly where they're coming from. That statement declares America to be a "Christian Nation", speaks out against all non-European immigration and says that they "oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind." Not much ambiguity there.
And it's highly unlikely that Perkins didn't know who he was addressing. The Republican National Committee has specifically called the CCC a racist group and so has the Conservative Political Action Committee. After past scandals have broken out over other Republican politicians, like Bob Barr, Trent Lott and George Allen, addressing CCC events, there's no way that Perkins didn't know exactly who he was speaking to and what they stood for.
Comments
As annoying as it is, Mr. Brayton, these guys just don't care. Lott and his ilk; this is a big, wealthy part of their constituency. Folks on the national level may pay lip service to ideas of fair play and equality, but that doesn't change who they are or the views they entertain, and this guy's just a state pol. Hopefully this whole episode will lead Vitter to being voted out next time he's up for election, but given the way things are in Louisiana, that's a slim hope.
Posted by: Julian | September 26, 2007 10:18 AM
Family values. Hilarious.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | September 26, 2007 10:33 AM
Wasn't Vitter caught with his hand in the nookie jar several times? Does putting up some money for fellow hypocrites score a three-pointer for god? This must be some sort of record for political whoring.
Posted by: carey | September 26, 2007 12:46 PM
For what it's worth, I've come across the LFF a couple of times, in relation to post-Katrina activities: see here and here.
Posted by: Bartholomew | September 26, 2007 12:54 PM
Did they used to be the White Citizens Council?
Posted by: khan | September 26, 2007 3:47 PM
Boy! And there was a big stink about Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia Universtity. The US government is funding wingnuts directly. Perhaps, Iran can get an earmark too...
Posted by: George | September 26, 2007 3:47 PM
Hey Ed,
Ah, the old Max Blumenthal smear job. Doesn't anyone think its odd that no major media has ever picked up that story and ran with it? I mean, Perkins is a national figure so it would be newsworthy, wouldn't it?
The fact is that they did check it out. And unlike a certain wannabe journalist who got his job at a washed-up magazine through nepotistic means, they know how to do research.
FRC called Blumenthal out on his shoddy reporting about the Duke stuff years ago: http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=LH05F09
David Duke hates Perkins. Hates him. So to claim that their is some sort of connection is just silly.
***And it's highly unlikely that Perkins didn't know who he was addressing.****
Really? Have you ever heard of them before? Perkins said he didn't know they were a racist group when he spoke to them. In fact, if the CCC had known about Perkins connections to black churches and pastors they would have never invited him.
C'mon, Ed. You can find enough legitimate reasons to complain about the LFF without having to resort to second-hand smears by a third-rate hack like Blumenthal.
Posted by: Joe Carter | September 26, 2007 3:51 PM
Joe Carter wrote:
I have contacted Max Blumenthal to find out what specific evidence he has on this. I will report back what I find out one way or the other. If Perkins' claim is right, that he only contracted with a company that was later found to have ties to Duke, then I agree that that is a very thin basis for claiming that he bought Duke's mailing list.
On this one, I'm going to disagree. Yes, I've known about the CCC for well over a decade. Years before Perkins spoke to them there were major scandals over Bob Barr, Trent Lott, Jesse Helms and several other major figures on the right speaking to them. As I indicated, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and the head of CPAC both publicly called it a racist organization. I think it is highly, highly unlikely that he didn't know who he was talking to.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | September 26, 2007 4:09 PM
One of Blumenthal's charges is:
"The Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke."
The Family Research Council rebuttal Joe Carter mentions above makes no denial that such a fine was paid. Wouldn't it be pretty easy to find out if there was such a fine?
Posted by: hoary puccoon | September 26, 2007 5:38 PM
The Family Research Council rebuttal Joe Carter mentions above makes no denial that such a fine was paid. Wouldn't it be pretty easy to find out if there was such a fine
Yes, it was. :-)
http://eqs.sdrdc.com/eqsdocs/0000016F.pdf
This is part of the facts agreed to in the 1999 conciliation agreement between the FEC and Woody Jenkins
In other words, they not only bought the list from Duke, but contracted with Duke to make the calls; didn't like Duke's name showing up on the caller ID; tried to conceal the transaction; and got caught. Amazes me you can get away with a $3000 fine for lying to the Feds.
Posted by: Gerard Harbison | September 26, 2007 6:40 PM
hoary puccoon wrote:
Probably, but it's not terribly relevant to the real charge here. The real charge is that he knowingly gave money to David Duke to get his mailing list. If the reality is that he just hired a media firm to do some direct calling and it later turned out that Duke had a financial stake in that firm, that's quite a different reality.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | September 26, 2007 6:41 PM
The real charge is that he knowingly gave money to David Duke to get his mailing list. If the reality is that he just hired a media firm to do some direct calling and it later turned out that Duke had a financial stake in that firm, that's quite a different reality.
According to the agreement signed by Woody Jenkins, Duke called Jenkins and suggested he use Impact Mail. Hard to argue he didn't know the connection.
Posted by: Gerard Harbison | September 26, 2007 6:45 PM
V. Respondents howingly and willllly
That should read 'V. Respondents knowingly and willfully'. !@#$% OCR software!
Posted by: Gerard Harbison | September 26, 2007 6:46 PM
Ah, Mr. Harbison has found the proverbial smoking gun and I dare say it makes things look worse for Perkins, not better. That document shows that the campaign absolutely knew that they were hiring David Duke's company to do the calling. Not only that, they then sought to cover up the fact that it was David Duke's company doing the calling by paying through a third party. Mr. Carter, what say you?
Posted by: Ed Brayton | September 26, 2007 6:50 PM
Tony Perkins didn't know that the CCC was a racist organization? The nutty fundies have used that excuse before. "Even though I've lived my whole life in a segregated town in the deep south, I didn't know that the guys in sheets who were hanging the colored guys were KKK members." No person with any political acumen speaks before a group he or she knows nothing about.
Posted by: wrpd | September 26, 2007 7:49 PM
Mr. Carter, what say you?
Ed (you can call me Gerry), excuse me for interjecting, but I think the relevant comment is 'chirp, chirp, chirp'.
Posted by: Gerard Harbison, FCD | September 27, 2007 12:01 AM
Joe Carter--
Thanks so much for taking the time to encourage Ed Brayton to delve into this further and double-check his facts. I, for one, now have a MUCH clearer picture of what kind of organization the Louisiana Family Forum really is. I shall, of course, be e-mailing my senators to urge immediate action regarding Sen. Vitter's proposed $100,000 budget item.
Again, thanks for your help.
Posted by: hoary puccoon | September 27, 2007 6:07 AM
I would suggest that interested parties go to Mr. Carters' web site. They will certainly find his support of creationism and homosexual bashing to be pertinent to evaluating his diatribes against the Nation magazine in general and Mr. Blumenthal in particular.
Posted by: SLC | September 27, 2007 9:42 AM
SLC-- Gay bashing, too? I'll warn my husband to stay out of public restrooms if Mr. Carter is in the vicinity.
Posted by: hoary puccoon | September 27, 2007 11:55 AM
And to be perfectly clear, that's NOT because my husband has any interest in using them as cruising grounds. He'll leave that to Sen. Vitter's Republican colleague.
Posted by: hoary puccoon | September 27, 2007 12:03 PM
To understand exactly from where they're coming, the only need is to look at the statement of principles for this group. That statement declares America to be a "Christian Nation".
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Thanks so much for taking the time to encourage Ed Brayton to delve into this further and double-check his facts. I, for one, now have a MUCH clearer picture of what kind of organization the Louisiana Family Forum really is.
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