Commie-lovin' Republicans

By now, you probably have read Joe Conason's expose of the anti-Kerry propaganda organization, Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth. Leading lights in this group include Lewis Waterman, William Franke, and Stephen Hayes. These men also head up a company called Gannon International -- which has extensive business ties to Vietnam. Imagine what the right-wing pundits would say if a prominent anti-Bush group used money earned from dealings with Vietnam!

But that's not all. Look at the pattern:

Rupert Murdoch -- The owner of Fox News does tons of business with China; his American news outlets squelched reportage on the Chinese crisis of April, 2001. (Wouldn't want to offend a partner...)

Sun Myung Moon -- The man (or Messiah?) behind the Washington Times has talked the anti-communist talk for decades, which doesn't stop him from doing a large amount of business with North Korea.

Israel -- beloved by neocons, the Israeli government often works closely with China, in the realms of both business and science. Israel even sells an enormous amount of arms (including guided missile systems!) to the world's largest communist nation.

The Bush family -- long-standing business ties to China; most recently, Neil Bush took a $400k-a-year gig to help out with a Chinese computer chip company. The George Bushes, father and son, also have heavy ties to Moon (and thus, to North Korea)...

Dick Cheney -- business ties to China and, in days gone by, with the Soviets.

Mitch McConnell (arch-conservative Kentucky senator) and his wife, labor secretary Elaine Chao -- Tied to China through the Lippo group.

Henry Kissinger -- long-standing ties to China.

Wal-Mart -- The store is run by one of the most conservative families in America. You know damn well where all that cheap clothing is made.

And that's only a quick run-through. What's appalling is the double-standard. All my life, right-wing pundits have screamed like Fay Wray on fire whenever they have perceived any link -- real, tangential, or imaginary -- between any Democrat and the godless bolshies. The rightists have always insisted that all communist countries should be treated like lepers. Hell, the right-wing conspiracist networks were spreading scare-stories as late as 1995 (!) that the Red Army was about come marching across into California via Mexico.

But when Republican big-wigs do "bidness" with the commies to the tune of millions, billions of bucks -- well. That's very different. The G.O.P. money men can do that which is forbidden to others...

[Note: In the original posting, and on usenet, I referred to "South Vietnam." That's what I get for reading a history of the war the week before. Many years ago, I referred to Brezhnev as "the Czar," because I had been reading War and Peace.]