Born again hard

If you can tear yourself away from the Rove scandal, Max Blumenthal has a must-read book (and life) review in the Washington Monthly. The subject is Charles Colson, the Karl Rove of Nixon's day. Blumenthal reminds readers of some very salient factoids that even I did not know or had forgotten.

For example: Colson pioneered the technique of buying bulk copies of a propaganda book to place it on the bestseller lists. Quite a few folks (including yours truly) have erroneously credited L. Ron Hubbard with originating this gimmick. I suspect that a diligent researcher could find far earlier examples.

Colson's conversion only made him more dangerous. As Blumenthal notes, the former Nixon hatchet man became a key figure in The Family, the frightening cult at the center of Jeffrey Sharlet's instant-classic expose in Harpers. Wayne Madsen has taken Sharlet's work further in articles which paint the Family cult as a conspiratorial powerhouse. I'm never quite sure what to make of Madsen's work -- he's a rather controversial figure, even within lefty circles -- but at the very least, his words are worth reading and his allegations are worth double-checking, to the extent that they can be double-checked..