Chuck Hagel should think twice about joining a Bloomberg ticket

"It's a great country to think about--a New York boy and a Nebraska boy to be teamed up leading this nation," Republican Senator Chuck Hagel told CBS' s "Face the Nation" somewhat incoherently back in mid-May, after having dinner with Michael Bloomberg to discuss a joint independent run for the Presidency and Vice Presidency.

Media speculation on such a partnership soon waned--until Bloomberg's June 19 announcement that he was quitting the Republican Party, an obvious first step for meeting the legal requirements to get on the ballot as an independent in all fifty states. The National Journal noted that Hagel had been smart to start courting Bloomberg early on, while Nebraska's North Platte Bulletin suggested a Bloomberg-Hagel deal is a strong possibility. Other news articles as well as blogs are keeping the idea of the so-called dream ticket alive. (On the Colbert Report, comedian Jon Stewart quipped: "Bloomberg-Hagel? That doesn't sound like a dream ticket. That sounds like a rare genetic disorder.")

If the Mayor and the Senator run together, there's no doubt who would head the ticket. Bloomberg is one of the wealthiest men in America, and has let it be known that if he enters the race he will spend up to one billion dollars of his personal fortune to become President.

Hagel, a two-time Purple Heart winner in Vietnam and a staunch Republican on most issues except the Iraq war, should examine closely the downside of linking his career to Bloomberg's. The New York mayor and founder of Bloomberg LP is known as a generous boss, but does Hagel really want to be the campaign water boy who has to answer not only for Bloomberg's stance on gun control and family values but for whatever strange scandals might be lurking in the background of this odd fish?

One such scandal may underlie the mayor's creepy ongoing relationship (for at least the past seven years) with Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani of the secretive International Workers Party, a spinoff cult from the Lyndon LaRouche mothership that has used patronage and personal support from the mayor to bolster its programs for children and teens. These programs utilize "social therapy"--a therapeutic modality invented by Mr. Newman and emphasizing revolutionary indoctrination, a collectivist lifestyle, and "friendosexuality" between therapists and patients.

What will Hagel say when media in the Midwest and the South break the wall of silence that Mayor Bloomberg, with the help of the New York press barons, has constructed around this relationship? How will the Senator answer questions from newspapers in his own state about why Bloomberg has given millions of dollars in city financing (and hundreds of thousands, at least, from his own pocket) to a self-styled Marxist outfit that encouraged Col. Gadhafi's violence against Americans in the late 1980s--and which then reaffirmed its unconditional support for the Libyan dictator after he blew up Pan Am Flight 103? What will the senator's response be when faith-based organizations ask why Bloomberg has helped to promote a charity run by the Newman-Fulani cult to work with children as young as five, even though Bloomberg knows all about the cult's long history of defending NAMBLA and other child molesters and of openly promoting Newman's "friendosexualism" among teens?

I suggest that Senator Hagel look into this matter, and that he not accept at face value the excuses of Bloomberg's flunkies such as Kevin Sheekey and Ester Fuchs. The truth is not hidden but right out in the open. The Senator can go to http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=200&aid=54773 and see the award winning six-part series on Bloomberg's favorite cult that appeared on the independent cable news channel NY1 in late 2005. His staff can then find abundant backup material (including a cover article from The New Republic) at http://ex-iwp.org, http://lyndonlarouchewatch.org/devloan.htm and http://publiceye.org/newman/napmain.html. Also, there are many former victims of the Mayor's favorite cult who would be happy to share their experiences with the Senator's staff.

I suspect that Senator Hagel, who is the father of two teenagers, will have some serious questions to pose to the mayor after learning about the Newman cult's record of teen exploitation. On the other hand, the Senator may really believe that joining a Bloomberg ticket is the best way to reach the public with his critique of the Iraq disaster.  But he should insist, as a condition of his participation, that Bloomberg (a) publicly break all ties with Newman, Fulani and their phony youth charities and therapy clinics, and (b) unequivocally denounce social therapy and all its works.

From Bloomberg's response, Chuck Hagel will learn not only whether he can safely join a Bloomberg ticket without becoming a hostage to eccentricity, but also whether New York's mayor really has the minimal character and judgement to occupy the Oval Office.

Comments

[wallpapers]

he should think 5 times instead of twice.

[Mary]

Well said.