Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann dig deeper into the "Family" connections of Sen. John Ensign
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I've added a "Saturday Update" to my post last night about the power-mongering religious cult the Family, which included Rachel Maddow's riveting Thursday-night segment, with guest Jeff Sharlet, who literally wrote the book on the subject.
Rachel herself was so overwhelmed by the subject that she felt compelled to do a follow-up segment last night, with Jeff Sharlet back, focusing on the weird system of "life coaching" apparently practiced among the members. She's especially taken with the newly revealed tale of Sen. John Ensign being browbeaten by his Family coaches (including, most famously, OK nutjob Sen. Tom Coburn) to break off his affair, even forcing him to write a letter to his heartthrob breaking it off and then dragging him to FedEx to send it -- except that the wily adulterer managed to sneak off to a telephone to call the lovely Cindy to tell her to pay no attention to the letter, and flew out to, um, "be" with her.
Come to think of it, Keith Olbermann also went wild over this story, and was in fact driven to a new installment of his, er, legendary Puppet Theater (there's also a follow-up with interview with Margaret Carlson on the political ramifications, which she thinks will now be dire):
Here's what I'm wondering: Do you think "Shut up, Coburn" is going to be the next big catch phrase?
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Labels: Family (The), Jeff Sharlet, John Ensign, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow
posted by KenInNY @ 10:30 AM
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Does this "group think" of The Family have any connection to the "Just vote no" tactic of the Repubs? Ya' think???
Hmm . . .
Ken
I have long believed there is a "Family" connection to some of the least main stream Repubs, who would do ANYTHING to get one of their undead into the White House.
Think Michele Bachmann, BOTH Bachmanns attended Oral Roberts schools, Michele-Regents U of Monica Goodling fame, and look who campaigned for her in 2006-Hastert-Rove-Cheney-The Decider.
Amen?
As the author of the book, The Family (i'm the guy in the maddow video above), I can tell you that The Family's strength isn't with fringe Republicans but with mainstream politicians -- of both parties. When I met Ensign at the C Street house, Sen. Jim Demint was there. Later that very day, I went with a group of Family men to the office of then-Senator Don Nickles, #2 Republican at the time. His colleague from OK, Sen Inhofe, is also a member, as is Sen Coburn, a resident of the C Street house. Sen Chuck Grassley has been deeply involved for years (as was John Ashcroft -- politically and musically, leading singalongs on the piano at the Family's Arlington mansion, The Cedars.) Among Democrats, participants include Sen. Mark Pryor, pro-war, anti-labor Dem from Arkansas, who told me that through the Family he'd learned that the separation of church and state wasn't in the Constitution (it's in the First Amendment) and conservative Dem senator Bill Nelson.
"We work with power where we can," says Family leader Doug Coe, "build new power where we can't." That includes Republicans and Democrats, unfortunately.
Wow, thanks for the update, Jeff! Creepier and creepier.
Ken
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