Former HHS Secretary Joseph Califano calls him the "Daddy Warbucks of drug legalization." He's "been a blemish on the face of drug policy and prevention for years," says Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation. One of the wealthiest men in America, he's used his personal fortune (estimated at $7 billion) to fund drug legalization and pro-euthanasia campaigns. He has compared the Bush Administration to the Third Reich. He's the piggy bank for most of the anti-Bush 527s. Like giggly cheerleaders in the presence of the star quarterback, Democrats go limp at the mention of his name. He's George Soros, a man with a mission: to defeat George Bush and deconstruct Western society. On October 5, Soros will begin a 12-city tour to bolster the sagging Kerry campaign. He's written a pamphlet-with the snappy title, "Why We Must Not Re-Elect President Bush"-that's being mailed to two million voters, and launched a new website, GeorgeSoros.com, where he laments: "I have been demonized by the Bush campaign." But Soros has his fans. Soros' Fan Club Last month, a group of Democratic congressmen sent him a mash note straight out of junior-high study hall. ("Can we meet in the gym after school?" pant! pant!). Congressmen Barney Frank (Mass.), George Miller (Calif.), Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), and several of their colleagues planted a big wet one on the Bambino of Bush-bashing, writing: "We admire your dedication to the ideals of an open and fair society, and we appreciate your willingness and ability to draw lessons from your considerable economic success in the private sector of how we can best proceed with public policies that promote economic growth and social equity both here and in the world." They all but ended it with You big, billionaire stud-muffin, you! The billet-doux expressed shock at the "McCarthyite attacks made on you by some American politicians." This was a reference to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who has noted that Soros is both the principal funder of the independent anti-Bush effort and the deep pockets of drug legalization. Lear-jet Utopian Since Democrats are the beneficiaries of millions from this Lear-jet utopian, they have a responsibility to, at the very least, disassociate themselves from his pro-drug agenda, Speaker Hastert suggested. This elicited the predictable cries of McCarthyism-which usually means, "you're exposing us, and we don't like it." In fact, Hastert's logic is unassailable. Soros plays Saudi banker to the Democrats' 527 jihad, including the Big Four of Hate Bush independents-America Coming Together, Campaign for America's Future, MoveOn.org and Joint Victory Fund-ACT alone has received more than $10 million from the currency manipulator in the past two years. Soros also has pumped tens of millions into medical fraud marijuana legalization initiatives, needle-exchange programs and think tanks promoting "decriminalization" and so-called "harm reduction" (teaching kids how to use narcotics "safely"). He's the financial angel of The Marijuana Policy Project, The Drug Policy Foundation, The Lindsmith Center, the Andean Council of Coca Leaf producers, and the Drug Policy Alliance (which has received $8.5 million from Soros since 2001). Bob Weiner, spokesman for Gen. Barry McCaffrey when he was President Clinton's Drug Czar, said of Soros' Lindsmith Center: "I'm sure Lindsmith's desire to take us into nihilism and chaos and jam our hospital emergency rooms with more users has some useful purpose." Euthanasia Advocate He's also the Angel of Death. In the 1990s, Soros provided $15 million as start-up capital for Project Death in America, a grant-giving group that funds campaigns for euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide. Soros likes to say that he "puts money where his mouth is." He has no shortage of either. Soros charges that George W. Bush "feels he was anointed by God" [after September 11] and is "leading the U.S. and the world toward a vicious cycle of escalating violence," there's hardly an issue on which he doesn't have an opinion. Generally, the Hungarian-born financier sounds like Barbra Streisand on drugs. Here are some vintage G.S. rants:
- "When I hear Bush say: 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans." This is not a reference to Kant and Schopenhauer.
- The comments of Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Atty.Gen. John Ashcroft on the need to fight an aggressive war on terrorism "are the views of extremists, not adherents to an open society."
- Having the chutzpah to blame the U.S. and Israel for the rise of global anti-Semitism, Soros has said: "There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush Administration and the Sharon administration contribute to that."
- Soros is a dyed-in-the-wool root-causer, "The war on terrorism cannot be won by waging war. Correct the grievances on which terrorism feeds"-which, one assumes, include poverty, what Soros considers Israel's beastly treatment of the poor Palestinians, racial-profiling of Muslims and the drug war.
- Soros applies the same surrender logic to society's struggle against mind-altering, soul-annihilating substances: "The war on drugs is doing more harm to our society than drug abuse itself." Moreover, since "substance abuse is endemic in most societies...the war on drugs cannot be won." Then how explain the experience of the Reagan years, when anti-drug spending and prison sentences for pushers went up, and drug use declined dramatically.
- Despite the euphemisms to which he is addicted ("decriminalization," "harm reduction," "medical marijuana," etc.), in his book, Soros on Soros, G.S. let the syringe out of the bag: "I'll tell you what I would do if it were up to me. I would establish a strictly controlled distribution network through which I would make most drugs, excluding the most dangerous ones like crack, legally available."
And the Democrats think this guy is the greatest thing since Michael Moore. They rush to accept his soft money. They fawn on him for his supposed "dedication to the ideals of an open and fair society." They defend him against "McCarthyite attacks." At the same time, they doggedly refuse to take a position on his demented advocacy of extremist measures. Does Barney Frank really believe Israel is responsible for Jews being beaten in the streets of France? Does Rahm Emanuel want to give Grandma a lethal injection? Is John Kerry in favor of legalized dope-the kind you smoke, as opposed to the kind who say they'll vote for him? Hey, Democrats, can you say accountability?
