Another Rightwing Money Laundering Machine

Sometimes it is known as the "publishing business" but ethics-challenged rightwingers appear to find book sales to be a great source of untraceable cash that they can put to use to defeat candidates they don't like.

Today's NYTimes contains an article describing how Republican operatives Mary Matalin and Jerome Corsi have teamed up to market a smear piece on Barack Obama titled The Obama Nation. (Clever, doncha think?)

Of course, the NYT is only mentioning the book because it it is now on their Best Seller list for nonfiction, as was Corsi's previous work of fiction Unfit for Command which was cowritten with John O'Neill and lent credence to the whole Swiftboat phenomenon that sank John Kerry's campaign in 2004. Even though they provide the evidence, the Times' writers, JIM RUTENBERG and JULIE BOSMAN, fail to draw, or at least mention the possibility of, the conclusion that is obvious to me.

No, not that The Obama Nation is actually fiction, which it is. They actually do a pretty good job of pointing that out:

Significant parts of the book, whose subtitle is “Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality,” have already been challenged as misleading or false in the days since its debut on Aug. 1

No, the damning bit is a little later in the article:

“The goal is to defeat Obama,” Mr. Corsi said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want Obama to be in office.”

He said he was planning to aid several conservative groups that intend to run advertisements against Mr. Obama this fall, though he would not name them.

So, contrary to publisher Mary Matalin's statement in the article that the book is not a political work, but rather one of scholarship, the author admits that his sole purpose is to affect a political election.

The quote above also indicates that he intends to impact this election not only by spreading untruths, but also by secretly paying for political advertising  much as he did in 2004 by his support of Swiftboat Veterans for Truth [sic] with money from book sales.

So what qualifies this as a potentially illegal money laundering scheme? This:

The book is being pushed along by a large volume of bulk sales,...

So if you're a rightwing supporter or organizer that's max'ed out on legal contributions to the McSame campaign, or don't want your name or your organization traced to a group like Swiftboat Veterans for Truch [sic], or to the RNC due to a potential legal issue, just buy a few thousand copies of Mr. Corsi's book and let him make the cash transfer for you! And, you'll have lots of copies of a "scholarly work" (read: volume of misinformation) to hand out to your base as a bonus.

I gotta tell you, the only thing that exceeds the rightwing's unethicalness is their creativity at gaming the system.