http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/06/27/10-things-to-know-about-charlie-black/10 Things to Know about Charlie Black
Jon Ponder | Jun. 27, 2008
snip//
7. Lee Atwater: In 1985, Lee Atwater, the man who taught Karl Rove and George Bush Jr. everything they know about political hatchet work and the dark art of manipulating the masses, joined Black’s lobbying firm within months after serving as deputy campaign manager in the 1984 Reagan-Bush campaign. Black and Atwater went way back. In 1973, Atwater managed the campaign of Karl Rove to become president of the College Republicans, defeating his opponent, Terry Dolan, whose campaign had been managed by Charlie Black, Roger Stone and Paul Manafort.
In March 1990, Lee Atwater was serving as chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor (which many people believed developed because of his constant use of a then new-tech cordless telephone). Atwater named Charlie Black as his “mouthpiece” at the RNC while he dealt with his illness. As the disease progressed, Atwater came to see the error of his ways and made rounds of phone calls seeking forgiveness from Democrats and others whose reputations and careers he had destroyed. There has never been any evidence that Black, Rove, Bush Jr. and the others learned anything from Atwater’s end-of-life come-to-Jesus.
8. Ailes on Black: About Black, Roger Ailes, then (as now) a Republican media consultant (only now he masks his party operative role behind the legit-sounding title of president of Fox News), said ”
Charlie’s the kind of guy who if he came home and found somebody making out with his wife on a rainy day, he’d break the guy’s umbrella and ask him to leave, then have him killed a year later. {Lee Atwater}] would blow the house up.” (New York Times, July 21, 1990)
9. Homophobic Remarks: In March 1993, when the gays in the military issue was in the headlines, Charlie Black and Iran-Contra scandal figure Oliver North made headlines when they chimed in with homophobic remarks at a banquet in Northern Virginia for retired Republican Rep. Rep. Stan Parris. According to the New York Times (March 19, 1993), before Black and North spoke, Virginia state Senator Warren E. Barry began his keynote comments by referring to “‘the Clinton fags-in-the-foxhole’ policy and then joked about how Mr. Parris, when he was in Congress, seemed to be constantly at odds with the officials of the District of Columbia, who are mostly black. He recalled that Mr. Parris had once called a bridge leading from Washington to Virginia ‘the longest bridge in the world because it connects Virginia to Africa.’ He went on, with a laugh, to say Mr. Parris sought to rename the bridge ‘Soul Brothers Causeway.’”
When it was Black’s turn, he joked that Clinton was going to change the words of the Marine Corps hymn to “Don we now our gay apparel.” (ROTFL.) When it was time for Ollie North’s comedic turn, the Times reported that he “included a line about how he had repeatedly tried to place a telephone call to Mr. Clinton but could not get through until he lisped to the operator, ‘Excuse me!’”
10. Friends Like These: In a New York Times profile of Black in February 1996, one anonymous “friend” said of Charlie, “He’s very folksy, but he’s tough. Charlie will pat you on the back one moment, stab you in the back the next.”
John Buckley, an admirer, said,
“Charlie would never stab you in the back. You would be gutted from the front. You just wouldn’t know it until you’re dead.”
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