Letter written to me by a long time Libertarian who knew Fund in Sacramento and in the LP.
Melinda,
I saw your post about the Raimondo article on Fund.
John Fund never has been a registered Libertarian.
Not for a single day in his life. What follows is in
thanks for your writing what you have written...I also
posted Raimondo. I always like Raimondo's writing;
never liked the guy, what little I knew of him.
I never was a fan of your activism either; but I like
what you've written over the years. And, I can't say
I took sides in the troubles regarding your
daughter...though I knew John Fund very well, and
though we had mutual friends, and spent alot of time
together socially, I never was on his side. I believe
he as wrong in that matter involving your daughter and
I believe many people you know helped him get away
with it.
Just cause I knew John.
Good thoughts in your article today; there is one part
of your theme on which I would like to suggest some
more information so you will have that to consider.
And that very simply is that you and others holding
title in the LP gave us Fund, and he was not then and
is not now part of some giant capable and culpable
organization.
There are twits. There are no Neo-Cons, at least not
in the sense of intelligent, capable activists. These
Neo-Cons, my good lady, simply are twits, and hired
twits at that.
I agree with your view of Koch et al.
Most people wouldn't hire Fund except as an automaton.
He was sponsored in by a Sabre grant, given a short
paying gig by Novak, and rose, basically by writing
scurilous garbage about good people...well, about
people, whom he made look really bad.
His first score was something Reader's Digest paid him
$3,000.00 for,and which blew the reputation and career
of a lady then working in the Reagan White House. I
know the amount and the details because he was feted,
at the same home I describe below at an earlier time,
and I asked him how he could write something like he'd
written. It was a story the poor lady told him when
she was half in the bag. It made her look crazy and
she lost her job with the Reagan Administration. In
the perversion of upper crust society, it raised
John's reputation and pay rate.
Fund, at that time and lasting till today, has been
feted at many libertarian and Libertarian events; paid
far more than he's worth to spin fantasies. Like the
fantasies he told the LPC Exec Comm, like he told
about his candidacy in Sacramento...I worked with
those local candidates...Fund NEVER did.
I didn't know, like you, that he'd lied about running
himself, until the Raimondo article came out. I knew,
at a distance, both Garris and Raimondo. I regarded
each like Fund, and kept my distance from all.
However, you and yours hired him, embraced his
bullshit and rewarded him for it.
I don't knock you for that; except if the LPC of that
time had anything to be proud of, it would at least
have had one member who'd spotted the biggest and most
obvious lie, as I tell you about below.
Fund was hired on by the LPC precisely because he was
full of shit. That's the reason the same organization
had hired Garris before him. The organization quite
frankly was dominated by people who had no people
skills...and, as a collective, certainly was full of
itself and full of shit.
Fund never was registered to vote as a Libertarian.
Not for a day. At the time he was scheming (along
with Crane) to cut Garris out of the job as Director
of the California LP, I asked him why he was
registered as a Republican.
We were having dinner and drinks at a friends' house;
there were, as I recall, three other people present,
in addition to Fund and I. Fund considered the removal
of Garris at that time to be a done deal, though not
finalized. Crane was his mentor in that.
John was surprised I knew he wasn't registered to vote
as a Libertarian. The only reason I asked him the
question was because he had been enthralling the
assembled with more of his insider wisdom regarding
the LP.
He told me his party affiliation would not hinder his
getting the job of Director, since "they'll never find
out" or something like that. Probably he was playing
to me, as he knew I held the LP in very low regard,
especially the LPC. I was then as now a registered
Libertarian.
We then discussed the lackadaisical nature of the LP
committees, including the LPC Exec Comm. I remember
in this conversation also Fund first explaining to me
his theory that "the higher you go in the Libertarian
Party the more socialistic it is". He was right about
the fact that his bona fides never were checked. The
LPC was not noted actually for doing any politics, and
although the State of California at that time provided
your Exec. Comm. with free lists of registered party
members, apparently no one ever checked. The fact of
alternate registrations could be true, if he had
bothered to falsely register elsewhere using a
completely bogus name, and for whatever screwy reason.
Likely, his insistence to you that he lived this
alternate life as intrepid activist is more Fund
bullshit. His name, John Fund, was on the registered
list, as a Republican (along with his sister and mom,
all of whom resided at the one address in Fair Oaks,
CA).
It was easy to check. No one did. Frankly, I think
someone should have checked. I knew he was a
registered Republican both because I worked campaigns
then, and I had voter lists and I had noticed. And,
as said, I'd asked him about it.
He told me he didn't want to be registered as a
Libertarian because it was a red flag to the
IRS---and, yes, this was when he still was living at
home, going to school sporadically and part-time and
before he became an official Star Trek promoter. He
also told me that registration as a Libertarian would
hinder his career path, whatever those may have been
at that time...he hadn't yet applied for the Sabre
Foundation grant which sent him to DC.
No one on the Exec Com ever bothered because none of
those on that board, at that time, ever actually ran
proper campaigns. If you remember, it was alot about
bullshit posturing and little about any actual
personal track record of accomplishment by those
holding titles.
I knew him then, and quite well. He had absolutely no
political skills. He was a very intelligent guy. He
could be very charming. He also could not be
believed. Some people spot that very easily. Some,
like those who sit on large committees, white table
cloths and water glasses (LPC EXEC COMM, or US SENATE,
take your pick) don't know much. Fund was just the
kind of guy one would expect the LPC of that time to
hire.
I would urge you to look beyond your own experiences
in the LPC before declaring it dead. It's been a job
for many to bring it back from what was done to it,
but it hasn't died and has been revived. There still
is some of that same problem, title holders doing
nothing but causing problems...but, that's party
politics. It's much less these days then before, from
what I can tell.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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