Cooter's Way
York, Byron
Looter's Way Former Georgia congressman and "Dukes of Hazzard" star Ben Jones has launched an obsessive vendetta against House Speaker Newt Gingrich. And in Democratic whip Rep. David Bonior,...
...How about the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, site of Hillary Clinton's commodities windfall, which kicked in $20,000...
...A few days before Christmas, Bonior brought a brightly wrapped present to a Capitol Hill press room...
...The campaign is working...
...Among other things, he's planning to write a book—about Newt Gingrich...
...Newt Gingrich has the power in Washington now, and he also has a Cliff Jackson of his own: former Georgia Representative Ben Jones...
...Jones alleged that Gingrich "fabricated a `college course' intended, in fact, to meet certain political, not educational, objectives...
...Jones estimates he spends at least twenty hours a week on the project, talking to reporters, appearing on TV and talk radio, pressing the case...
...Jones laughs and continues...
...Chrysler added $12,000 to Bonior's coffers...
...To contrast himself with Gingrich, Jones announced he wouldn't accept any contributions from political action committees—although, in a previous race, Jones took $416,333 from PACs...
...Major editorials throughout the country have called for an outside counsel...
...Federal Election Commission records indicate that Bonior has taken large sums from an extraordinarily wide variety of contributors...
...Does the R.J...
...The figure had more than doubled in a week...
...Pat Schroeder and three other representatives filed complaints in late February...
...Three weeks later, Jones sent the committee 450 pages of supporting documents obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act...
...Then, in late January, Bonior sent the committee yet another release from Jones, one that focused on Gingrich's $4.5-million book deal...
...He's just full of s--t" Jones says...
...I mean, the guy's never done a damn thing, he's never worked a day in his life, he's never hit a lick at a snake...
...Gingrich has never worked...
...It didn't work, and Jones lost big on election day...
...But Ben Jones says his part in the campaign is nearly done...
...A spokeswoman for Bonior refused to answer several oral and written requests for information about the book's sales and the congressman's income...
...And it's not just Bonior...
...Bonior even accepted $500 from FOXPAC, owned by none other than Rupert Murdoch...
...So I think he's a hypocrite, and I think he's a wuss, and I don't mind saying that to him or whoever...
...When everybody had arrived and the cameras were rolling, he opened the box to reveal a large, crudely lettered check which he said represented Gingrich's $4.5 million advance...
...In any case, the committee itself could investigate Jones's allegations without an independent counsel...
...If I was getting paid by the hour what any ordinary lawyer in America makes, I'd be doing OK on this...
...I did," he replied...
...Together, Jones and Bonior have been assaulting Gingrich almost daily with soundbites and press releases...
...What I told him was 'This complaint is serious, it's substantive, and we need to stay on this thing...
...0 The American Spectator April 1995 23...
...He's never had any life experience...
...Jones is also a recovered alcoholic whose wife once charged him with battery after an altercation in a bar, he survived revelations about his hell-raising past, in part because his Republican opponent was indisputably corrupt...
...But four years later Jones was gone, defeated by redistricting and a liberal voting record that seemed out of touch with his constituents...
...20 The American Spectator April 1995 Jones criticized Gingrich's travels around the country on behalf of Republican candidates...
...Not quite...
...Some observers wondered whether Jones entered the race not to win but to harass Gingrich...
...But Jones claims he has a more personal reason for running against Gingrich and carrying on the ethics crusade...
...I mean, they would not rebound...
...once, in Alabama, he took along some hunting dogs, saying they were trying to pick up the scent of Newt...
...It was a curious statement from a man who in recent years has accepted millions of dollars—millions--in campaign contriThe American Spectator April 1995 21 butions from political action committees that represent corporations and unions with interests before Congress...
...The Gingrich matter is now with the House ethics committee, where it will take a majority vote to appoint an outside counsel...
...He's very gifted in his way at a sort of rhetorical terrorism, and he's gifted in his way at being a career politician, someone who understands how that system works and how to get ahead in it, which is everything that he has derided for all these years...
...An actor who played the dim-witted "Cooter" on the sitcom "The Dukes of Hazzard," he parlayed his TV fame and gregarious personality in 1988 into a seat in the House...
...B ut losing didn't stop Jones's campaign against Gingrich...
...David Bonior, he's found a PAC-pampered ally...
...The book is still available today...
...A dour ex-seminarian and social worker, the Michigan congressman was previously best known for his intense opposition to the Reagan administration's support of the Nicaraguan contras...
...Philip Morris Corporation contributed $11,000...
...It was a clear conflict of interest, according to Bonior, and he called on Gingrich to give up the money...
...I'm losing money on this deal," he says...
...Gingrich, the only Republican in the PAC Top 20, collected $280,901 less than Bonior...
...He asked the committee to investigate "Renewing American Civilization," a course Gingrich taught at Kennesaw State College in 1993...
...A reporter 22 The American Spectator April 1995 wanted to know: Hadn't Bonior also written a book...
...He's just a bulls--t artist...
...The kit contains the ethics complaints Jones filed, reprints of several newspaper articles, and fuzzy copies of phone bills, credit card receipts, and payroll records relating to the college course...
...Yet if one talks long enough with Jones, another, less godly motive emerges...
...So how much money did Bonior make off the book...
...I mean, think about it...
...As Democratic whip, Bonior will play a key role—and remain silent about his own ethics...
...We carried the ball all the way and now we're getting a little help," Jones says...
...What has this guy ever done in his life...
...There were guys like this in high school, remember...
...He is assisted by Steven Jost, a Washington political fundraiser who worked for Jones's campaign against Gingrich...
...Reporters are invited to call the Democratic National Committee if they have other questions...
...Unlike Jackson, who has no power base and few friends in the mainstream press, Jones has some powerful allies, including House Democratic Whip David Bonior...
...After an hour of quietly discussing the case while sitting in the living room of his Washington townhouse, Jones drifts to his personal feelings about Gingrich...
...I think I made $1,300 or something like that," Bonior said...
...Jost fields calls and hands out a 71-page anti-Gingrich press kit free to anyone who asks...
...Jones and Bonior called for an independent counsel to investigate the matter...
...Bill Clinton and Cliff Jackson...
...Unlike other congressional committees, the ethics panel is evenly divided between the parties, five members each...
...I wouldn't accept a royalty from someone who obviously has an interest to gain in very important legislation before this Congress...
...Jones has talked to journalistsfrom virtually every major newspaper, magazine, and television organization in the country—and they're listening...
...Potential conflicts of interest abound...
...Does the National Cable TV Association, from which Bonior accepted $15,000 in his last two campaigns, have business before Congress...
...The United Steel Workers gave him $20,000...
...After Gingrich did drop the advance, opting instead to accept royalties on books sold, Bonior called the press to say even the royalties deal was suspect "I wouldn't do that," he said...
...Bonior and Jones alleged that it was actually an outgrowth of the college course, which Jones maintained had improperly used congressional staff and resources...
...Before he gets to the public business, he's taking care of his own private profits"—appeared on TV newscasts and in newspaper articles...
...by Byron York A gifted young politician sets his sights on national office...
...On November 28, Bonior wrote a letter to the ethics committee passing on more of Jones's complaint about Gingrich's course...
...His acceptance of these huge PAC contributions, like Gingrich's book deal, violates no laws...
...According to the Almanac of American Politics, Bonior collected $934,613 from PACs in 1992, which made him the fourth-highest PAC money recipient in the House of Representatives, behind Missouri Democrat Richard Gephardt, California Democrat Vic Fazio, and Illinois Democrat Dan Rostenkowski (whose departure under indictment makes it likely that Bonior has moved up to third...
...After years of struggle he achieves his dream, only to be dogged by a jealous, bitter rival who schemes to sabotage his success...
...And they didn't work...
...He persuades authorities to launch investigations...
...It was an odd move...
...In November, Jones and Bonior met to plan the next step in their offensive...
...instead, it brought him together with Bonior...
...It was, he says, simply the right thing to do...
...Gingrich had jumped to a new district in the suburbs north of Atlanta, a district that has been called one of the most Republican in America...
...A week after he told reporters he made "five, six hundred dollars," he was asked about the book again...
...And the publisher refused to release sales figures...
...Bonior's photo-op soundbite—"This is an arrogant act...
...The Speaker dismisses the whole affair as sour grapes, but the attacks will no doubt continue, even multiply, as Gingrich opponents file complaints of their own...
...I wrote a book on Vietnam veterans, and I think I probably made $500...
...Jones believes the post-election campaign against Gingrich is more important than the real one last fall, because he's been able to, as he puts it, "bring things to light that are still being investigated and explored...
...He is...
...Accusing Gingrich of spending too little time at home, Jones occasionally showed up at Gingrich events around the country...
...He told the Hill newspaper, "Every morning I'd wake up and ask God what His will for me was, and I couldn't get around the fact that this was the thing for me to do at this time in my life...
...While Jones works the media circuit from his Washington home (he also has residences in Georgia and New York), his basketball teammate David Bonior carries on the attack from Capitol Hill...
...He said 'Go for it.'" And they did...
...Bonior wrote The Vietnam Veteran: A History of Neglect, which was published by Praeger Press in 1984...
...In the months since the elections, he has become the Democrats' point man in the War on Newt...
...Five, six hundred dollars, I don't remember exactly...
...He insists he is receiving no help, financial or otherwise, from the Democratic Party...
...assuming that all the Democrats vote against Gingrich, they'll still have to persuade one Republican to go along for a counsel actually to be appointed...
...That seems unlikely at best, although the resulting headline—"House Panel Deadlocked on Gingrich Ethics Charges"—might be enough to satisfy many Democrats...
...Maybe they always won the science project or something...
...See box...
...Reynolds Company, from which he accepted $16,500, have any such business...
...Or BellSouth Corporation, which forked over $20,000...
...The deal presented serious problems, Bonior said: HarpetCollin.s, the publishing company involved, is owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, whose television properties have several issues before Congress...
...What many viewers and readers weren't shown was a question asked later in that same press conference...
...When the reporter begins another question, Jones leans over the tape recorder, raises his voice and says, "He's the biggest a--hole in America...
...The rival approaches reporters, offering dirt for negative stories...
...David and I used to play a lot of basketball together [at the House gym], so I know him personally," says Jones...
...But Bonior cannot claim that everybody does it at his level...
...He certainly tried...
...Jones is an improbable crusader...
...It's time to move on, he says...
...To his mother, I don't care...
...Two months before election day, Jones hand-delivered a complaint to the House ethics committee—a complaint printed on "Ben Jones for Congress" stationery...
...But I'm not...
...And he appeals to the politician's enemies for help in his campaign...
...In 1994 Jones ran again, this time against Gingrich...
...Bankrolled by the national Democratic Party, which gave him $68,152, Byron York is a writer and television producer in Washington...
...Late last year, Bonior held a series of press conferences in which he blasted Gingrich for planning to accept the $4.5 million book advance...
...the hardcover, intended for purchase by libraries, sells for $49.95, and the paperback, aimed at the college textbook market, lists for $13.95...
Vol. 28 • April 1995 • No. 4
