LETTERS
LETTERS Boos and kudos Katherine Boo’s “The Organization Woman” [December] left me as outraged as the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings themselves. Boo’s history is clearly not that...
...Howard Phillips was then and is now a close associate of Jesse Helms...
...But with Pat Buchanan and David Duke running for president, it would be best if Peters made his case for equity among the classes with greater rigor...
...However, TCCRAEF’s tax return (which was given to Shenk) points out that TCC reimburses TCCRAEF for any time spent by its employees working on TCC business...
...Because TCC’s volume of direct mail is much larger than that of TCCRAEF, its ratio of salaries to expenses is naturally lower...
...You’re right...
...The mere fact that the TCC budget is usually about five times larger than the TCCRAEF budget shows that people are willing to give to an action organization, even if it means sacrificing the tax deduction...
...It is sad that Mintz felt the need to try to tarnish one of this country’s most remarkable business leaders...
...There follows a reference to “one fundraising event” that was actually a six-month direct mail campaign...
...He is indeed, as the article noted, one of the most admired executives in the country...
...I know we will never convince him that we acted responsibly in all the instances he cited, and we won’t attempt to refute or correct any of his numerous arguments and assertions...
...LETTERS Boos and kudos Katherine Boo’s “The Organization Woman” [December] left me as outraged as the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings themselves...
...She showed physical bravery by putting herself in the middle of difficult situations in violent societies, and even more she showed intellectual bravery and independence by looking for explanations of why Latin American society works the way it does...
...But I will not leave unchallenged the vicious personal attack on Jim Burke, my predecessor as chairman of Johnson & Johnson...
...The fact is, twin organizations that are not scrupulous need not worry about being caught...
...Excellent...
...But that section of the article clearly states, “It is entirely conceivable that all of the payments are being made in proportion to the work carried out...
...CHARLES ORNDOFSF Vienna, Virginia MK Orndotf7 is administrative vice chairman of The Conservative Caucus...
...Larson is chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson...
...Sticks and Stokes Geoffrey Stokes’ review of my book The Media Show [Political Booknotes, November] tells readers that my book doesn’t deliver the goods...
...EDWIN DIAMOND New York, New York Non-prophet David Shenk’s article [“Nonprofiteers,” December] contains statements concerning The Conservative Caucus (TCC) and The Conservative Caucus Research, Analysis, and Education Foundation (TCCRAEF) that are both false and misleading...
...I wish the magazine would have applauded the attempt, even if it disagreed with the execution...
...And with good reason: He is a man of extraordinary integrity, and his leadership of Johnson & Johnson set new standards for corporate responsibility...
...Shenk’s analysis puts forward a grossly inflated figure for Mr...
...Boo’s history is clearly not that of most of us...
...Vital statistics Perhaps Charles Peters felt that his meaning was self-evident when he called “depressing” the fact that no American Jews died in the Persian Gulf war [Tilting at Windmills, December...
...Maybe the book isn’t perfect, and no doubt I am biased because Tina is a friend...
...The general accusation leveled by Shenk, that taxdeductible dollars are being used for lobbying purposes, is a serious one, but certainly not applicable to TCC and TCCRAEF...
...Orndorff hints in his letter of having turned over to me a volume of complete and selfexplanatory records...
...The problem is that the arrangements are, as reported on the tax forms, “vague...
...In addition, TCCRAEF uses its own salaried employees for most of its direct mail, while TCC contracts with outside agencies whose costs are not counted as salaries...
...RALPH S. LARSON New Brunswick, New Jersey Mr...
...The author replies: It’s true that I did not give a detailed history of the founding of The Conservative Caucus...
...On the question of disproportionate payment, I never asserted that payments were out of proportion to the work done...
...True, they looked wildly disproportionate on the forms I was given...
...If Stokes were pitching for the Yanks, George would have him outta there...
...I should add that Mr...
...JAMES M. FALLOWS Washington, D.C...
...I had remarked that Steinbrenner was among those bloated figures who rise, like hot air balloons, beyond the pull of media opinion...
...The point of my article is that the letter of the law is not very scrupulous...
...You got it right, the first time, all the way...
...The front page of the Daily News from January 20 reads: “Wanted: State Urges Baseball Commish to Bring Back The Boss...
...Please see the Political Book The editor replies: Awards on page 44...
...All grassroots lobbying and other efforts to influence Congress are carried out by TCC, using donations that are not deductible...
...Howard Phillips founded TCC in 1974...
...DAVE GELLMAN Evanston, Illinois Praising Cain I was disappointed to see that the Monthly, of all places, was so grudging about the merits of Tina Rosenberg’s book, Children of Cain [“Brothers in Arms,” James LeMoyne, November...
...Vermonter Stokes hoots at my “misreading” of the New York mood: The fans hate Steinbrenner, Stokes says...
...Although he enlisted the support of Senator Jesse Helms and others, the organization was not founded at the instigation of Helms and members of his staff, as Shenk claims...
...For TCC, however, I was given only a “New York State Department of State Annual Financial Report...
...TCCRAEF exists for the purpose of research and education...
...Had the statistically correct number of American Jews died in the Gulf-by my estimate 10 or 11-Peters, I trust, would not have called the fact “encouraging...
...Phillips’s “regular” salary, completely ignoring the fact (which was noted on the financial information we provided to Shenk) that payments to Phillips for the period in question included part of a previous year’s salary that had not been paid on time...
...Shenk inaccurately asserts that TCCRAEF and TCC have a relationship in which TCCRAEF pays a disproportionately large share of salaries, compared to its share of the income...
...He’s entitled, as we no longer say in New York...
...This requirement is scrupulously observed...
...But in writing this book she displayed two kinds of bravery that the Monthly has often called for from journalists...
...The “one fundraising event” referred to in the article was simply a lifting of how the campaign was designated on the tax forms...
...LYNN OLSON Lynnwood, Washington Regarding “The Organization Woman”: Right on...
...TCC’s postage costs, for example, are more than 24 times greater than those of TCCRAEF...
...Again, as the article stated: “Inherent in the current system of legally sanctioned twin organizations [501(c)3s and 501(c)4s] is the virtual assurance that the truth about millions of financial transactions will never be known...
...He did not succeed...
...BURYL B. NOAH Winchester, Virginia Mintz meat Morton Mintz’s attack on Johnson & Johnson [“Drug Fiends,” December] is a predictable anti-corporate diatribe...
...But I didn’t give a lot of irrelevant details...
...But as “evidence” for my book’s alleged shortcomings, he cites a throwaway line of mine about George Steinbrenner (the ex-Yankees owner), who is so peripheral to my book that he’s beyond the left-field fences...
...In fact, the forms the caucus made available to me were not the ones I asked to see, as allowed and required under the law...
...I believe my summary of the Caucus’s origins was accurate...
...The article states that “Helms and his associates . . . set up a series of fundraising and lobbying groups,” including The Conservative Caucus...
...For TCCRAEF, officials did indeed furnish me with the appropriate “990” form...
...I, for one, am perplexed by Peters’s comment, especially since he and The Washington Monthly vigorously-and appropriately -opposed the war with Iraq...
...We should have...
...If the accusations of laundering money through tax-deductible foundations were correct, we would expect to see those foundations receiving the lion’s share of the donations...
Vol. 24 • March 1992 • No. 3
