The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged Leadership Institute

Clarification — and Mea Culpa — on James O’Keefe and ‘Race and Conservatism’

By | 02.05.10 | 8:38 am

On Wednesday, I wrote a post reacting to Max Blumenthal’s story “James O’Keefe’s Race Problem” and was too quick with a description of the August 30, 2006 Robert Taft Club event on “race and conservatism.” Specifically, I wrote this:

A zoomed-in headshot of James O’Keefe (after the jump),

More…

The Organizer of the 2006 ‘Race and Conservatism’ Debate Speaks

By | 02.04.10 | 12:12 pm

I just got off the phone with Marcus Epstein, the conservative activist who organized the “race and conservatism” debate in 2006 that has become a flash point of debate since a photo surfaced of James O’Keefe in the audience. (Like I’ve said before, I also attended the event.)

“I’ve More…

Race and James O’Keefe

By | 02.03.10 | 12:06 pm

In 2006, I attended an event hosted by the Robert Taft Club, a proudly un-PC debate society run by young conservative activists who worked at the Leadership Institute — Marcus Epstein, Kevin DeAnna — and The American Conservative. They specialized in subjects that would be too controversial for other More…

Campus Right Unbowed by O’Keefe Scandal

By | 02.03.10 | 6:00 am

When James O’Keefe applied for a grant to fund a conservative newspaper at Rutgers University, he appealed to people like Sarah Longwell. As the senior program officer at the Collegiate Network, she toured campuses across America to help conservative and libertarian students start newspapers or keep their publications running. She More…

James O’Keefe and Ben Wetmore Get Married

By | 02.02.10 | 10:28 am

Ben Wetmore, the 28-year-old conservative activist whom James O’Keefe called a “mentor,” has stayed out of the headlines since it was revealed that he housed O’Keefe and the other participants in the bungled sting of Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office. When I reached Wetmore by phone yesterday, he politely declined More…

Conservative Journalism Networks Back Away From O’Keefe and Co.

By | 01.28.10 | 10:02 am

Ken Vogel has an essential story looking at the not-so-secret, but rarely examined, collegiate conservative fund network that trained James O’Keefe, Stan Dai, and the other plotters in the Mary Landrieu phone tampering scandal. The Leadership Institute and the Collegiate Network helped O’Keefe and the others get trained and More…

James O’Keefe, the College Years

By | 01.27.10 | 10:51 am

A friend passes on a copy of the inaugural issue of The Centurion, the conservative paper James O’Keefe started at Rutgers University — before he worked for a year at the Leadership Institute, helping conservatives on other campuses start their own publications.

The issue is after the jump, and it’s More…

Tea Party Convention Drama Fueled by Emerging GOP Alliance

By | 01.14.10 | 12:13 am

PALIN

Late last year, Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation came to Eric Odom with a proposition. Odom’s group, the American Liberty Alliance–a free market, anti-tax group launched in March 2009, after its leaders had helped put together the first Tea Party protests–could sign on with the National Tea Party More…