Geffen's Clinton History And The Future Of The LA Times

David Geffen's recent criticism of the Clintons has put a spotlight on the relatively publicity-shy Hollywood mogul who wants to buy the LA Times. Now we know that a Geffen LAT will be, if this is conceivable, even more liberal and out of touch.

Today's LAT has a three-click chronicle of the Clinton-Geffen friendship that reveals Geffen to be much more active in gay and radical causes than his publicists would have you believe. Among the juicies:

• Geffen's considerable contributions ($1.2 million over the 8 year term) came with strings.
  
  
• The first string was Geffen's push to have gays welcomed without restriction in the military. Despite making this a key policy wish, Geffen was disappointed when Clinton took a less risky, but still controversial, "Don't ask/don't tell" approach.
  
  
• Geffen pushed for more liberal social policies from the Clintons -- once from atop his chair at a fundraising banquet. Behavior like this earned him a reputation as a high-maintenance whiner from Clinton staffers.
  
  
• Clinton's finger-pointing at Hollywood's violent video game industry after Columbine angred Geffen, who wanted Clinton to enact tougher gun controls, not controls on Hollywood.

The most radical of all Geffen's attempts to use his contributions to buy influence was his pressure on Clinton to pardon the killer of two FBI agents, Leonard Peltier. Peltier is a radical Native American activist convicted to a life term for the 1975 shooting deaths at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Hardly a mainstream issue, Peltier's cause is anti-American, anti-law enforcement, anti-white man. Even Clinton, who could find his heart to pardon the utterly corrupt Marc Rich, could see that Peltier would be a legacy-killer on a par with a certain blue dress. This spelled the end of the Geffen-Clinton alliance and the opening of the door to the hostility that led to Geffen's "meltdown." Here's the LA account:

A pardon was a long shot. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) was opposed, and more than 500 federal agents and their families protested outside the White House.

According to Geffen associates, DreamWorks corporate spokesman Andy Spahn contacted the White House three times on Peltier's behalf, and Geffen spoke to Clinton about it. Clinton associates recalled only that there were "general contacts." Clinton was "noncommittal," a Geffen intimate said.

When Clinton denied Peltier's petition, Geffen told an aide, "This guy's a politician; you know what they're like."

Geffen's disappointment turned to ire when he learned who did win pardons. They included Marc Rich, a wealthy commodities trader who had fled to Switzerland after he was indicted in 1983 for tax evasion, and convicted Los Angeles drug dealer Carlos Vignali, whose case was pressed by Hugh Rodham, Hillary Clinton's brother.

Several Geffen intimates say he was most angered by a Time magazine article quoting Clinton as telling friends that his denial of the Peltier pardon showed he had not traded pardons for money. "David Geffen will barely talk to me!" Clinton reportedly said.

"That sent him up the wall," an associate said of Geffen. "He had a thing about people who used him to prop themselves up."

So we have in Geffen a man with a lot of money who shares with George Soros a belief that money should push the American agenda to the Left. He embraces a radical gay agenda, a liberal social agenda, wants strict gun control -- and he's easily pursuaded by hand-wringing radicals who cry out that activists have been mistreated by The Man.

So far, there's no news from Tribune Corp. regarding who will ultimately acquire the LA Times. If it is Geffen, I might consider re-subscribing, just so I can cancel my subscription agian.