There was an even better story about Scaife in the Washington Monthly during the summer of 1997. The Washington Monthly story cataloged Scaife's political descent from very liberal Scotch-Irish republican(?) to reactionary godfather.
In the early 1960's Scaife had a really close pal named Bob Duggan. Scaife and Duggan ran around together. Duggan was a big bluff Irishman, a hale and hearty good fellow, who was interested in politics and an attorney. Through his Irish charm Duggan got himself elected District Atty. of Allegheny Co.(Pittsburgh), quite an accomplishment for a republican in a democratic county . Duggan also dated Scaife's sister who is mentioned in the Washington Monthly story. To make a long story short. There were allegations made in the mid 60's that Duggan was taking money from racketeers. Not to long after these allegations had been made Bob Duggan had an accident with a shotgun; wether he killed himself or just tripped is a matter of conjecture.
>From this unfortunate accident Scaifes descent into the hell of
reactionary politics begins. Without his pal Duggan, and, influenced by
the republican reactionaries pandering to him, he becomes what he is
today. Also, some note should be taken that the now defunct Pittsburgh
Press played up the allegations against Duggan in a big way and may have
heightened Scaife's interest in the newspaper business.
Sincerely, Tom
John K. Taber wrote:
> You all might be interested in reading Karen Rothmyer's writeup on
> Richard Mellon Scaife. See _Citizen Scaife_ at
>
> http://www.cjr.org/year/81/4/scaife.asp
>
> However, to get the links for parts 2-5 and the "sidebar", do a search
> for "scaife".
>
> She tried very hard to interview him, and finally cornered him leaving
> the Union Club. She asked him:
>
> "Mr. Scaife, could you explain why you give so much money to the
> New Right?"
>
> "You fucking Communist cunt, get out of here."
>
> --
> I've been able to string more words into fewer ideas than anybody I
> know, and I'm continuing to do that.
> - Alan Greenspan to the Senate Budget Committee, Sept 23, 1998