Ben Sasse: The Insider Denier

source

Brandon Turbeville

The Anti Media

June 9, 2014

There is a new Republican rock star arising from the fields of Nebraska and his name is Ben Sasse. Unsurprisingly, however, this rising Republican star comes more from the halls of Ivy League universities and government than any corn field remotely near the state of Nebraska.

Currently, Sasse is the Republican candidate seeking to gain the US Senate seat that was vacated by former Republican incumbent Mike Johanns. His opponents are Democrat David Domina and Tax Wall Street Party candidate Dan Buhrdorf. 

Considering the massive amounts of money and support from establishment Republicans and Neo-Con/Reactionary organizations, it is quite likely that Sasse will be able to pull out an easy victory in Nebraska, especially since money almost always equals success in American politics.

However, there is much more to Ben Sasse than meets the eye, especially in terms of how he is portrayed by the mainstream media. Indeed, both his private as well as his government jobs should raise the eyebrows of any potential supporter.

For instance, in the private sector, Sasse was formerly employed by McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm that once employed Chelsea Clinton. The firm serves as an adviser to both governments and private businesses and has produced more CEOs than any other company. 

Sasse was also employed with Boston Consulting Group, another global management firm, considered to be in the “Big Three” of such institutions. BCG alone advises 2/3 of the Fortune 500 hundred list. Readers may remember that BCG also once employed Mitt Romney. Indeed, it was during his tenure at BCG that Romney and Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly first met and developed a long lasting connection and friendship.

Sasse later sailed into a position as President of Midland University in Nebraska in 2009, making him one of the youngest Presidents of any American university at the age of 37. It was during his tenure at the university that Sasse was responsible for hiring Jason Dannelly as Athletics Director, a man who went on to face charges for terroristic threats, pandering, and solicitation of prostitution when he threatened an 18 year old college student with physical violence if she refused to have sex with him. Dannelly also faced a separate but similar charge when he was accused of attempting to pay a 20 year old student $300 to have sex with him.

Still, Sasse’s government jobs, however, seem to be a bit more interesting and tainted with controversy. It is thus not surprising that Sasse would tout himself as an “outsider” in government and Republican circle not only because that style of rhetoric tends to be popular amongst the Republican base, but also because any light shed on his inside work may very well create a controversy that sinks his political career. 

From 1996 to 1998, Sasse worked as a tutor and one of four proctors with the U.S. House of Representatives Page Program where his job entailed the responsibility for the safety and welfare of the pages who were enrolled. However, it was during this period that much of the sexual molestation of Congressional pages took place, with Represenatives Mark Foley and Jim Kolbe being implicated in the scandal. Foley resigned from his seat in 2006 while Kolbe, though cleared in the investigation, decided not to run again.

Of course, there is ample evidence that the Congressional Page scandal is not merely the revelation of the depravity of a few perverted Representatives. Indeed, the Page scandal seems to simply be a window into the world of pedophilia that weaves in and out of the halls of government, banking, business, and other powerful institutions and secret societies. 

It is thus quite concerning that Sasse would find himself in the thick of not one but two sex and sexual molestation scandals in his relatively short career.

Nevertheless, Sasse moved on to work for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, during the years 2003-2005. These were critical years for both the country as a whole and the DOJ as an office because it was during this time that the infamous “torture memos” were crafted by the DOJ and the Attorney General’s office. 

According to Wayne Madsen of the Wayne Madsen Report, Sasse was instrumental in coordinating the torture policy with none other than John Yoo, the Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel. 

Madsen writes “It is inconceivable that Sasse did not have direct input on the policy that concluded that detainees of the U.S. government, including U.S. citizens, could be subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques," or simply, torture.”

Yet, as Deena Winter writes for Nebraska Watchdog, Sasse was not only involved in crafting torture policies but also in “intelligence sharing between the FBI and CIA.” Although little is actually known regarding Sasse’s exact duties in this regard, it appears that he was working as a liason between the two agencies, a quite sensitive and important role for someone who calls himself an outsider and desires to be seen as such. 

After leaving the DOJ, Sasse began his work at the Department of Homeland Security where he worked for a very short period of time. 

From 2007-2009, Sasse served as a “principal advisor” to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding policy development. Sasse was also a principal advisor to Secretary Michael Leavitt and Chief of Staff for Nebraska Representative Jeff Fortenberry.

In more current news, however, it is important to point out the source of much of Sasse’s political contributions for his 2014 Senate campaign. A brief look at the Federal Election Commission’s website reveals that Sasse is the beneficiary of significant amounts of money from Club For Growth, a major donor to so-called “conservative” political campaigns that is also tied to Koch Industries (Koch Brothers) and anti-union, pro-austerity policies. Indeed, the CFG, coupled with the Senate Conservatives Fund, is responsible for the majority of Sasse’s campaign funds.

In addition, Sasse has also received an endorsement of support from Freedomworks, the right-wing organization tied to reactionaries, Zionists, and warmongers. Predictably, Sasse has received large amounts of money from large corporate funding as well. 

Yet for all of his reactionary credentials Ben Sasse may share more in common with Barack Obama than with any Republican. The growing attention being showed to Sasse from the Republican establishment, the Tea Party, and even some “Liberty” quarters in addition to the fawning support given to him by Conservative and mainstream media outlets will only serve to boost Sasse’s meteoric rise to fame in a fashion that is reminiscent of Obama’s rise to power and prominence seemingly out of nowhere.

Indeed, Sasse appears to be one of the few Consensus Candidates in the Republican field due to his ability to unite both Tea Party Republicans and Business Republicans. Sasse is also likely to pull the votes of many Libertarians and Conservatives who fall prey to clever talking points and crafty rhetoric.  

In addition to uniting the Republican base, however, Sasse is also able to shake certain negative aspects of the Republican party in the eyes of the general public. For instance, Sasse is careful to portray himself as “just another guy” and a blue collar worker straight out of the Nebraska corn fields as opposed to the Business Republicans who smell of wealth and privilege like Mitt Romney or the rigid corporate stench of Mitch McConnell. At the same time, however, Sasse is adept at painting himself as more of an intellectual and theoretician than Republicans such as Chris Christie who bask in thuggery and stubbornness. 

Sasse, a relatively young candidate like his counterpart Obama, is thus attempting to follow the same path that Obama blazed in his own journey to the White House – the relatively easy victory of a US Senate seat, followed by a few years of mediocre performance in the position and subsequently a Presidential run. Sasse is in place to follow the same blueprint, even as early as the 2016 Presidential elections. 

If Sasse is able to gain the US Senate seat, he will be able to follow the not so secret roadmap to a successful Presidential campaign based on zero experience – a short presence in the Senate, no controversy, and an early run. Like Obama, Sasse might give the occasional rhetorical speech regarding an issue over which his base is largely agreed upon while voting “present” on any issue that is remotely controversial. If Sasse can make it through the first year of his Congressional tenure without vastly angering voters, then he is likely to be able to launch a legitimate bid for the Presidency using the Obama model.

Clearly, the Ben Sasse that is presented to the general public through the mainstream media as an average guy who is simply “one of the people” and a Washington outsider is far from the truth. It is also clear that very powerful people are attempting to boost Sasse to even more prominent positions. In addition, those positions he has already held are often the kind that often serve as very handy blackmail chips to be cashed in if a Presidential puppet ever wanders off script. It thus imperative that we investigate Sasse and do whatever we can to prevent the second coming of Obama – a young, charismatic, candidate who was groomed by the intelligence apparatus from the start – from gaining the office of the Presidency.

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor's Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius -- The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria. Turbeville has published over 350 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville's podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.