David Keene, the Chairman of the American Conservative Union (”ACU”) called me tonight to discuss my post from Friday that was written after the Politico story by Mike Allen went up.

The Politico received several letters. FedEx had been sent a letter by ACU offering to help FedEx on an issue in exchange for $2 million. FedEx did not respond. Dave Keene, Grover Norquist, and others then lent their names to a letter chastising FedEx for daring to call what UPS wants from the government a bailout.

I wrote at the time

David Keene and Grover Norquist are, whether they like it or not, intrinsically linked to their respective organizations. If they come out in support of a particular position, people believe that their organizations support that position too.

According to Mr. Keene, the correspondence with FedEx was written June 30th and he agreed to lend his name to the other letter on July 1st. The letter was dated July 15th. He says he is sure that he had signed off on the second letter before FedEx even had time to make a decision on ACU’s letter.

His point, above all else, was that he had no knowledge of the ACU letter. People, myself included, forget that Dave Keene, unlike many other leaders of conservative interest groups, is not a full time Chairman. He is not in charge of the day to day operations of ACU and did not participate in the negotiations with FedEx.

What Keene does say, however, is that the conversation with FedEx was ongoing. ACU told FedEx that it supported its position. FedEx asked ACU what it could do to mobilize grassroots opposition. ACU told FedEx it could help, but did not have the budget for an aggressive campaign. FedEx asked ACU for a ballpark figure. ACU asked FedEx what it was looking for. FedEx said to make it a kitchen sink proposal and throw in everything.

The June 30, 2009, letter was a product of those ongoing conversations.

Also, Keene says this line in the FedEx letter:

Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and / or other members of the ACU’s Board of Directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)

was very much out of line and the person responsible for it did get in trouble. Keene does not want anyone to think his opinion is for sale.

If we are willing to say this whole exchange is not as bad as it looks, we must also say that something fundamentally must change at ACU. To have a Chairman of the organization not engaged in these things can get them into these situations.

To have a Chairman with an outside job dependent on other income, can cause problems. To have an organization that suggests to people that their Chairman will use his weekly column to support their issue for money is not a good thing. We have to really wonder about what would lead a person to put such a statement in a letter like — at the very least knowing it could become public.

More fundamentally, to have a Chairman who makes his living elsewhere, who knows that lending his name to a letter signed by other conservatives will imply ACU’s support too, and to have ACU take the opposition approach without involving the Chairman in the detailed discusses that clearly, based on the letter, involve the Chairman lending his name to support the cause ACU is supporting smells very, very bad and suggests something is rotten and in need of replacing.

ACU needs a full time Chairman and needs to thoroughly investigate how this incident happened.

Mr. Keene released a statement this evening. I have put it, in its entirety, below the fold.

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You probably have seen this article in the Politico today. Basically, the American Conservative Union, the organization that brings us CPAC each year, appears to have involved itself in a “pay to play” expedition with FedEx and UPS.

For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)”

The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as “pay for play” — was contained in a private letter to FedEx , which was provided to POLITICO.

You can read the whole thing here.

First, throw no stones at Mike Allen. I know the inclination of some of you will be to attack the messenger and not the message. But what Mike Allen is reporting on is a dirty little secret among a number of organizations, both right and left, in Washington, D.C.

Second, for perspective on the FedEx v. UPS fight and why ACU should have gotten behind FedEx without charging a penny see George Will.

The swamp is not getting drained because the corruption and money is damning up the drain. (spelling was intentional)

And it is not just the American Conservative Union. Left (I’m looking at you MoveOn.org) and right, our progressive and conservative “grass roots” organizations in Washington, DC are a hotbed of “pay to play” scandals waiting to boil over.

Before you decide to purge me from the conservative movement, read on to find out what I’m talking about.

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