We met in
his downtown Pittsburgh office, high above the Ohio River.
Scaife is disarmingly shy and readily admits that he is
not a "people person." But he agreed to a rare
interview, in part because of his concerns about being demonized
in the press. At 66 and blissfully married to his second
wife, Ritchie (who jokingly told me that they "had
lived in sin for years" prior to their union), Scaife
has a gentle, almost guileless demeanor that seems starkly
at odds with his reputation as a ferocious Clinton hater.
 |
Newt
Gingrich once called you the father of modern conservatism.
I'd forgotten that. [Laughs]
You two were close, how do you feel about his stepping down?
I feel sadness, but I think it was a very statesmanlike
thing to do. I'm glad he did it. In fact, I'm delighted
he did.
Really?
Well, we need leadership, and Newt wasn't providing it.
How would you describe your political philosophy?
I'm a Republican by birth, and for most of my life I
have thought of myself as a Republican. But in the last
several years, particularly after Newt's election, I have
become more and more Libertarian.
What led to your change of heart?
I don't see the Republican Party really going anywhere.
Let's turn to your career: Your main interests have been
philanthropy and the media. Where did that start?
Newspapers have been with me all my life. My father worked
for Gulf Oil, and he traveled a lot. Whenever he'd go to
a particular city, he'd bring me a copy of the local newspaper.
I had a bunch of racks at home, and I filed the papers alphabetically
by state. I had fun collecting them and knowing their names
and what they stood for. By the time I was ten, I had subscribed
to three newspapers. As for the philanthropy, my father
died in 1958, at the age of 58. I became chairman of his
foundation and decided to see where it ought to be going.
It had been concentrated primarily in Pittsburgh and western
Pennsylvania, and I thought we ought to branch out and look
elsewhere.
Were the politics in your household always conservative?
Are you cut from the same political cloth as your parents?
I don't know what my mother's politics were—she
was probably a conservative. But my father, if you can believe
this, was an admirer of [nine-time presidential candidate]
Harold Stassen, who was known, somewhat, as the liberal
Republican. So, I guess I'm more conservative than my father.
You were an early supporter of President Nixon.
Until Watergate. Then I called for his resignation.
I read somewhere that you said you were disappointed.
Yes, definitely. And I'll never forget that disappointment.
It was Christmas 1973. He was still in office. My secretary
came in and said, "President Nixon is on the phone."
And I said, "Well, I don't want to talk to him."
It was kind of sad that I felt that way. And in every biography
that you read, I'm the man who gave a million dollars to
Nixon in '72.
Do you think the Bill Kristols and the Bill Bennetts and
Republicans in general are blindly conducting a morality
crusade?
Let me say that Bill Bennett is a personal friend of mine.
He's on my foundation's board, and I admire him tremendously.
So I'm glad somebody is out there saying these things. But
to get back to my political philosophy: I'm not a member
of the Christian right. I am a firm believer in Planned
Parenthood. I've even given to abortion rights groups. And
I think Trent Lott's remarks about gays were totally uncalled
for. So what I'm trying to say is, I'm not your average
conservative.
So the Starr Report....
I think the Democrats are right about it. Four years
and $40 million later, we haven't gotten anything. Maybe
Ken Starr is a mole working for the Democrats. [Laughs]
Let's talk about your relationship with Kenneth Starr and
Pepperdine University, because there seems to be a lot of
confusion about that.
Okay. As I'm sure you've read, I have contributed to
Pepperdine, going all the way back to 1962. I have never
met Ken Starr. Never corresponded with him. Never did anything
with him. I was one of 12 donors, I believe, to contribute
$1 million to fund a chair at the school of public policy.
That and the school of law were what he was invited to head.
And, just like everybody else, I read about it in the newspaper.
As a quick aside, at one time Pepperdine wanted to name
the law school the Richard Milhous Nixon School of Law.
But after what happened to Nixon, they wanted to call it
the Richard M. Scaife School of Law. I said, "No way,
forget that." I was just as happy that didn't happen.
How
do you feel about Bill Clinton personally? Do you genuinely
hate him?
I certainly do not hate him. I respect the office of
the presidency, and my wife and I told him that when we
went to a reception at the White House [in January 1998].
 |
What
was it like to see him in person?
I didn't realize how tall he was.
Was it awkward?
Not at all. Of course, I did have somebody taste my food
before I touched it. [Laughs] But no, it wasn't awkward
at all. He was very friendly. Then again, this was the same
day that the Lewinsky scandal had broken, so he had just
been through a very, very busy day. People were pushed through
that line pretty fast.
What happens to conservatism in a post-Clinton world? After
all, so much of the Republicans' unity has been about their
common hatred of the President.
For one thing, I don't hate Clinton. But after Clinton
leaves office, we'll probably get back to where we should
have been in '98.
Which is?
Talking about the issues— education, Social Security,
and the defense of this country. Do you realize we are a
sitting duck for missiles from North Korea or China? We
must rebuild our armed forces. Clinton keeps talking about
how he's reduced the size of the federal government, but
he's also reduced the number of soldiers and airmen and
sailors we have. So we better start rebuilding.
I find it interesting that the Democratic elite could never
understand why Ronald Reagan was so popular. In the same
way, Republicans have a blindness when it comes to Bill
Clinton. They just cannot understand why this man continues
to be so popular.
Yeah? Well, I'll tell you. They thought Ronald Reagan
was an actor? Bill Clinton gets the triple Academy Award
for acting. I mean, he's just putting one over on everybody.
Abridged from http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3693c60d6e04.htm
