Christopher Ruddy takes a surprisingly moderate view of George Soros in his Sept. 15 Newsmax column, declaring that “he’s neither evil nor completely liberal. He is, in my mind, a liberal partisan whose own political views don’t fit neatly into any box.” But he also writes this:
Despite the fact Soros has billions — an estimated fortune of $14.5 billion — he cannot determine elections at will, as 2004 and 2008 proved.
I have found that when billionaires like Soros attempt to influence matters, they often create an “equal and opposite“ reaction from others in the political system.
We saw that effect in 2010 when wealthy Republicans contributed hundreds of millions to help the GOP take back the House.
Ruddy doesn’t admit it, but he knows whereof he speaks when he talks about “billionaires like Soros” who “attempt to influence matters” — after all, that’s what Newsmax owes its existence to. Conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife — for whom Ruddy worked as a reporter for the Scaife-owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review — contributed money to the startup of Newsmax, and by 2002 was its third-largest shareholder. Scaife and Ruddy are the sole owners of Newsmax.
But Newsmax was but one arm of Scaife’s anti-Clinton operation in the 1990s; he donated millions to right-wing, anti-Clinton causes, including to anti-Clinton (and now anti-Obama) group Judicial Watch.
It can be argued that Scaife’s aggressive funding of anti-Clinton causes — including Newsmax — helped lead to “equal and opposite“ reaction from liberals, culminating in the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. Again, don’t expect Ruddy to mention that.