Nobody is going to accuse Ross Perot of being inconsistent in his choice of running mate. Pat Choate — economist, xenophobe, former adviser to Pat Buchanan, and now the Reform party’s candidate for vice president — is as oblivious as Perot to the unseemliness of his associates as the man at the top of the ticket. Several years ago, Choate wrote a book, Agents of Influence, that was so hostile to Japan and so apocalyptic in its predictions that he was fired from a longtime consulting job with TRW. Choate went on to become a founder, key investor, and, until the day Perot picked him last week, chairman of a radio network, United Broadcasting. United Broadcasting’s uncontested star is a conspiracy-minded populist named Chuck Harder, for whose program Choate worked as the Washington correspondent.
Last year, reporter Marc Cooper sat down with Chuck Harder for an interview. After rambling about the influence of “the global elite,” and the “New York bankers,” Harder got down to business, outlining for Cooper the “problem” of ” Jewish greed.” “This is why if you go to Wall Street you’ll see it’s all Greenbergs, Sheinbergs, and so on,” Harder explained.
Harder may have formed his opinions with help from Eustace Mullins, a frequent guest on Harder’s program. Mullins is the author of The Jewish War Against the Christian World and an advocate of the theory that Auschwitz was actually an “intensive Talmudic training school.” Should any of this disqualify Choate as Ross Perot’s running mate? Depends on your perspective. A recent informal survey by National Journal found Harder’s show a favorite among Perot supporters.
