The Not-So-Secret Tie Between Bush And Kerry

If we end up with an election choice between Republican President George Bush and Democrat John Kerry, there's a unique tie between the two men that I'm sure very few people know about. Both are Skull and Bones men.

Skull and Bones is a secret society at Yale, the oldest one on campus and one of the oldest in the nation. It boasts some very presitigious and powerful alumni.

An article at Common Dreams lays out the connection, its current meaning and some of what it's meant in the past. This is not conspiracy stuff, but simply laying out facts and connections. Here's a taster:

Skull and Bones is America's most powerful secret society. It's based at Yale, where it's headquartered in a building called the Tomb, and Skull and Bones has included among its members, presidents, including presidents George W. Bush and his father, as well as William Howard Taft, Supreme Court Chief Justices, C.I.A. officials, cabinet members, congressmen and senators. What makes it so staggering that we could have a Skull and Bones versus Skull and Bones, Kerry versus Bush election is that this is a tiny tiny club. There are only 800 living members. Only 15 per year. It's staggering that two of them could be facing off for the presidency and so many of them have achieved positions of prominence. One of the interesting and I think disturbing things about Skull and Bones is that its purpose is to get members into positions of power and have those members hire other members into prestigious positions. This is something we have seen with George W. Bush since his ascendancy to the presidency, he has put several Bones members into prestigious positions, such as Bill Donaldson, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The number two and number three guys in the Justice Department, the guy that puts out all of Bush's secrecy memos. His assistant Attorney General is a major Bonesman. Bonesman Frederick Smith was Bush's top choice for Secretary of Defense until he had to withdraw for health reasons. The general council of the Office of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Defense’s representative to Europe. The list goes on and on and on. That's something that's interesting, because George W. Bush likes to feign his distance from Yale, from Bones, from Northeastern establishment elite connections, and yet he's going ahead and following Skull and Bones to the letter.

Kerry is completely mum on his connections. It's a chilling reminder of just how small is the pool of people who end up at the top of the power heap in America.