We love stories about the vast right-wing conspiracy, and the shadowy Paypal network, as much as the next man. But Mother Jones' overblown expose of The Vanguard, the conservative answer to Move On, falls for the organization's own self-aggrandizing propaganda. The scary-sounding online group was founded by a Paypal veteran, Rod Martin. But it would be an exaggeration to suggest that there was a secret conservative network in Silicon Valley underpinned by alumni of the online payments service.Rod Martin has long been as loyal a Republican as one would expect from the author of the obsequious Thank You, President Bush. The Vanguard gets support from older Republicans like Gil Amelio. But the younger Valley conservatives, who have mellowed into moderate libertarians, regard The Vanguard as "a joke". Former firebrand, Keith Rabois, now at Slide, now puts his political affiliation down as Moderate, and supports gay-loving Rudy Giuliani for president. Peter Thiel, who mounted a lonely campaign with Rabois against political correctness at Stanford, is too busy talking up the valuation of Facebook and pursuing eternal life to worry much about humdrum politics.[IMG]http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/valleywag/full?i=Oa7Fl8[/IMG]
