It was an emotional assignment for me and also an unparalleled opportunity to reach some of the most important and influential men But in many important ways it marked the first milestone on my road to the presidency.

Because this speech traditionally was off the record, it received no publicity at the time. If I were to choose the speech that gave me the most pleasure and satisfaction in my political career, it would be my Lakeside Speech at the Bohemian Grove in July, 1967. In his memoirs, Richard Nixon amplified the importance of his membership in the Bohemian Club: Attending that meeting were a number of high-ranking military officers, the president of Harvard University, and representatives of Standard Oil and General Electric. The Grove became famous when word leaked out about a Manhattan Project meeting that took place there in September of 1942, which led subsequently to the development of the atom bomb. Presidential hopeful Nelson Rockefeller flew into the Grove Lakeside Chat in 1963 and Nixon and Reagan sat down informally at the Grove in 1967 to work a political deal wherein Reagan was to run only if Nixon faltered. Eisenhower gave a premier political address at the Grove in 1950, setting himself on the path to the presidency. As noted in Peter Phillips dissertation for his doctorate in philosophy at the University of California, Davis, The Bohemian Grove has long been a political networking point for Republicans along with significant numbers of cabinet members and White House officials. Military contractors, oil companies, banks (including the Federal Reserve) and national media all have high-ranking officials as either members or guests.ĭespite the clubs motto: Weaving Spiders Come Not Here, (see club emblem, above left) plenty of business, both economic and political, has been done there. The secrecy imposed about the annual meetings has led many to speculate as to the purposes and impact such a conclave might have on the nations affairs, especially when membership lists included every Republican President since 1923 (and some Democrats), many cabinet officials, and CEOs of large corporations including the major financial institutions. Even if she were a man, she most likely still wouldn?t be invited as she is not a member of the ?elite.”įounded just after the Civil War by Henry Harry Edwards as a private camp where bohemians artists and writers could go to relax and recuperate from the rigors of the work-a-day world, over time the clubs membership evolved to include the rich and powerful, which now numbers over 2,400. Debra Saunders complained that, because she is a woman, she wasn?t invited to the upcoming Bohemian Club meeting which begins this Thursday at the Bohemian Grove retreat center an hour?s drive north of San Francisco.

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