George W. Bush Charlton Heston Rudolph Giuliani John McCain Alan Keyes Pat Buchanan Ronald Reagan George Bush Dan Quayle Richard Nixon Bob Dole Elizabeth Dole Jerry Falwell Pat Robertson Sun Myung Moon Jesse Helms Strom Thur

Richard Mellon Scaife

His name may not be a household word, but he's helped give that status to other folks, like Ken Starr, Paula Jones, and Vince Foster. Hey, thanks a lot, Dick.

This Pittsburgh billionaire, heir to the Mellon fortune, bankrolled several operations designed to destroy Bill Clinton. Undoubtedly, he has been the conservative movement's most valuable asset, money-wise.

A longtime Republican activist, Dick has given, through three nonprofit foundations, over $100 million to various right-wing causes. He has helped fund the Rutherford Institute and the Federalist Society, two organizations that poured money into Paula Jones's lawsuit against the President.

He also helped finance the nonprofit group that publishes The American Spectator, the sensationalistic right-wing magazine that outed Paula.

But he cut off the magazine's funds when the editor stopped plugging the conspiracy theory that White House lawyer Vince Foster's suicide was faked. It is Dick's money that has kept this story alive. He even hired a reporter just to write Foster stories for his Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Dick is convinced Clinton has had as many as 60 people put to death.

He has also given generous support to Pepperdine University, the conservative California college that almost pulled Ken Starr out of Whitewater to make him dean of its law school. (But the Clinton-haters howled, so Ken stayed put with his witch hunt.)

In 1998, Dick was investigated by the Feds. He was accused of witness tampering -- of funneling money to the pockets of David Hale, an Arkansas judge convicted of defrauding the Small Business Administration. Hale was also a witness for Ken Starr's probe. Dick was not indicted.

Dick's been a busy guy lately. But if you think money can buy you love, think again. He's always feuding with his family and friends. He has no relations with his daughter, and he hasn't spoken to his sister for 25 years.

And like his late mother, he's had a drinking problem most of his adult life. When he was just a freshman, Yale University suspended him for drunken horseplay and then kicked him out for good.

His mother, Sarah, was quite a philanthropist. She gave millions to family planning, environmental issues, the poor and disabled, and hospitals. It was at a lab she helped finance that Jonas Salk discovered his polio vaccine.

But after she died in 1965, Dick redirected the money-giving to conservative think tanks and political campaigns. Among the beneficiaries: the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He also secretly gave $47,000 to the Townhouse Operation, a slush fund Richard Nixon set up in 1970 to blackmail GOP candidates.

If his mother knew how he's been throwing the family's money around, she'd probably roll over in her grave.

As for the conspiracy theories, I've got to ask you, Dick -- you sure it isn't the liquor talking? Or maybe you've been cooped up in your mansion too long?