Costly To Get Rid Of

Talk about paying somebody to go away:

Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.
The coup lasted all of six days. By Sept. 10, Armey was gone — with a promise of $8 million — and the five ousted employees were back. The force behind their return was Richard J. Stephenson, a reclusive Illinois millionaire who has exerted increasing control over one of Washington’s most influential conservative grass-roots organizations.
Stephenson, the founder of the for-profit Cancer Treatment Centers of America and a director on the FreedomWorks board, agreed to commit $400,000 per year over 20 years in exchange for Armey’s agreement to leave the group.

$400,000 a year for 20 years to just go away?  I need to get involved with the wingnut welfare circuit.  That is pretty damn good pay for doing nothing.  It even beats Jim Jordan's Congressional salary.   And even better, this is funded by some fool super rich guy, instead of taxpayers.  The whole story about FreedomWorks is interesting.  It just sounds like that Stephenson fool's plaything.