Yesterday afternoon David Keene, Chairman of the American Conservative Union, joined conservative bloggers in a conference call to, first, address specifically the issue of an article written by Mike Allen of Politico that accused Keene of being embroiled in a ‘pay-to-play’ scandal with Federal Express, and, secondly, to answer questions on a variety of issues, among them the role, or lack thereof, the ACU will have in the ongoing healthcare debate.

Rather then bore readers with details that are rather complex, not to mention have been talked to death at this point, and, more importantly, have no direct relevancy to the issue or news on healthcare reform, here is the press release, first issued to bloggers taking part in the conference call and later sent to Politico as well, presenting Keene’s side of the story: ACU Press Release: POLITICO GOT IT WRONG,” SAYS ACU CHAIR DAVID A KEENE

Now, let’s get back to healthcare reform.  Healthcarehorserace.com was on the call and was given the opportunity to make the following inquiries during the Q&A segment of the conference call.  The questions are followed by Mr. Keene’s responses to them.  Other questions, including follow-ups to the Politico story, were brought up by other bloggers, all of which can be viewed at Red State News.

Please note that the following responses by Chairman David Keene are merely scribbled down notes and not direct quotes, nor are they to be accepted as such:

Healthcarehorserace.com:  Is the ACU planning anything on the recent health care battle?

David Keene: Yes, and we have to be careful because health care and energy policy are two of the very important parts of the American economy.

Healthcarehorserace.com: Do you think you’ll get any resistance from conservatives over this issue?

David Keene: Well, politics ain’t a beanbag. These things stand and fall on their merits. We try to get the whole movement together.

Healthcarehorserace.com: Can you tell us more about what the ACU is doing on health care?David Keene: We went through this in 1993. Everybody thought Hillarycare was going to pass in 1993. People thought we were going to tinker with it and fix it, then the people turned on it, and the politicians did. The people on the Hill have a two week long time line. You can’t think short term considerations.

There were no clear responses by Chairman Keene addressing the inquiries made in relation to the possibility of the ACU’s involvement in the healthcare debate.  The gave off the impression that he was sidestepping the matter altogether, purposely avoiding having to give a direct answer. It was, however, his reaction to the last healthcare-based question, the one in which he brought up the subject of the 1993 Congressional battle over HillaryCare, that was the most startling and perhaps most damaging to the organization’s role in regards to this issue. Mr. Keene specifically mentioned that the “ACU was the first political organization to actively lead opposition to HillaryCare.”  However, in light of the ACU’s notable absence in the weeks since the highly embroiled battle over ObamaCare began, Keen’es comment seems to be quite counter intuitive in propping up his earlier claim that even after sixteen years, the organization remained quite relevant in the healthcare debate in America, there is no conclusive evidence that the organization will begin to play a role as a grassroots organziation in health care reform.

Many of the prominent bloggers on the call account that it is in the best interest of the conservative movement that the ACU remains absent in the battle against ObamaCare.  John Hawkins, who covered the conference call for Red State News, wrote that even though Chairman Keene, during the conference call, “was warm, personal, completely un-flustered and acted like this was all a silly misunderstanding that he wanted to clear up,” the press release issued after the call contradicted earlier statements made by the organization and stood to only further incriminate individuals such as Mr. Keene and, by association, the ACU and the conservative movement.

Conducting due diligence, Healthcarehorserace.com also checked on Conservative.org to see if there was any 501 c3 or 501 c4 activities on healthcare reform.  None to be found meaning American Conservative Union, “the oldest and largest grassroots, conservative organization” is certainly AWOL on Healthcare debate.