The Crane Machine: Who is Edward H. Crane, III?

 Character matters.  Now we understand the impact of psychopaths on every part of our world.  

The only question left to answer about Crane is this.  Is he a psychopath or was he just going along to get wealthy and have sex with every women he met?  

It is clear that one of the possibilities that pulled Bill Clinton into politics was the presence of women, mostly willing. Sex is one of the three basic human motivators, these being sex, money and power. Power is actually also the means by which many people get the two former, so we have to keep this in mind. 

 

That said, it is natural that politics tends to pull in people who are highly motivated by the attractions of power and its adjuncts, money and sex. It also follows that those who are in politics who are so motivated tend to want to grab as much power as possible to realize these unstated goals since if they were open and transparent about it, for instance if they said, “I want to have sex with every good looking woman in this room.” this would not further these goals but given what events had told us about Bill Clinton we can imagine Bill thinking just that. 

 

But Bill is not the only man in politics, and not the only man whose sexual ambitions powered a drive for power.

Author's Digression:

 

I have known about Ed Crane since the early 1970s. I sent him the button above during the Clark Campaign. I met him for the first time at the California LP Convention in 1977 where I was serving as assistant manager but I had heard about him much earlier. When you are working in a movement with the same people for many years you get to know them pretty well both directly and through the reports of others. Small communities are like that. Politics is all about people and their relationships and, as the saying goes, if you let them keep talking you find out the truth. Applied to character this means that over a period of time you see the interior, hidden contours that define character of the individual written out through the life they lead and how they handle life's challenges and temptations. The first inkling I had to Crane's personal character came at a party I attended at the home of Sarah O'Connor Foster, an activist living in the Sherman Oaks in around 1975 – 1976. 

 

When you go to a party that is mostly libertarians and take your small children along you spend most of your time sitting watching them play. I was doing just that when I fell into a conversation with a woman I will refer to as Rebbecca. Rebbecca was married but had no children., as I remember. As we shared stories about the libertarian personalities and campaigns we had experienced Rebbecca brought up Edward H. Crane, III. I had heard about him but he had moved on to National politics about the time I became active very locally in West Los Angeles. Rebbecca recounted to me her volunteer activities on behalf of freedom with Ed Crane. The story was so incredible that it was hard to believe but over the next several years I bumped into another woman who told much the same story.

Rebbecca was scheduled by Crane to come into his office and work for a period of one hour. She spent the first half hour typing and the second half hour in sexual congress with Crane. Departing, she met the next woman scheduled. I told you it was incredible. My mouth dropped open. This was strange even for Libertarians. 

 

From one of the locals who worked with Crane I also learned that when he entered a Libertarian event he would scan the room for the youngest, dumbest, woman present who passed his standards for acceptability and engage her in conversation, passing her his room key as soon as possible. I did not believe that one either until a good friend told me about her 30 minute interlude with Ed under exactly these circumstances. 

 

I had never seen Crane until the 1977 California LP Convention. As assistant manager I was sitting next to Roger Mac Bride, our speaker and guest of honor, at the head table; I had also picked Roger up at the airport. All of a sudden someone sat down next to me and introduced himself. 

 

Frankly, my first thought was that my brother had gained weight. Cap, my older brother, stayed thin during that period of his life because he was still flying for the National Guard while attending law school and working as a legislative assistant in Sacramento. He had served in Vietnam as a Load Master and been decorated for bravery. 

 

Ed Crane looked just like a softer version of my older brother. I told him that and continued talking to Roger. I have never spent a significant 30 minutes with Ed Crane and do not see the attraction myself. Over the years I was told also that Crane insisted on photos accompanying the forms used by interns who were applying for scholarships for Cato Seminars. Women were the most likely to be chosen, especially if they were attractive.

Women working at Cato are required to have sex with Ed Crane. This came from a very reliable source who has asked to remain nameless who was telling the story of a young woman who was distraught because she was informed of this, naturally after she had been there for a while, and did not want to comply. I was given to wonder if this requirement was disclosed before she was hired and if the Koch Brothers know they are subsidizing Crane's sex life.  The answer to the question is now in.  Koch Truths

 

Over the years I bumped into Crane at events. At the first large Reason Foundation Dinner in Los Angeles we attended as a family, myself, my husband, and three daughters, 16 – 26. I found my oldest daughter chatting with Ed. He looked annoyed when he saw me until I brightly asked him if Morgan had introduced herself. Then he realized that this lovely young thing was my daughter and turned slightly white. There was a slight history there.

After my first encounter with him in '77 I started watching him at these events and noticing the pattern he had for engaging young women in conversation. So I started making it a practice of spending time chatting with him when he was 'hunting'. He hated seeing me looping over to say hello, but what could he say? I know I was breaking the rules about ignoring his behavior but I really enjoyed it and also viewed it as a sort of rescue mission. I am sure at the moment he realized this was my daughter he was thinking about what I would have done if his ploy had worked. 

Crane used power to get sex but that is not to say that Crane was absolutely unwilling to share or that he failed to recognize that sex was a useful commodity in other ways.

There are an unusual number of good looking young women employed at Cato, I noticed that when I attended their Gala Dinner in D.C. In 2003. I am sure that many donors find that the benefits of affiliation with Cato are rewarding in many ways. 

 

Crane is married to a woman who was married to his best friend before he started an affair with her. He was disinclined to marry her when she came up pregnant and refused to do so through the next two children as well. Then, by report from a very close source, he told her he would marry her when he could do so in Red China. This looked like never at that point. She waited. When the climate of politics changed, opening up the China Wall, the wedding took place in Red China while they were there on a political junket. 

 

The odd nature of the above reports over a period of many years and his tendency to grab control by any means possible lead me to the conclusion that Ed's work in the cause of liberty may have an agenda that has more to do with personal gratification than with inherent rights and that he may not understand that this kind of behavior is not generally acceptable even if someone really is as wonderful as he thinks he is. 

I have wondered from time to time if Bill Clinton was Ed's understudy. 

 

End Author Digression: