Minuteman money mystery

Anti-immigrant group turns to Alan Keyes and his right wing groups to handle money and media

In late April, Chris Simcox, the head of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), the anti-immigration organization that thrust itself into the national spotlight last year when it set up citizen patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border, showed up in Bellingham, Washington to testify at a Washington Human Rights Commission hearing. According to a post by David Neiwert at Orcinus, Simcox, who seemed to have undergone an extreme makeover -- sans cosmetic surgery -- was "rather impressive: clean-cut, very straightforward seeming, very smooth. He seemed almost preppy with his new clean-shaven look and crew sweatshirt."

The old Simcox, "who liked to alternate between camos and jeans and sport an American-flag ballcap, spout endless conspiracy theories and quasi-racist fearmongering, and demonstrate his utter idiocy to anyone familiar with gun safety by holstering his pistol down the front of his jeans," was "it appears ... ancient history ... buried under the careful coaching of the D.C.-based public relations firm that Simcox hired," Neiwert noted. "They've done a pretty good job of making Simcox over completely."