Page 46 - Just Deserts

Revelation Research

Phineas A. Karp drummed his fingers on the formica table top in
a dark corner of Torquemada’s Bar and Grill. The managing director
of Liberty Lobby had no desire to conduct business in the shadows
of a midtown eatery, but Hugh Brisbane’s telephoned urgency was
unmistakable.
“Mr. Karp,” he had stage-whispered into the instrument, “I’m on
to something big. Too big to discuss in your office. I can’t tell you
why. Could you meet me at that restaurant down the street? Yes, I
know you don’t normally eat in that kind of place—but that’s good,
no one will recognize you there. Okay? I’ll be there at five o’clock. It
won’t be crowded. If you get there first, take a booth on the back
wall. Okay? Great! I’ll see you there.”
Brisbane was not normally an excitable person; Karp had never
seen him worked up about anything. Their relationship, although not
of long duration, had occasionally been intense. Liberty Lobby
regularly required studies and documentation to support its activities
in behalf of religious conservatism, and Brisbane’s employer,
Revelation Research, was one of several fundamentalist think-tanks
providing that service. Hugh Brisbane had the look of an ex-
academic grateful for a job anywhere, particularly in an environment
not unlike the activist seminary his résumé indicated as the source of
his divinity degree. Karp was quite familiar with the type, and
exploited its exemplars mercilessly, often exacting labors far beyond
the contractual terms his organization set with their employer.
Most recently Liberty Lobby had been waging unconditional war
against the textbooks of American high schools. Revelation Research
provided ammunition for the battle to capture Capitol Hill, and
Brisbane had proven a staunch supporter and tireless trooper in the
fight to formulate a pseudo-scientific justification for creationism.
Under Karp’s relentless direction, Brisbane had ransacked libraries
and interviewed dozens of possibly sympathetic biologists and
geneticists. Liberty Lobby did not want another Scopes trial, exposing
the issues to the glare of unwanted publicity; rather, they hoped to
persuade intransigent school boards and state legislators through
congressional acknowledgement of the principle that all theories of
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