Now that it is no longer useful to enhancing the power of Democrats, The Lincoln Project is utterly dispensable and is being exposed for grifting by the premier house organ of the Democrats, The New York Times.  The three authors of today's article, "Inside the Lincoln Project's Secrets, Side Deals and Scandals," are free to allow inhabitants of the blue bubble to know that getting rich was the major motivation behind the project.

A few days before the presidential election, the leadership of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project gathered at the Utah home of Steve Schmidt, one of the group's co-founders, and listened as he plotted out the organization's future. (snip)

"Five years from now, there will be a dozen billion-dollar media companies that don't exist today," he told the group, according to two people who attended. "I would like to build one, and would invite all of you to be part of that."

In fact, Mr. Schmidt and the three other men who started the Lincoln Project — John Weaver, Reed Galen and Rick Wilson — had already quietly moved to set themselves up in the new enterprise, drafting and filing papers to create TLP Media in September and October, records show. Its aim was to transform the original project, a super PAC, into a far more lucrative venture under their control.

This was not the only private financial arrangement among the four men. Shortly after they created the group in late 2019, they had agreed to pay themselves millions of dollars in management fees, three people with knowledge of the deal said. (snip)

The behind-the-scenes moves by the four original founders showed that whatever their political goals, they were also privately taking steps to make money from the earliest stages, and wanted to limit the number of people who would share in the spoils. Over time, the Lincoln Project directed about $27 million — nearly a third of its total fund-raising — to Mr. Galen's consulting firm, from which the four men were paid, according to people familiar with the arrangement.

The Times even admits that The Lincoln Project knew about the stories of sexual predation by one of the founding four, John Weaver, well before the election.

Last June, an employee for a company hired by the Lincoln Project warned in an email that Mr. Weaver's conduct was "potentially fatal" to the organization's image. The email, sent to a board member and circulated to other leaders, described multiple instances of harassment. It said Mr. Weaver's behavior was already damaging relationships with vendors and offered to put leaders in contact with some of the men involved.

Actually, Weaver's behavior has been well known and warned of for years.  But with Donald Trump to be defeated, the media had no interest in the story, and with the money rolling in, Weaver's partners had no interest in interrupting the cash flow.

That was then; this is now.

Democrats and their media handmaidens welcomed Republican traitors to the project of defeating Trump and didn't ask any awkward questions.  But traitors are by their nature unreliable as partners and are best gotten rid of as soon as their contribution to the shared goal is over.  I am watching other turncoats like Bill Kristol and Jennifer Rubin, who seem to be converting to actual Democrats, reversing years, even decades of political positions they formerly held.  Maybe they think that if they visibly switch sides, they will be accepted.

But it is not only former Republicans who are jettisoned once their utility is at an end.  Ask Andrew Cuomo, and watch what happens to Gavin Newsom.  When your real goal is power, ideology, sex, and personal ties are subordinate issues.