'If You Don't Have An Oil Well, Get One': Inside The Lavish Lifestyle Of One Repuke Young Eagle

[RamboLiberal]

The Young Eagles have been in the spotlight lately, after it emerged that the RNC picked up the tab for a trip taken by the group to a bondage-themed L.A. club. Other planned events, including a Texas bird hunt, a trip to the Indy 500 , a bull-riding event, and a jaunt to London to hobnob with Tory party leader David Cameron, are now said to be up in the air.

But just who are the Young Eagles? We showed you the Facebook page of the group's mid-Atlantic director, J. Roby Penn IV, which includes quotes like: "I believe in a purpose driven life... if life's purpose is backgammon and tennis," and "If you don't have an oil well, get one." And here's a bit more to fill out the picture of the 29-year old oil-and-gas heir.

Penn is chair of the Penn Trusts and the Penn Foundation, charitable entities associated with his family's oil company. According to his bio on the company site, he attended New England prep schools before graduating in 2001 from Texas Christian University, and now lives both in Fort Worth, Texas, and in Washington D.C.

Penn, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his work with the Young Eagles, also seems to be a fixture on Washington's young and moneyed social circuit. A ranked polo player and avid sailor, he "was instrumental in the founding of the Smithsonian YB Polo Cup" while serving on the Smithsonian Museum Young Benefactors Advisory Board, according to the bio.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/if_you_dont_have_an_oil_well_get_one_inside_the_la.php?ref=fpb


John Roby Penn IV (second from left) and others at an event in Washington, D.C.

[arcane1]

1. Polo club? Sounds awfully "elitist" to me n/t

[RamboLiberal]

2. Another Young Chickenhawk - Ryan Morfin

Ryan Morfin, a Young Eagles co-chair, doesn't have Penn's blue-blood cred (or pretensions, perhaps). But he seems to be something of a high-roller himself.

A 29-year-old University of Chicago graduate, Morfin is the founder of New York-based Morfin Capital Group, a private equity firm that, according to its website "focuses on targeted middle-market investments across various focus industries." He previously had done stints at Morgan Stanley and Countrywide Financial, the mortgage lender whose sub-prime loans helped trigger the financial crisis.

In 2008, Morfin -- who did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his work with the Young Eagles -- served on the host committee for a John McCain fundraiser at New York's trendy Tenjune, chaired by Meghan McCain.

Like Penn, Morfin seems to have a taste for the finer things in life. In 2009, he appears to have taken his fiancée on a "Tuscan Engagement Trip." The couple's wedding registry includes, among other items, a $250 Vera Wang "Blanc sur Blanc" coffee pot.

Morfin also has given generously to his alma mater. "It's good for your philanthropic discipline to start giving back early, even if it's at a small level," he told a University of Chicago magazine.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/high-rolling_young_rnc_donor_touts_philanthropic_d.php?ref=fpb

[KittyWampus]

3. I don't mind wealthy people in general. I mind wealthy people who seek to hoard their wealth

and prevent others from getting ahead.

[RamboLiberal]

4. Facebook entry of one of these twerps

My ancestors, actually, weren't on the Mayflower. They sent the servants over first to get the cottage ready

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/04/blueblood_wannabes.php?ref=fpblg

[tanyev]

6. Best comment at TPM:

So...RNC High Command has been infiltrated by Billionaires for Bush?


It's getting harder and harder to parody these fools.

[RamboLiberal]

5. Article on the Young Eagles

Seems the little goldenboy twerps are tightwads when it comes to giving money to the RNC but they sure love these expensive fundraiser adventures.

The big fundraising event at the Philadelphia Phillies home opener is canceled. So is the one at the steeplechase race in Virginia horse country and the weekend at the North Carolina paramilitary training compound. No definite word on the professional bull-riding rodeo this fall, or the trip to meet British Conservative Party leader David Cameron in London.

The Republican National Committee’s Young Eagles program to attract wealthy young donors is on hold, thanks to the bad publicity generated by a now infamous visit by members of the group to the West Hollywood “bondage” club Voyeur that has made the RNC and its chairman, Michael Steele, the target of late-night TV jokes and outraged conservatives.

But aside from any accounting and appearance issues raised by the RNC’s picking up the tab at Voyeur, there is a more pragmatic question for many Republicans: Is the cash actually raised by the Young Eagles worth the high cost — and potentially bad press — of the group’s nontraditional and sometimes edgy events?

Some Republicans say the answer is “no,” though it’s difficult to calculate the program’s impact, since Federal Election Commission reports don’t break out contributions by donor ages or programs.

“Is it a good idea to get young people fired up about the party and maybe giving money to the party when they’re 25 or 30?” said John Grotta, a GOP direct-mail consultant who worked at the RNC in the 1980s and 1990s under Chairmen Frank Fahrenkopf and Haley Barbour.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=CFC92495-18FE-70B2-A88860B653CBCA13