More than you ever wanted to know about Matthew Lesko, the clownish little guy with question marks all over his sports jacket who has made a fortune off the federal government's bloated size. Link. Excerpt:
In the late '90s, Lesko discovered that infomercials and question marks could be a highly profitable combination. That was when he started blanketing the country with his ads, in which he flails around the government buildings and monuments of downtown Washington in his trademark suits, promoting federal giveaway programs as the answer to every working-class American's problems. His monstrous tomes (an advertisement calls one model a “five-pound, 1,100-page guide!”) consist of little more than lists of government-funded agencies and programs taken from government sources, but his over-the-top messages have always been like a primitive sort of spam, gnawing at the insecurities of late-night television watchers who can't bring themselves to change the channel. For every handful of insomniacs who consider Lesko a laughable huckster, it seems, there's at least one viewer who picks up the phone and dials his 800 number. Since the early '80s, Lesko has sold nearly 3.5 million copies of his books. They typically sell for $39.99, but with audiocassettes and videos the price climbs to over $100 before shipping costs. He spends more than $3 million per year on advertising.
