AARP's Antagonist in Chief, Charlie Jarvis, CEO USA Next!

USA Next engineered the recent controversial ad that branded AARP pro-gay marriage and included a photograph of two men kissing. What else are you planning?

In a few weeks, there will be ads that very specifically and aggressively brand AARP for what they are, the planet's largest liberal lobbying organization. When they are honest about that, we will take a large number of their members away.

With a budget of $10 million, how much advertising can you afford?

We're talking about TV, radio, Internet ads, large-scale direct mail and e-mail and telephone alerts. And the telephone alerts, for example, are extraordinarily inexpensive. I can call every household in South Dakota in just four hours. And it would cost only $10,000.

But don't all sane adults hang up on those prerecorded digital phone solicitations?

We know that in the range of 10 percent of those called will respond to our message.

With 35 million members, AARP is considered the leading organizational champion of seniors in this country, and I am wondering whether you can say anything positive about the group.

I have nothing positive to say about their goals. They are stodgy, out-of-date and they don't really know the facts about an issue like Social Security. We do.

Isn't that just a lot of ideological name-calling?

No. This is a Democratic republic. Democratic republics are loud, and they should be.

Critics say your organization is not a legitimate lobbying group but a front for those who want to privatize Social Security, including Karl Rove, the president's chief strategist.

I have never had a one-to-one meeting with him.

Does he know your name?

Now he does. He would say, of course: ''Charlie Jarvis was the one who was in that interview in The New York Times Magazine. And how did he blow that interview so badly?''

You previously worked for Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian group that recently dubbed Sponge Bob Square Pants a promoter of homosexuality.

I call him Sponge Robert Square Pants because I don't know him well.

How much time did you spend in the Oval Office during the years when you worked as a deputy under secretary of the interior for President Reagan and the first President Bush?

The deputy under secretary of the interior is position No. 3 in that department. I was a lowly figure. I probably met Bill Clinton more than I met Reagan. Clinton is absolutely, undeniably the most charming person I have ever met in my whole life.

In addition to dismantling Social Security, what are the goals of USA Next?

Generally, we want to provide private-sector solutions to public health programs. Also, we want to eliminate the death tax, and radically cut the capital-gains tax.

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