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This is a chilling “must
read”
Human Events...
Obama’s campaign
bully brigade rides again
by Michelle Malkin
03/02/2012
They’re baaaaaaack. Barack Obama’s election-year goon squad kicked into
high gear this week by kicking the president’s fiercest opponents in
the teeth and targeting their pocketbooks. Returning to bully business
as usual, the Obama campaign launched a brazen salvo against two
prominent conservative critics and their legions of private citizen
donors.
Let’s be clear (to use Obama’s favorite phrase): This is not just the
politics of personal destruction. It’s a vendetta of campaign finance
destruction. Under the guise of “disclosure,” Team Obama is exploiting
the power of high government office to intimidate lawful, peaceful
contributors who support limited-government causes.
In a scathing fundraising e-mail appeal, Obama campaign manager Jim
Messina name-checked wealthy free-market philanthropists Charles and
David Koch -- along with a growing movement of grassroots conservatives
who have freely, voluntarily and legally given money to the
Koch-founded nonprofit activist group Americans for Prosperity and its
sister foundation. As a speaker at several AFP events over the past
three years, I’ve met thousands of like-minded, hardworking Americans
who support their work at the local, state and federal levels.
The Koches’ sins are to 1. follow tax law and protect the identities of
donors to their charitable organizations, and 2. exercise their free
speech by funding advocacy ads informing the public about the Obama
administration’s jobs toll destruction and failed green energy
“investments.” (Their most recent TV spot zeroed in on the
taxpayer-funded Solyndra bankruptcy.)
“When you attempt to drown out (Americans’) voices through unlimited,
secret contributions to pursue a special-interest agenda that conflicts
with what’s best for our nation, you must expect some scrutiny of your
actions,” Messina railed. The threat of scrutiny was backed by Obama
himself, whose official campaign Twitter account directed 12
million-plus followers this week to “add your name to demand that the
Koch brothers make their donors public.”
But Obama’s own former top officials run a so-called super PAC
(Priorities USA) that also maintains nonprofit status and subsidizes
advocacy ads while protecting its donor base. The White House, of
course, is mum on the unlimited, secret contributions that Obama is now
encouraging wealthy liberals and lobbyists to make in pursuit of his
own special-interest agenda -- i.e., re-election.
The president’s flapping lips are also sealed when it comes to applying
his disclosure standards to the shadowy, George Soros-backed Center for
American Progress, which has supplied the Obama administration with
countless top policy staffers, including special Department of Health
and Human Services assistant Michael Halle and HHS Director Jeanne
Lambrew, a former senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
CAP founder John Podesta was Obama’s transition chief, overseeing the
backroom process of rewarding friends and allies with plum positions.
CAP flacks shrugged off conflict-of-interest questions: “We respect the
privacy of supporters who have chosen not to make their donations
public,” CAP spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said.
As for respecting the privacy rights of Obama’s foes? Not so much.
It seems to me no small coincidence that this disclosure charade comes
just as numerous tea party organizations are reporting that the
Internal Revenue Service has targeted them for audits. According to
Colleen Owens of the Richmond (Va.) Tea Party, several
fiscal-conservative activist groups in Virginia, Hawaii, Ohio and Texas
have received a spate of IRS letters. The missives demand extensive
requests to identity volunteers, board members and ... donors.
This is B.O.’s M.O. His bully brigade did the same to the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce and its donors during the November 2010 midterms as payback
for the organization’s ads opposing the federal health care takeover.
And in 2008, Obama’s allies at a Soros-tied outfit sent out “warning”
letters to 10,000 top GOP givers “hoping to create a chilling effect
that will dry up contributions.” Witch hunt leader Tom Matzzie,
formerly of Soros-funded MoveOn.org, bragged of “going for the jugular”
and said the warning letter was just the first step, “alerting donors
who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of
potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and
watchdog groups digging through their lives.”
Matzzie also advertised a $100,000 bounty for dirt on conservative
political groups “to create a sense of scandal around the groups” and
dissuade donors from giving money. The effort was cheered by
Accountable America adviser Judd Legum, founder of Think Progress --
the same group that led the attack on the Chamber of Commerce and is
run by Podesta’s Center for American Progress. Just as with the Obama
super PAC led by former White House officials, Matzzie’s group
“Accountable America” was a 501(c)(4) nonprofit entity that shielded
the identity of its donors.
Oh, and remember this? In 2008, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob
McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, both
Obama promoters, threatened to bring criminal libel charges against
anyone who spread what they considered “false criticisms” of their Dear
Leader.
It is no small exaggeration to conclude that Team Obama’s dead aim is
to chill conservative speech and criminalize conservative dissent. All
Americans for prosperity must push back with one voice: No, you can’t.
Read this and other column at Human
Events
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