ThinkProgress's Lee Fang has been delving into the Wall Street sponsored astroturf effort to push repeal of the Dodd-Frank reform law. He describes attending the Tea Party Patriot Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. Prominently displayed was the new group "Dodd-Frank Exposed," with a big booth running this video in a continuous loop.
Fang did some research, and uncovered
who is behind "Dodd-Frank Exposed."
Although the organization is ostensibly hosted by the “Judicial Crisis Network” — a group that has no actual registration or office — Dodd Frank Exposed is actually run by two veteran astroturf lobbyists, Gary Marx and Robert Bork Jr. Marx is a vice president at Ralph Reed’s lobbying firm Century Strategies. Bork runs his own public relations company called the Bork Communication Group.
Bork, the son of famed Reagan Supreme Court nominee, has made a career coordinating front groups on behalf of corporations facing negative scrutiny. In a memo to an association for corporate attorneys, Bork explained that he improves the perception of his corporate clients by using right-wing bloggers and nonprofits to drape an ideological cover over abuses related to environmental crimes or defective consumer products....
I asked Bork if any companies in the financial services industry were backing Dodd Frank Exposed. After a long pause, Bork replied, “we have no banks that I know that are supporting this at this point. I would not object to any individual or corporation supporting our efforts.” He later clarified that he was receiving a monthly check from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a corporate-funded front with a long history of peddling industry-friendly studies.
Marx, on the other hand, did not return any of our calls. His firm, Century Strategies, has a similar history as Bork. Century Strategies created Christian-themed front groups for Enron to lobby for energy deregulation, launched a religion-based direct mail campaign to maintain sweatshops in the Mariana Islands, and was caught up in a money laundering scheme with Jack Abramoff for his casino clients. Although Marx lists companies like Walmart among his clients, it is not clear who is paying him for his new Tea Party group pushing to repeal financial reform. Notably, the Dodd Frank Exposed website applauds litigation sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is funded by banks like Citigroup and Bank of America, for challenging the constitutionality of Wall Street reform.
Same old story. While the average Tea Party member might think they're part of a people's movement, they're just a dupe of corporate America, thin cover for the astroturf.