Bruce Murphy at The Progressive writes—Dark Money’s Front Man. An excerpt:
In November 2013, a little-known conservative activist named Eric O’Keefe brazenly disobeyed a court order and leaked information to The Wall Street Journal editorial page about a secret “John Doe” investigation involving campaign finance violations by political operatives surrounding Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. O’Keefe’s group, the conservative Wisconsin Club for Growth, was among the parties being investigated.
It was the beginning of an extraordinary scorched-earth campaign by O’Keefe to harass and undermine the John Doe investigators, who had targeted alleged illegal coordination between Walker and conservative groups including Club for Growth and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. But O’Keefe had a bigger goal in mind: overturning decades of established law in America saying that independent advocacy groups could not coordinate with political campaigns.
O’Keefe launched a series of suits against the prosecutors leading the investigation, continued to leak information about the probe, and publicly denounced it as a “partisan” attack on free speech. He went on conservative talk radio to accuse prosecutors of imposing “a traumatic, unconstitutional abuse on people” and compared those being investigated to “a rape victim”—adding, “I am saying this deliberately.”
Together with his lawyer, David Rivkin, O’Keefe pushed the idea that the John Doe investigators conducted early morning “paramilitary raids” violating the constitutional rights of those being investigated, and which resulted in stories in conservative publications like National Review. Stories of these abuses were discredited by an audiotape in which investigators treated their alleged victim politely. Yet a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in July released an extraordinary ruling that shut down the John Doe probe, with three of the four-member majority citing unproven violations of constitutional rights.
The Club for Growth and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce had together provided more than $8 million supporting these four justices in their last elections, accounting for anywhere from 48 percent to 76 percent of the total spent on each justice’s behalf. The justices returned the favor, writing a decision that seemed to ignore Wisconsin law and decades of U.S. Supreme Court decisions holding that independent advocacy groups cannot coordinate with political campaigns, since that would make them no longer independent.
It was a huge victory for O’Keefe and for Walker, one that has legalized the unlimited use of dark money in campaigns in Wisconsin and could influence how such cases are handled in other jurisdictions. Long after the end of Walker’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, O’Keefe’s national aspirations still have legs. [...]
HIGH IMPACT STORIES • TOP COMMENTS
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—New Dem Center Fights Broder's 'Independent' Extremism:
David Broder's skewed vision of bipartisanship plays on. Today he finds comfort in the fact that his old favorites in the Gang of 14 (now down to 12) have breakfast together.
Broder waxes on and on about the "budding spirit of fellowship" among Senators, led by "Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, reelected as an independent Democrat." Broder's hero.
Now, however, you can see the independence party forming -- on both sides of the aisle. They are mobilizing to resist not only Bush but also the extremist elements in American society -- the vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left. . . . A "decent respect" begins at home, with an acknowledgment of public opinion.
Broder's independence party, with McCain, Lieberman, Graham boldly standing up to Bush and the extremist elements. I hate to tell Broder this, but they are the extremist elements. For example, on the minimum wage bill, the first hike of the federal minimum wage in a decade? The extremist wing of the Gang represented by McCain and Graham, decided that mending the bipartisan fences of the Senate on this critical piece of legislation just wasn't that important. They also had little respect for the opinion of the American people and the 81 percent of them who support a minimum wage increase.
Broder, McCain, Graham, and Lieberman aren't in the coalition of moderate bipartisanship. What McCain, Lieberman and Graham, and Broder for that matter, are good at is talking about being moderate, but never actually being moderate. These are the "moderates" that will support George Bush until the bitter end.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: The wild world of weekend GunFAIL. One week to Iowa! Trump & authoritarians. (Greg Dworkin called it in 2010.) Obama opines. Flint water crisis backstory darkens. Ted Cruz’s health insurance sob story, like so many others, turns out to be BS.
Find us on iTunes | Find us on Stitcher | RSS | Donate to support the show!