Payola Politics and the Liars for Hire in DC

Big corporations and interest groups here in Washington often work through various shadowy front groups masquerading as "grass roots organizations."

In Washington-speak, these are called "astroturf" organizations -- a reference to the fact that they have fake grass roots.

One example is Americans for Tax Reform, a classic "liar for hire" group which seems to take its marching orders from whomever will deliver a nice big check to Grover Norquist, its President.

Norquist, as some of you may remember, was implicated in the Jack Abramoff casino scandal and has also received money from people and organizations fingered by the FBI as supporting terrrorists.

Which brings me up to today.

The latest bit of news is that David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union, has been officially caught red-handed selling the American Conservative Union's endorsement.

And guess what? Grover Norquist is implicated here too! As Politico notes:

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s support in a bitter legislative dispute, then the group’s chairman flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.

For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)”

The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as “pay for play” — was contained in a private letter to FedEx , which was provided to POLITICO.

The letter exposes the practice by some political interest groups of taking stands not for reasons of pure principle, as their members and supporters might assume, but also in part because a sponsor is paying big money.

In the three-page letter asking for money on June 30, the conservative group backed FedEx. After FedEx says it rejected the offer, Keene signed onto a two-page July 15 letter backing UPS. Keene did not return a message left on his cell phone....


.... After the rebuff, American Conservative Union changed sides. ACU Chairman David A. Keene was one of eight conservative leaders who signed a letter to FedEx Chairman Frederick W. Smith, a champion of capitalism who in the past has been a favorite of conservatives.

The letter accuses FedEx of “falsely and disingenuously” labeling the rules change a “bailout” for UPS, since FedEx would become subject to the same arduous union structure.

The letter is also signed by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, who is also on ACU’s board. FedEx is pushing its case with a website called www.BrownBailout.com.

Why do I mention all of this?

Simple: the faintest pen mark is better than the clearest memory.

The more folks know about how all this works, the less effective it will be.

In the push ahead, we are likely to see a lot more astro-turf lobbying, and I would not be surprised at all to find Fox News or some other news outfit with its beak in the till. The Washington Post, as I have noted, has already stumbled on its way to the payola trough. Who will be next?

In the health care debate, let us make this our rallying cry:

We won't get fooled again - The Who
.