PowerLine Steps Forward to Defend Poor Ol' ALEC

Yesterday afternoon there was an interesting entry on the PowerlIne blog by John Hinderaker, coming to the rescue of poor ol' ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) down in Scottsdale.  For those of you not familiar with Powerline or HInderaker – I will give you a little history.

PowerLine  (my emphasis)

 “Power Line is an American political blog, providing news and commentary from a conservative point-of-view.” (wiki)  “A 2007 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee described Power Line as one of the five best-read national conservative blogs.” (wiki)  “It was originally written by three lawyers who attended Dartmouth College together: John H. Hinderaker, Scott W. Johnson, and Paul Mirengoff.”  (wiki)

Some Interesting History About Powerline

“Earlier this month, when TCF Financial Corporation chief Bill Cooper declared that he was yanking all of the bank's advertising from the Star Tribune, he wasted no time staking out the moral high ground.  …  Specifically, Cooper was irked by an end-of-the-year Strib column that attacked a local right-wing blog called Power Line.”)  (City Pages article, 1/26/2005 – well worth the read for more insight on TCF)

Then there is some interesting history about John Hinderaker

That’s right, kiddies: John Hinderaker, ALEC’s fair-haired cabin boy, has a wee bit of a disclosure problem:

Hinderaker is an attorney for the law firm Faegre and Benson. Despite his previous role handling “ethics and professional responsibility” for Faegre, he has failed to disclose in his Koch-friendly blogging that Koch is a major client for his firm. Faegre represented Koch Industries in cases related to Koch’s theft of oil (using the famed “Koch Method” of manipulating oil data) in Texas and North Dakota, in cases against Koch’s own employees regarding Koch’s speculative weather derivatives business and an environmental whistleblower case, and in a case against a Koch subcontractor. In an ongoing case, Hinderaker’s firm represents Koch Industries in a class action suit brought by a group of plaintiffs regarding oil Koch allegedly stole from wells in Oklahoma. In addition, Hinderaker has defended the Bradley Foundation after we profiled the group and its support for Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). Hinderaker never disclosed that he is a fellow of the Claremont Institute, a front that has received over $3 million from the Bradley Foundation.

And then there is this excerpt from Hinderaker’s blog entry from 12/01/11

I wrote here about the Left’s bizarre attack on the American Legislative Exchange Council (“ALEC”), a good government group whose purpose is to “advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.” The Left, apparently preferring that legislation be uninformed by input from people who actually understand the subject matter, is trying to stamp out ALEC.

Thus, the once-respectable Common Cause put out a call for leftists to demonstrate against ALEC’s four-day meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. And it wasn’t just Common Cause; that organization was joined by People for the American Way, the Center for Media and Democracy, the Arizona AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers, the Arizona Education Association, and Progress Now. In the event, that seemingly formidable lineup of leftists turned out a mere 200 or so people–many of them Occupiers, others no doubt paid union goons–to demonstrate at the Westin Kierland Resort where the ALEC conference took place. But those 200 weren’t fooling around–they were there to be pepper sprayed!

First of all the left wing attack is not bizarre.  What is bizarre is that flag waving patriots like HInderaker will write shit like this where he refers to ALEC as a "good government group"  when ALEC is basically an organization that is destroying democracy in the United States by selling democratic representation of the people off to the highest corporate sector bidder at an ALEC meeting through the use of scholarships and meeting sponsorships.

Second

Better check ALEC’s webpage Hinderaker – ALEC isn’t touting "individual liberty” anymore.  You have to dig into the bowels of the website now to find any mention of “individual liberty” .  ALEC’s front page proudly displays their intent as
      Limited Government · Free Markets · Federalism

Third

This sentence makes no sense and I copied it directly from his blog.

The Left, apparently preferring that legislation be uninformed by input from people who actually understand the subject matter, is trying to stamp out ALEC.

This could be him telling us that non-ALEC members are writing uninformed legislation.  But, I’m guessing that he is trying to say that the only people smart enough to write legislation are ALEC private sector members and that the rest of us are ignorant slobs who couldn’t put a sentence together if our lives depended on it – let alone write legislation that is of, by and for the people – instead of pro-business legislation.

Fourth

I’d like to thank this Republican insider (“A 2007 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee described Power Line as one of the five best-read national conservative blogs.” ) for making this as clear as can be:

“through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.”

Tell me Mr Hindraker – with all your insider information, would you please give us a list of ALL federal government employees who are members (alumni) of ALEC?  Why don’t you give us the list of all past and present federal employees who suck at the teat of the ALEC private enterprise members?

And finally

I was there and none of us in attendance got marching orders to show up from ANY of the organizations that Hinderaker specifically points out in the second paragraph.  That's just Republican trash talk against some "good groups" - 'cause he doesn't know any better - just stupid trash talk - becausehecan.

There were no paid union goons in Scottsdale.  The only truly despicable people that were at the Westin Kierland were legislators on "scholarships" (HAH!) from private sector ALEC members – who are the second most despicable people at the Westin Kierland.  Where in the hell do you come up with that language - union goons? “Union goons” went out in the 1940’s.  I suppose updating your vocabulary to something more modern (aka 21st century) is difficult.

Evidently ALEC can’t fight their own battles with whiny – Much Ado About Everything - press releases anymore.

Now they have to have the right wing bloggers come to their rescue. 

Poor babies.