ALEC - Lying by Ommission, Again????

Well – the American Legislative Exchange Council is jerking the press around again – this time the New York Times.

Last week the NY Times did an editorial on the NRA entitled “The Gun Challenge The States Confront Gun Violence” – on Friday they added this correction at the bottom of the article(my emphasis)::

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 18, 2013

An earlier version of this editorial stated that the N.R.A. currently contributes to the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC says it stopped receiving money from the N.R.A. in April 2012.

I suppose it depends on how you “interpret” “stopped receiving money”.

April 2012 – eh????

In August 2012 at the ALEC Annual meeting:

From the Salt Lake City Tribune

Outside the meetings organizations like the National Rifle Association, the National Right To Life Committee, National Right To Work, Family Research Council, the Entertainment Software Association and Americans For Tax Reform pitched their agendas to lawmakers.

And exhibitor at the ALEC Annual meeting – betcha that cost money!  I can’t imagine ALEC let them set up their booth for free.

Three years ago, in 2009 the exhibitor fee (for a regular old small booth) was

$1,450 for early bird registration and $1,650 for regular exhibitor registration

for a nonprofit or governmental agency.

From Media Matters

The NRA bought a large booth in this year's exhibition hall and sponsored a trap shoot on the last day of the conference, as it has for the past several years. Present in Salt Lake City was not only the NRA's state coordinator Chuck Cunningham, but also NRA board member Grover Norquist.

And sponsored a trap shoot - betcha that cost money! I can’t imagine ALEC let them near their ALEC legislators for free – kinda like a “user fee”.

And this isn’t the first time in the last month that ALEC has kicked their precious NRA to the curb. A 12/27/12 editorial in The Washington Examiner by ALEC Executive Director Ron Scheberle included the following statements (my emphasis): 

I wish that our critics would conduct themselves similarly. Instead, liberal activist groups like Color of Change have used this tragedy to falsely accuse ALEC of collaborating with the National Rifle Association on model legislation. The truth is that ALEC has no affiliation with the NRA, which is not a member of ALEC.

ALEC is a partnership between state legislators, members of the nonprofit and private sectors, and the general public that works to support the fundamental principles of free-market enterprise, limited government and federalism at the state level. ALEC does not have any model legislation involving the NRA.

"ALEC does not have any model legislation involving the NRA"
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

ALEC Please explain this - from the task force minutes of the ALEC Annual meeting in 2011:

www.commoncause.org

"ALEC does not have any model legislation involving the NRA"

 BILL PASSED - NRA proposed legislation that was passed – per ALEC’s task force minutes at the 2011 ALEC Annual meeting

By the way - Item #3 up there -  is what stopped  the destruction of the guns in the Arizona gun buyback after the Gabby Gifford shooting - the NRA used it to sue the city of Tuscon to make sure teh guns bought back weren't destroyed. .  ALEC-er Jan Brewer signed a version of this law into affect in April of 2012.

And I have to share this from the 1994 ALEC Annual Meeting

It's all in how you put the words together and what you leave out.
Lying by Omission
I wonder what their esteemed Thomas Jefferson would have thoguht of that.

ALEC trained their members on what to say, when - 'cause you can't let the truth get out.  Gotta keep the secrets - secret.

As ALEC becomes more known for our success, this will also generate tough questions from the press and from state legislative committees. The following information is designed to help you navigate away from those tough questions and get back to talking about policy. If you are asked any of these questions, acceptable responses are provided, but please then direct the conversation back to the policy to which you want to discuss.

NOTE: There are multiple questions with only one response. These are actual questions that have been asked. The questions are really the same, but asked in a variety of ways from the friendly to the aggressive.