Yes, once more, if a Republican acts badly, rest assured come conservative website will find a way to blame that perennial bogeyman of the right –George Soros.
Now first along comes Christan Schneider a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute who writes in the National Review (repeated by the the heretofore little known Jonathan Tobin at Commentary Contentions and subsequently re-trumpeted by the geniuses at American Thinker and who knows where else by now) has learned the real truth behind Prossergate: it was Soros all along:
First the NRO:
To date, Bradley has not filed any kind of charges against Prosser. Instead, the story was leaked to the George Soros–funded Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, who used three anonymous sources to back up Bradley’s story.
Then Tobin’s take:
But it turns out the charge against Prosser may be as bogus as the liberal claims that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP-controlled legislature were turning the Badger state into Nazi Germany. […]
The story was leaked to the George Soros-funded Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, which promoted the accusation against Prosser and backed it up with anonymous sources. […]
This is just another sign of how brutal the battle between liberals and conservatives in Wisconsin has become. Having failed to stop the governor’s legislative agenda via boycotts by Democratic legislators and then a failed court challenge, is appears the next phase of this no-hold-barred dustup are attempts to personally destroy those associated with support of Walker’s ideas.
Always love it when the Right plays the Nazi card against liberals, don;t you?, Meanwhile, American Thinker then takes the story and re-translates into this accusatory screed:
This is par for the course for George Soros and his band of political activists and their wealthy liberal backers. They are perfecting the art of character assassination as a political tool. This “game” was played quite well in Colorado and was the basis for a superb article back in July 2008 by Fred Barnes (see “The Colorado Model: The Democrats’ Plan for Turning Red States Blue”). A book was later written about this history (The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado [and Why Republicans Everywhere Should be Worried] by Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer).
But Colorado was not the only state where Soros & Company have tried these dirty tricks.
I wrote back in 2008 in “The Soros Connection in the Minnesota Senate Race Vote Count” that a Soros-supported group ginned up calls for investigations of Norm Coleman in his race against the Soros-supported Al Franken […]
Now Soros and his merry band of liberal operatives are trying the tried and true tactic of sponsoring smear lawsuits.
Lawfare — the newest political tactic. And just another way to smear opponents. When people see smoke, they naturally tend to think there is fire. Soros likes smoke — and smokescreens.
Yes, because God knows, whenever a Republican gets her or himself in trouble you know it must be becuase the the sinister and secretive George Soros and his merry gang of “rich liberal activists” are behind it all (by the way, can one of you hook me up with Mr. Soros? I’d love to get rich for all the liberal “dirty tricks” — like telling the effing truth about climate change, Iraq, homophobia, Fox News, etc. — I’ve perpetrated against the right since 2004).
You know, I hate anonymous sources too. Maybe we should ask Justice Prosser to just clear this whole thing up once and for all. I’m sure he can just issue a denial and that will be that. Oh wait, he did issue a statement. I wonder what he said? It turns out, not a whole hell of a lot:
Once there’s a proper review of the matter and the facts surrounding it are made clear, the anonymous claim made to the media will be proven false. Until then I will refrain from further public comment.
What a bold rebuttal! Funny how the right keeps ignoring that Prosser hasn’t officially denied he choked Bradley. Then again, he’s a lawyer as well as a judge, and we all know anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. And telling a a little (you know, like “She attacked me! I was only protecting myself from her tiny fists of fury”) can lead to lots of problems for politicians and even judges. Best to issue a non-denial denial and let your “anonymous friends” find someone to blame for the mess, someone who will provide a distraction and muddy the waters. Someone whose name they always drag out whenever they need to make it appear as if they are the true victims. Someone like “George Soros.”
You know, if Soros was responsible for even a tenth of the stuff they blame him for, he’d be working 24 hours a day just on attacking Republicans. You see, this is the difference between conservatives who do something “scandalous” and Democrats. If you are a Democrat, your fellow party members force you to resign. If you’re a Republican? Well they rally round the poor abused victim of these “outrageous and false allegations” and then they point the finger at George Soros, or President Obama, or Keith Olbermann, or whomever is handy that particular day.
Sorry George. I guess it was your turn in the right wing’s never ending game of “pin the blame on the liberal.”
But seriously, about that funding I need …
Ps: The sources of funding for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism are disclosed at this LINK:
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)3 organization that is primarily funded through grants and donations from foundations and individuals. A smaller amount of its revenue is earned through production of commissioned reports.
The Center’s first major grant, a gift of $100,000, was awarded by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in 2009.
The Oklahoma-based foundation continued to support the Center with grants of $100,000 in 2010 and $75,000 in 2011.
In 2010, the Center received a two-year $75,000 matching grant from Challenge Fund for Journalism VI, a joint program of the Ford Foundation in New York, the McCormick Foundation in Illinois and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.
The Foundation to Promote Open Society, which works in cooperation with the Open Society Institute in New York City, awarded the Center $50,000 in 2009 and $100,000 in 2010 (to be spread over two years).
The Center also is grateful for contributions it received from the Peters Family Foundation in Utah in 2009 and 2010, the Evjue Foundation in Madison in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and the Wisconsin State Journal in 2009.
The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (of whom Mr. Schneider mentioned above is a Fellow) is funded by grants from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation to the tune of $8.47 Million. For more about the Bradley Foundation’s origins and history go here:
Harry, along with his older brother Lynde, started the Allen-Bradley company, a major manufacturer of electronics and engine parts. After a bitter strike in 1939, Harry became increasingly political. Although his company boomed because of World War 2-era contractsfrom the government, Harry abhorred any intrusions into his business: especially labor organizers (who he termed “communists” in his memoirs), as well as pressure to hire women and minorities in his plants, a move he resisted until his death. Responding to the civil rights movement and liberalism in society, Harry became obsessed with right-wing politics. According to scholar William Schambra, Harry even studied Lenin and Stalin for ideas on how to wage guerrilla warfare against the left. He joined candy manufacturer Robert Welch to be one of the charter members of the John Birch Society (along with JBS board member Fred Koch, the father of Koch Industries executives Charles and David Koch), and financed other right-wing firebrands. […]
After the Allen-Bradley company was purchased by Rockwell International in 1985, the Bradley Foundation surged with an additional $290 million in funds. The money has gone on to finance ideas held strongly by Harry Bradley: anti-affirmative action scholars, anti-multiculturalism books (the Bradley Foundation underwrote the notoriously racist book The Bell Curve), anti-welfare campaigns, privatization efforts, neoconservative fronts, and tens of millions for groups opposed to public and private sector unions, particular in the field of education. As conservative writer Al Regnery has observed, conservatives have relied on the Bradley Foundation to finance the backbone of radical policy ideas that first take root in Wisconsin but are then championed by Republicans around the country. Gov. Scott Walker’s current fight to crush labor rights in Wisconsin is the fulfillment of Harry Bradley’s John Birch Society dream.
Hmmm, the John Birch Society, eh? Fascinating.
