Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois used publicly available records to discern which organizations and corporations are funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and then he sent letters to those organizations and corporations inquiring about whether or not they agree with ALEC’s sponsorship of Stand-Your-Ground laws. He also told them that he plans on holding hearings on Stand-Your-Ground laws in September, and that he would like to use their answers during his hearing.
This seems fairly straightforward to me. He would like to undermine the case for Stand-Your-Ground laws by demonstrating that even the funders of ALEC are divided on the issue, with many, if not most, funders opposed to the laws. But the Chicago Tribune editorial board is much more conspiracy-minded. They think Sen. Durbin is threatening to besmirch the reputations of anyone who supports Stand-Your-Ground laws by publicly associating them with the death of Trayvon Martin.
First of all, these letters are not subpoenas, and any responses are voluntary. Secondly, the Tribune acknowledges that most donors are not involved with ALEC because of their interest in gun laws.
The [Wall Street] Journal notes that as Durbin well knows, companies that support ALEC’s economic initiatives don’t care about “stand-your-ground” laws: “His goal is to scare them with reputational damage by mentioning them in the same breath as Trayvon Martin.”
But I think what Durbin actually wants to do is to provide some rationale and momentum for widespread repeal of Stand-Your-Ground laws. I think he knows that the ALEC funders don’t care about the laws, and he wants to prove it. If someone who actually supports the laws doesn’t want to admit it in public, all they have to do is not respond to Durbin’s inquiry.
I also think he’d like to see some of the ALEC funders raise a stink about the fact that they didn’t donate their money to make it easier to gun down black kids without getting convicted for it. They just wanted to promote a “free enterprise” agenda.
So, please, enough with the whining.
Oh, no! Not sunlight!
Informing the public about the political activity of corporations so they can make up their minds about what they think is exactly – exactly, in every particular – what Richard Nixon did to his political enemies.
I love the way that earlier quote from Durbin, about using federal law enforcement against political enemies, is supposed to be some kind of devastating blow. The commenters keep throwing it out like, “Mars, bitches!”
Why do liberals continue to smear conservatives by accurately describing their political positions?!
Who owns the Chicago Tribune these days?
There’s a thing called Google.
One of the papers that the Koch Brothers “might” end up acquiring!! Haven’t they always been right-wing(the op-ed page anyway)?
They’ve been right-wing, albeit moderately so compared to WSJ, for as long as I can remember. But I believe they endorsed Obama in the latest election, if not the first.
Yeah, it was such a shock. They couldn’t not endorse their home state Senator. And it’s pretty hard to get to the right of the WSJ op-ed page.
They did in fact endorse Obama in both elections before that they had always endorsed Republicans.
There have been rumors that the Koch brothers were planning on buying the paper.
Ownership:
Oaktree Capital (23%)
Angelo, Gordon & Co. (9%)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (9%)
(corporate employees hold the remaining 48% ownership interest)
and
Sourced from Wikipedia. Google sucks.
If the GOP congress can continue to defund ACORN that they defunded in 2010, Durbin can ask any thing he wants regarding an organization that actually exists.
They think Sen. Durbin is threatening to besmirch the reputations of anyone who supports Stand-Your-Ground laws by publicly associating them with the death of Trayvon Martin.
And? I don’t know if Florida’s fucked up Stand-Your-Ground law is responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death, but it certainly is responsible for George Zimmerman’s acquittal. People who support this kind of stuff fully deserve to have their reputations besmirched.
Corporations play a little game with ALEC. They only sit on those ALEC committees that relate to their interests since it is not a debating society but a mechanism for drafting beneficial 50-state model legislation that can be quickly passed by friendly legislatures. As a consequence, they can claim not to know what the other committees are doing.
I’m not sure that Stand Your Ground is quite the club to use on corporations that Sen. Durbin imagines.
What is going on is the corporate drafting of legislation that allows corporations to screw their customers, their employees, their suppliers, and the communities they operate in. Having a better understanding of what they are drafting now would create more furor than what has already passed legislatures.
Because the politics is that the corporations are subject to boycotts of key stakeholders who they are shafting if the information gets out in advance of dropping in particular legislative hoppers.
And breaking the secrecy around who participates in ALEC is a key matter in the targeting of those boycotts.
BooMan – 1
Trib Editorial Board – Zilch
Why stop with Stand Your Ground? Shine a floodlight on the entire disgusting conspiracy of greed for all to see.
“Stand Your Ground” might only be the beginning. It makes sense to start with a shockingly high-profile issue and then tie the other issues together. “And now that I have your attention…”
C’mon! It’s the Tribune! The paper that claimed Dewey won. Per the Wikipedia: “[Robert R.] McCormick [former owner of the Tribune] was an opponent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and compared the New Deal to Communism.” The Tribune’s stripes have not changed. It’s like the worst of the WAPO editorial page x ten. (the equivalent of Darth Cheney running an editorial page). No one takes its editorials seriously. C’mon!
These companies may not care about “stand-your-ground” laws, but ALEC does. By supporting ALEC, they are supporting some very controversial laws. If these companies care about the public controversy they can either not support ALEC, or convince ALEC to spend its time on issues they wouldn’t be ashamed to be caught backing.