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June 13, 2006

We Need Major Surgery, Not a Bandaid

As I have written before, Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform has been laundering Oregon money for Oregon initiative backers, making it appear the efforts are receiving support from the national organization when in reality the money is all local. Circumstantial evidence has led me to suspect that Freedomworks may be doing the same thing, though I cannot prove it. Whether I am correct or not, it is interesting that the same web of individuals moving funding to Oregon initiatives is also providing funding for initiatives in Washington state, but under a different organizational name.

Currently, petitioners are collecting signatures in Washington on three initiatives that bear close resemblance to efforts we have seen here in Oregon. One of them has received $150,000 in recent weeks from "Americans for Limited Government."

Who are the backers of this "Americans for Limited Government"? Good luck trying to find out. We do know that it shares an office with US Term Limits and the Club for Growth in Illinois. LEAD Action (Legislative Education Action Drive Action) was for some time also located at the same address, but now has moved to Madison WI, though its website is registered to a K St. address. South Carolina activists learned that the group backing school choice there and calling itself "South Carolinians for Responsible Government" was actually a front group for this Americans for Limited Government. Of course, creating a web of multiple interconnected organizations is the hallmark of political schemers and racketeers.

The Club for Growth (which shares an office with Americans for Limited Government) is an offshoot of the Cato Institute (which was founded by the Kochs, who also created Citizens for a Sound Economy, predecessor of Freedomworks), and was originally headed up by Stephen Moore, former Director of Fiscal Policy at Cato. The Club for Growth has a history of funneling contributions to candidates hand-picked by Tom DeLay. Paul Jacob of US Term Limits (which also shares an office with Washington initiative backer Americans for Limited Government and has been involved in Oregon term limits efforts), Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform (which laundered money for Oregon's Sizemore), and Pat Toomey (and predecessors) of the Club for Growth are very clearly connected, both personally and philosophically.

The Club for Growth Founders Committee includes Brent Bozell, an in-law to William F. Buckley, of National Review, where former Club For Growth President Stephen Moore is a contributing editor (Moore also was chief economist and assistant to Dick Armey when Armey chaired Congress's Joint Economic Committee, and Dick Armey is Co-Chair of Freedomworks, formerly Citizens for a Sound Economy and backer of Oregon initiatives). Norquist's ATR offices were the weekly meeting place for Tom DeLay's K Street Project. Obviously, these groups are really the same characters operating through several interconnected entities. This sort of organizational structure makes investigation very difficult and limits criminal liability.

Here is why I would not be surprised to learn that the funding coming to the Washington initiatives from Americans for Limited Government is every bit as local to Washington as the money coming from Americans for Tax Reform is local to Oregon (but laundered through ATR): The people who have created this network routinely engage in money laundering.

Look at the Club for Growth, for example (the group that shares the same address as Americans for Limited Government): One board member, Lawrence Kudlow, came from the Bear Stearns investment bank, known for money laundering. (Incidentally, Kudlow also is the economics editor for National Review Online.)

These people have even spoken out on money laundering. Through an umbrella organization called the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, Jack Kemp (Co-Chair of Freedomworks), Dick Armey (Co-Chair of Freedomworks), Stephen Moore (former President of the Club for Growth), Citizens for a Sound Economy, and Grover Norquist (serial money launderer), among others published an article explaining "Why the War on Money Laundering Is Counterproductive."

And, of course, everyone knows about Tom DeLay's money-laundering adventures.

I bring all this to your attention for one reason. Currently, initiative process reformers are focusing a lot of attention on trying to prevent involvement by out of state influences on local initiative campaigns. I say addressing out of state involvement is a bandaid solution because it is not going to heal the real wound that is infecting our entire political system. Based on my own experience, I believe the money isn't coming from out of state anyway. An intricate criminal racketeering enterprise is the real problem, and it is actively corrupting local political activists with impunity. With impunity.

Why, I ask, are these individuals apparently immune from prosecution for their money laundering and other illegal acts? The answer to that question is very frightening, but it is, in fact, a clear indicator that we have a very deep wound that requires major surgery, not a legislative bandaid.

Posted by Becky at June 13, 2006 10:55 AM