Only this time the target of our betters in tax exempt foundation land is Tom Delay. It's going just as outlined by Ryan Sager in the "campaign finance reform" disinformation campaign (much more at his blog):
Step 1: Have the tax exempt organizations like George Soros' Open Society Institute fire up their flying monkeys in an alphabet soup of "government watchdog groups" with antecedents that are mysterious, when they aren't pure leftoid Democrat. For garnish, trot out some old line liberal groups like the Campaign for America's Future and have them spend some union members' dues on running ads denouncing their target. The only novel twist this time is that they laundered some of the money through the 527's like MoveOn and ACT, which they created in the original Pew Job.
Step 2: Call in the peanut gallery in the mainstream media to add their one-sided yapping. This NY Time's vignette is special too.
Step 3: Keep the big name Donks under cover, although a few little pissants like Ronnie Earle who likes to indict anyone he doesn't like are OK. It's a popular groundswell, dontcha know!
Step 4: Convince a few RINO's to join in the moanfest.
And there ya go - a perfect recipe. Just sit back and watch it bubble. The only thing that seems to be missing is the Pew foundation itself, although who knows what a little digging would turn up. But that's OK, they've got George Soros, so why settle for second best.
The only problem with this swell plan is that all the complaints are about activities which aren't unethical and which pale by comparison to the Democrat leadership.
My favorite whine is that Delay's daughter and wife are on his campaign payroll for the munificent sum of about $40K each a year. These aren't no show jobs - they do run his campaigns and it's a common practice in Congress to have relatives working on campaigns. Why not? I seem to remember ole RFK ran JFK's Presidential campaign. Now if you want to haul down really big bucks for your relatives, you can do what Senate Minority leader, Harry Reid does - have a crop of family members running lobbying operations.
The other big whine is that Tom Delay took some trips paid for by lobbyists. Sorry to break the news, but that too is business as usual in Congress. Sheesh, Democrats went along on the trips they are whining about! I'd say he's got a ways to go to approach Nancy Pelosi's finder's fee, but the MSM doesn't seem to be chasing her with pitchforks. Why am I not surprised?
The real question is whether our betters' estimate of the American public is correct and a "Pew job" this lame will succeed.
