Silencing of the (Conservative) Lambs

1. Silencing of the (Conservative) Lambs Cleta Mitchell, Esq. March 27, 2014

2. MotherJones, Jan 9, 2013: Revealed: The Massive New Liberal Plan to Remake American Politics “A month after President Obama won reelection, America's most powerful liberal groups met to plan their next moves. Here's what they talked about.”

3. Liberal/Left/Progressives - LLP “…a sense of outrage filled the room as labor officials, environmentalists, civil rights activists, immigration reformers, and a panoply of other progressive leaders discussed the challenges facing the left and what to do to beat back the deep-pocketed conservative movement…”

4. Liberal / Left / Progressives-LLP • "It was so exciting," says Michael Brune, the Sierra Club's executive director. "We weren't just wringing our hands about the Koch brothers. We were saying, 'I'll put in this amount of dollars and this many organizers.'” • "We're not going to have a clean-energy economy," he says, "if the same companies that are polluting our rivers and oceans are also polluting our elections."

5. Liberal/Left/Progressives - LLP • Greenpeace's Phil Radford notes that for decades conservatives have aimed to shrink local, state, and federal governments by reforming the rules so they could install like-minded politicians, bureaucrats, and judges. Radford calls it "a 40-plus-year strategy by the Scaifes, Exxons, Coors, and Kochs of the world...to take over the country”

6. Liberal/Left/Progressives - LLP • And in North Carolina, the fight is more about countering the influence of a single powerful donor, the conservative millionaire Art Pope, whose largesse helped install a Republican governor and turn the state legislature entirely

7. Liberal/Left/Progressives - LLP “…attendees closed with a pledge …to build a national, coordinated campaign around three goals…and pledged a total of millions of dollars and dozens of organizers to form a united front on these issues.” WHAT ARE THOSE THREE ISSUES?

8. Liberal/Left/Progressives - LLP LLP’s three big issues: 1. Get big money out of politics 2. Expand voting rolls while fighting voter ID laws 3. Rewrite Senate filibuster rules

9. Who is the LLP? “…labor officials, environmentalists, civil rights activists, immigration reformers, and a panoply of other progressive leaders…”

10. LLP “Big Issues”… All of the three big issues are about… Political Process

11. What is “Political Process”? • The LLP understand (as conservatives do not) the ‘golden rule of politics’ – He who write the rules wins the gold

12. LLP Golden Rules… • The rules of political engagement… • Campaign finance • Election laws • Lobbying Laws • Legislative Procedures

13. Liberal/Left/Progressives - LLP LLP’s three big issues: 1. Get big money out of politics; 2. Expand voting rolls while fighting voter ID laws 3. Rewrite Senate filibuster rules

14. LLP Golden Rules – Senate Filibuster On November 12, 2013, the Senate voted 52 – 48 to end filibusters on executive branch and certain judicial nominees.

15. LLP Golden Rules – Senate Filibuster Huffington Post, November 12, 2013 7:25 pm “WASHINGTON -- When Harry Reid came in through a side door to the Mansfield Room Thursday afternoon, the majority leader was met with a raucous standing ovation from a crowd of activists, mere steps from the Senate floor where he had just successfully led a change of Senate rules to reform the filibuster.”

16. LLP Golden Rules: Voter ID DoJ Attacks North Carolina Voter ID Law Oct. 3, 2013 “The Obama Justice Department has filed suit against the state of North Carolina over its new voting rules. The rules include reducing the early voting period from 17 days to 10, elimination of same-day voter registration during early voting, and requiring voters to present some form of identification when coming to the polls.”

17. LLP Golden Rules: Voter ID Eric Holder Announces Justice Dept. Is Suing Texas Over Voter ID Law Aug. 22, 2013 12:57 pm Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Thursday it will sue Texas over the state’s voter ID law and will seek to intervene in a lawsuit over the state’s redistricting laws

18. LLP Golden Rules – Expanding the Electorate POLITICO, Dec 4, 2013: “A group of state lawmakers on Wednesday met to develop policy proposals they say will promote voting rights as part of a 50-state effort aimed at enacting laws that expand voting and push back against laws the say restrict access to the polls. The Washington meeting of the left group American Values First’s Voting Rights Project was the first gathering of the task force that launched this summer.”

19. LLP Golden Rules: Expanding the Electorate • registration on Election Day • online and pre-registering students • expanding early voting • distributing locations of polling places, including on college campuses, • reducing long lines at polling places by offering voting by mail and expanding absentee voting.

20. LLP Golden Rules: Expanding the Electorate The Blaze, Oct 31, 2013: “Could the Obamacare Website Open the Door to Voter Integrity Issues? Washington Post, Sept 26, 2013: Could Obamacare add more Democrats to the voter rolls? Yup. “Republicans have plenty of reasons to dislike Obamacare already, but they haven't focused on one that could affect them in 2014 and beyond: anyone signing up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act will also have a chance to register to vote”

21. LLP Golden Rules: Expanding the Electorate New Orleans Times – Picayune, August 13, 2013 Louisiana Secretary of State: 'Gestapo' Justice Department suing state to gain access to voter registration data The U.S. Justice Department is suing the state for access to voter data in an attempt to turn the state from red to blue, Secretary of State Tom Schedler told a meeting of Baton Rouge Republicans on Tuesday. Schedlersaid Eric Holder's office was acting "like the Gestapo" in requesting registration information.

22. LLP Golden Rules: Campaign Finance Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2013: Wisconsin Political Speech Raid: Subpoenas hit allies of Scott Walker as his re-election campaign looms A special prosecutor has hit dozens of conservative groups with subpoenas demanding documents related to the 2011 and 2012 campaigns to recall Governor Walker and state legislative leaders.

23. LLP Golden Rules: Enter the IRS… Huffington Post, May 10, 2013 IRS Apologizes For Inappropriately Targeting Conservative Political Groups In 2012 Election “IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.”

24. LLP Golden Rules: IRS Takes Aim Newsmax, June 20, 2013 IRS Scandal Reveals Obama Effort to Silence Critics Mother Jones, June 19, 2012: Quote of the Day: GOP Leader Says Obama Using the IRS to Punish His Enemies

25. LLP Golden Rules: Enter the IRS Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2013 Kim Strassel: The IRS Scandal Started at the Top “The bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service did exactly what the president said was the right and honorable thing to do.”

26. LLP Golden Rules: Enter the IRS TIME Magazine, Nov 26, 2013 Obama Targets Dark-Money Groups Proposed regulations would declare "candidate-related political activity" as not promoting social welfare

27. LLP Golden Rules: IRS Takes Aim at 501c4s On Nov. 29, 2013 – IRS issued proposed rules to treat as candidate-related political activities the following: • Voter registration • Candidate forums and debates • Voter guides • Voting records of incumbents • Public statements by officers and leaders of c4s that reference incumbents and candidates

28. LLP Golden Rules: IRS Takes Aim at 501c4s • Communications include radio, tv, written, newspaper, internet, phones and oral if can reach 500 people • If voting records or other statements are posted on website – and remain on website within “blackout” period, converted to a candidate-related political expenditure • Applies to volunteer activities sponsored by organization

29. LLP Golden Rules: IRS Takes Aim at 501c4s • Proposed rules do not include: • labor unions • Trade associations • 501c3 organizations Only 501c4 groups. Wall Street Journal study documented $4.4 billion in political expenditures by labor unions 2005-2011.

30. LLP Golden Rules: IRS Takes Aim BNA Money & Politics, Dec 6, 2013 Van Hollen, Others Drop Lawsuit After IRS Agrees to Social Welfare Group Rules Dec. 6 — Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and a trio of campaign reform groups have moved to dismiss a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service calling for a new rulemaking to address campaign activities by Section 501(c)(4) organizations.

31. Liberal / Left / Progressives-LLP • "It was so exciting," says Michael Brune, the Sierra Club's executive director. "We weren't just wringing our hands about the Koch brothers. We were saying, 'I'll put in this amount of dollars and this many organizers.'” • "We're not going to have a clean-energy economy," he says, "if the same companies that are polluting our rivers and oceans are also polluting our elections."

32. Harry Reid and the LLPs Los Angeles Times: February 26, 2014 • WASHINGTON —  Majority Leader Harry Reid, angered by a new round of anti-Obamacare ads he called “lies,” condemned the Koch brothers as “un-American” on the Senate floor Wednesday. • Reid's remarks attacking the billionaire Republican contributors Charles and David Koch reflect Democrats’ increasing concern that spending by outside groups like Americans for Prosperity against Democratic candidates could cost the party its Senate majority.

33. Harry Reid and the LLPs Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2014: “Harry Reid Doubles Down on the Koch Brothers” “…It’s the latest in a string of attacks that Mr. Reid has delivered from the Senate floor on Charles and David Koch, billionaire industrialists who have pumped an estimated $30 million into television ads attacking Democrats this year. Democrats are also responding directly to the Koch ads with their own TV ads and an online campaign. Mr. Reid said Thursday: “Here’s the truth. Millions in political ads sponsored by these two multibillionaires are misleading at best, and outright false in many instances… The truth is the Koch brothers are willing to do anything, even exploit Americans suffering from cancer, to advance their campaign of distortion.”

34. Harry Reid and the LLPs Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2014 (cont’d): Democrats have said the goal is to create a villain of sorts for Democrats to rally against as they fight to stave off a strong GOP push to capture control of the Senate in this fall’s elections. Mr. Reid launched his anti-Koch campaign last week, declaring they are “un-American” and that “the GOP is addicted to Koch…”

35. What next? • Conservatives must pay attention to the golden rule of politics: “He who writes the rules wins the gold…” • Conservatives must realize that the LLPs have a coordinated, well-funded effort to rewrite the ‘golden rules’ and we are seeing it play out before our eyes • Conservatives need our own strategy and plan to fight back – and we need political leaders who will work WITH, not against, grassroots conservatives

36. Questions? Cleta Mitchell, Esq. Foley & Lardner, LLP 3000 K Street, NW #600 Washington, DC 20007 (202) 295-4081 (ofc) (202) 431-1950 (cell) cmitchell@foley.com