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Beware the Left-Wing-Funded "Main Street" Republicans
Townhall.com ^ | January 10, 2014 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 01/10/2014 4:51:30 AM PST by Kaslin

What do George Soros, labor unions and money-grubbing former GOP Rep. Steven LaTourette all have in common? They're control freaks. They're power hounds. They're united against tea party conservatives. And they all have operated under the umbrella of D.C. groups masquerading as "Main Street" Republicans.

LaTourette heads up the so-called "Main Street Partnership," which claims to represent "thoughtful," "pragmatic," "common sense" and "centrist" Republican leadership. Reality check: The pro-bailout, pro-debt, pro-amnesty, anti-drilling group founded by former liberal New York GOP Congressman Amory Houghton includes three liberal Senate Republicans (John McCain, Mark Kirk and Susan Collins) and 52 center-left House Republicans. LaTourette himself is a self-serving Beltway barnacle who held office for nearly two decades. Now he's leveraging his new tea party-bashing platform to benefit a family-operated lobbying business.

The New York Times shed light on LaTourette's tangled web of GOP establishment outfits last week. But that story just scratched the surface. As the paper reported, the Main Street Partnership is a nonprofit group that charges members up to $25,000 per year to rub elbows with Washington's rich and powerful. The Main Street Advocacy Fund and the Defending Main Street SuperPAC are political satellites planning to amass $8 million to bolster Republican liberals and moderates facing tea party challengers in 2014. McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies is LaTourette's lobbying firm.

The Times notes that "corporations and lobbyists" fund the Main Street Partnership. But far-left donors provided seed money for these affiliated K Street fronts. Who's behind the Defending Main Street SuperPAC? Big Labor. National Journal's Scott Bland reported last month that "two labor organizations, the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Laborers' International Union of North America, directed a combined $400,000 to the Republican group in September and October. Main Street says it has raised roughly $2 million total between its super PAC and an affiliated nonprofit group so far -- and that means labor has supplied at least 20 percent of those funds."

Along with the anti-tea party U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the "Main Street" fat cats and union leaders have banded together to help President Obama push through illegal alien amnesty. The payoff: cheap labor for big business, cheap votes for the Democratic Party.

Main Street Partnership's chief operating and financial officer is Sarah Chamberlain Resnick. She also serves on the partnership's board of directors and previously served as an officer of the soft-money-raising Main Street Individual Fund. The MSIF is yet another spinoff group that received $50,000 from progressive billionaire George Soros in 2002 soon after it was created. Soros also dangled a "seven-figure contribution" in front of the Main Street Partnership, but Resnick said the group declined that one. The MSIF accepted a separate $50,000 Soros donation during the 2004 election cycle. It was mysteriously returned in November 2005 after I called attention to it.

These various groups are legally independent entities on paper, but have shared staff and legal resources. When I reported on the "Main Street" farce eight years ago, the partnership's counsel sent me a threatening letter baselessly claiming I had made "libelous" statements about its network. My sin? Exposing the radical environmental funders of "Main Street" Republicans who had sabotaged House conservative efforts to open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The "Main Street" Republicans back then gloated over their successful campaign to force squishy GOP leaders in D.C. to cave in to the left. There's nothing principled about their agenda. It's not about "common sense." It's about the Benjamins. These statists in populist clothing are running a Washington incumbency protection racket. Same as it ever was.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: defendingmainst; georgesoros; gopestablishment; latourettems; mainstpartnership; stevelatourette

1 posted on 01/10/2014 4:51:30 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
From Main Street website Jan. 3, 2013:

Republican Main Street Partnership Congratulates John Boehner (R-OH) on his Election as Speaker of the House
January 3, 2013 by RMSP Leave a Comment

Joint Statement of former U.S. Rep. Amory F. Houghton (R-NY), former U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), and former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA)

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) was once again elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. In response, former U.S. Rep. Amory F. Houghton (R-NY), former U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), and former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) issued the following joint statement:

“John Boehner’s election as Speaker of the House is good for our party and good for our country. Speaker Boehner has ably led a diverse Republican caucus and has worked tirelessly to find common ground with the Senate and the White House in order to craft pragmatic solutions to the complex challenges we face as a country. . .

http://www.republicanmainstreet.org/2013/01/republican-main-street-partnership-congratulates-john-boehner-r-oh-on-his-election-as-speaker-of-the-house/

2 posted on 01/10/2014 5:03:53 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: Kaslin

I would not believe one word from the NY Times.


3 posted on 01/10/2014 5:04:59 AM PST by Lumper20
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To: Kaslin

LaTourette himself is a self-serving Beltway barnacle

That lady does have a way with words...
and Kaslin?
That pic...the very FACE of evil...ugh!


4 posted on 01/10/2014 5:31:44 AM PST by spankalib ("I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.")
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To: Lumper20
I would not believe one word from the NY Times.

Agreed!

5 posted on 01/10/2014 5:46:00 AM PST by T Ruth (Islam shall be defeated.)
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To: Kaslin
There's nothing principled about their agenda. It's not about "common sense." It's about the Benjamins. These statists in populist clothing are running a Washington incumbency protection racket. Same as it ever was.

Yay, Malkin! They're on Levin's back this year. I hope you guys take it to them!

6 posted on 01/10/2014 5:57:19 AM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheel barrow)
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To: Kaslin
"corporations and lobbyists" fund the Main Street Partnership

Allowing corporations and lobbyists to give any money to political campaigns is insane.

7 posted on 01/10/2014 6:07:32 AM PST by Count of Monte Fisto (The foundation of modern society is the denial of reality.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Throughout history, when democratic forms of government fail they are ALWAYS subverted by bribery.

Bribery is what has subverted the RINOs into these self-destructive positions of destroying the middle-class in the USA through the export of jobs, increase of welfare dependency and HUGE influx of illegals.

If “amnesty” passes, we’re done. It will be too late.


8 posted on 01/10/2014 6:27:24 AM PST by Flintlock ( islam is a LIE, mohammed was a CRIMINAL, shira is POISON.)
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To: Flintlock

This country has been full of self serving, I need to get a raise/promoted, kiss your boss’s behind, look the other way, it does not effect me, and; I’m to close to retirement to rock the boat BS artists for many years. This nation’s military started it’s downfall with statisticians lying on URR’s and Emerson’s rock concerts. Then the welfare state came in big time and AA was the game. All these programs and we have more and more programs and free loaders galore plus Gov types who run our lives. Can we say-NO MORE! Can we take our country back? There is no politician lawyer who can run this country now with 17 trillion in debt. We need a real businessman as Pres or at least someone who understands job creation and not PC,MC,AA,LGBT ETC CRAP.


9 posted on 01/10/2014 9:37:17 AM PST by Lumper20
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