Webb Gets Wilder Endorsement, Allen Gets Another GOP Front "Seniors" Endorsement

GÇ£RetireSafe announced today that Sen. George Allen has received its 2006 Senior Life Saver Award.GÇ¥

CanGÇÖt George get endorsements from legitimate seniorsGÇÖ groups?

  http://www.prwatch.o...
According to the Center for Media and Democracy:

RetireSafe is a project of the Council for Government Reform, a corporate-backed group that advocates privatization of Social Security and other government services.

ItGÇÖs easy enough to find out that RetireSafe works with GOP interest groups, e.g., Grover NorquistGÇÖs Americans for Tax Reform.
http://www.atr.org/c...
The lobbying effort cited here was an attempt to weaken the False Claims Act, which encourages whistleblowers to report on fraud and waste in the government by allowing them to get a cut of the penalties.  Norquist has been trying to dismantle the law by saying it encourages litigation.  (Norquist is trying to protect corrupt contractors.) Yeah, this is an issue of vital import to seniors.

RetireSafeGÇÖs president, Charles GÇ£ChipGÇ¥ Hardin, travels in the usual right wing circles GÇô this reference below is to a panel he participated in at an American Conservative Union function, a function which almost every well known fringe conservative in America seems to have attended GÇô e.g., Jim Gilmore, Ollie North, Wes Pruden, James Inhofe, Anne Coulter, etc.  http://www.cnsnews.c... 

Al Cors is RetireSafeGÇÖs Director of Government Affairs.  He also has written for Heartland Institute, http://www.heartland... a right wing advocacy group.  (HereGÇÖs a sample of HeartlandGÇÖs work GÇô GÇ£SmokerGÇÖs Lounge,GÇ¥ GÇ£the place to go for sound science, economics, and legal commentary on tobacco issues. This GÇ£issue suiteGÇ¥ cuts through the propaganda and exaggeration of anti-smoking groups . . .GÇ¥.)

Al Cors wrote an article against the importation of drugs from Canada http://www.heartland... GÇô yes, a real advocate for seniorsGÇÖ interests.  He also has written for National Review Online.  http://www.nationalr...  Writing for the National TaxpayersGÇÖ Union, Cors opposed an increase in cigarette taxes.  http://www.sciencebl...  WhatGÇÖs the National Taxpayers Union?  Grover Norquist was NTUGÇÖs Executive Director before being tapped by the Reagan White House to head Americans for Tax Reform.  http://www.pfaw.org/...  Another prominent member: J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State, now running for governor of Ohio as an extremely right wing candidate.  The NTU gets money from the tobacco industry.  http://www.sourcewat... 

Okay, I think we get the idea who Mr. CorsGÇÖ friends are.

SourceWatch gives more information on RetireSafeGÇÖs GOP connections:

RetireSafe.org is a project of the Council for Government Reform (formerly the National Center for Privatization). **
On April 15, 2003, RetireSafe joined influential GOP lobbyist Grover Norquist's organization, Americans for Tax Reform, at their National Taxpayer Rally and press conference in Washington DC. Other participating groups included such conservative mainstays as the National Taxpayers Union, the industry-funded Citizens Against Government Waste, the Heritage Foundation think tank, the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, the American Conservative Union, the pharmaceutical front group 60 Plus Association, the conservative, pro-industry United Seniors Association, and the conservative think tank Frontiers of Freedom, among others, according to the ATR press release announcing the event.

Here is some history on the origins of the The Council for Government Reform: http://www.sourcewat... 

The NCP "recruited more than 50 persons prominent in the privatization effort nationwide for its new Advisory Board [and] began fruitful cooperation between NCP and numerous other organizations: Reason Foundation, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the National Center for Policy Analysis, Advocates for Self-Government, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Cato Institute." *** The Council developed "a very strong direct lobbying program which has included making visits to hundreds of congressional offices and identifying everyone interested in (or resistant to) Social Security reform. *** In the Spring of 1998, the Council's Board of Directors appointed Charles G. Hardin as President and CEO of CGR.

One reads of some dramatic actors who cannot separate their roles from reality.  I wonder if lobbyists like those mentioned above, engaged in constant subterfuges, face the same dangers of losing their identities.  Perhaps it is a natural defense mechanism that allows them to lobby for legislation and candidates that harm society.

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