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A Talking Points Memo has reported that K&L Gates, the Washington lobbying firm, has alerted its corporate clients on how to best use trade associations like the Chamber of Commerce as channels to dump unlimited amounts of cash directly into elections, while shielding their own corporate interests.
The death spiral for democracy in America continues.
The K&L Gates alert comes in the wake of last month's U.S. Supreme Court "Citizens United" ruling, which essentially took the lid off all corporate election campaign spending, and in the short haul, has only added more cynicism to our governemtn processes.
The "Public Policy and Law Alert" on the impact of the court's ruling, prepared by two lawyers for K&L Gates and posted on the firm's site last week, notes that, thanks to disclosure rules, corporations could alienate their customers by spending more on political campaigns -- especially because they could become the target of negative media coverage. So better to channel the big money.
Read a opinion piece written by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship of the weekly public affairs program, Bill Moyers Journal, on this subject.
Damned to those without big bucks.