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Posted on 09/22/2011 9:12:07 AM PDT by smoothsailing
Bryan Preston
September 21, 2011
Texans for Public Justice’s true nature is relevant because they’ve launched an ethics broadside against Texas Gov. Rick Perry on the eve of the next presidential debate, and that attack is getting picked up as if it’s not coming from a partisan hothouse. Despite their attempts to masquerade as non-partisan watchdogs, Texans for Public Justice are Democrat partisans funded by a variety of far left outfits. PJ alum Jennifer Rubin cites TPJ uncritically in a post at her Washington Post blog today, but doesn’t go into who or what is behind the group. So, allow me.
I touched on Texans for Public Justice last year in my expose of how the Texas Democrats hope to use false front groups like TPJ to tear down the state’s Republican leadership, and regain the power that the voters have repeatedly chosen not to give them over the last two decades.
Because of his position as the Texas Democratic Party’s shadow chairman, [Lone Star Project head Matt] Angle exerts a great deal of influence over several left-wing groups across Texas, some of which pass themselves off as non-partisan. Among those is Texans for Public Justice, a group that claims to be interested in “tracking the influence of money and corporate power in Texas politics.” That interest is decidedly one-way: TPJ never takes on Democrat operatives like Angle, and in media hit after media hit, is always on his side. This makes sense when you take a look at who funds TPJ: Open Society Institute (George Soros, whose fortune also directly funds candidates even at the local level in Texas) and the Tides Foundation (Teresa Heinz-Kerry, among many others). Scratch the surface of most “nonpartisan watchdogs” in your state and you’ll probably find the same money sources, and perhaps a similar network of activists and groups. They are Soros’ “Shadow Party.” TPJ is a left-wing front masquerading as a nonpartisan watchdog.Somehow the mainstream media in Texas consistently misses the fact that TPJ never takes on Democrats, about anything, ever. Ditto for “non-partisan” groups like the Texas Freedom Network (founded and run by Cecilia Richards, daughter of the late acerbic Democratic Gov. Ann Richards) and the Texas Values in Action Coalition (TEXVAC), both of which have been very active in the 2009-2010 election cycle dredging up and amplifying attacks on Republicans, which then get major interest from the mainstream media.
The Angle operation hunts as a pack. It starts when Angle and his operatives manufacture an ethical charge against a vulnerable Republican. The allied groups, Texans for Public Justice, TEXVAC, and Back to Basics PAC, generate a flurry of press releases decrying the evil Republican. Mainstream media dutifully reports and amplifies the charge, quoting the spokesmen with the furrowed brows at the Angle-allied groups. A Democratic candidate, funded and controlled by an Angle ally, Houston multimillionaire trial lawyer Steve Mostyn, waits in the wings while the Republican crashes and burns.
Two seconds at their site gives away the fact that TPJ are sharply partisan, and mostly an anti-Perry hate group. Texas is thick with these groups, which we’ll hear more and more from as long as Perry is in the campaign. They’re funded by everyone from George Soros (TPJ gets money from his Open Society group) to trial lawyers who oppose tort reform, like Houston trial lawyer Steve Mostyn. They’ll use their Texas location to attack Perry and the Texas record, and most journalists and bloggers from outside the state will probably assume that, since they’re based in Texas, they must know what they’re talking about. The question that needs to be asked, though, is what are these groups really up to.
They’re not about good governance. They’re not non-partisan. They exist to bring about liberal electoral success. Nothing more, and nothing less. Everything they say and do should be seen as partisan, because that’s what it is.
To remind: Texas Tribune is one of these shadow outlets. I am getting emailed articles from this outfit that is also a 501c3 paid for by the same usual suspects.
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Marc Thiessen has a rebuttal piece at the WaPo .
This group did the same thing to George Bush in 2000.
Thanks for the link!
“...conservatives should pause before taking the word of a secretive, left-wing, Soros-funded organization[Texans for Public Justice] that has spent the last 15 years attacking conservative politicians who work to rein in trial lawyers and institute pro-business reforms.”
more soros intrusion into the public life of americans.
There are those here at FR working hand in glove with these creeps.
No wonder several of this forums anti-Perry misfits were touting this on FR last night. Half truths and faslehoods from the left driving Half truths and faslehoods from the right.
you are absolutely right.
Very interesting. This is going to be a slimey campaign and it’s going to take each and every one of us to stay informed and investigate, investigate, investigate like never before. Already I have heard story after story about Perry that makes me think there is no way I can support the man and then I go and do the detective footwork myself and every time there has been “strings” attached to these stories that make them inconsequential. Just taken at face value they are damning until you do the detective work yourself. Thanks for posting.
It is a crying shame how the right buys into the left’s smear campaign hook, line and sinker.
Thanks for the article.
I’ve been seeing some of those fake posters here hinting at this junk for a couple of weeks now. They started with bashing Perry “in the name of being Texans who didn’t like him” and I think a few were faking as lunatic Palin supporters bashing Perry, but then they started putting more really-easy-to-spot lies inside some threads.
I figured they must have been getting excited when I saw they were writing more and more obscure but not-so-hidden remarks. One just earlier this week said something to the effect that “it’s gonna get hot in Houston this month!” I figured the Texas Dems had something brewing somewhere about ready to burst.
Oh well, you can’t say we didn’t know these things were coming. We’ll just have to let Rick Perry get through all this stuff all over again as he did against Bob White democrats during the last governor’s run. From what I’ve seen here on FR, at least most of this stuff will be re-runs of that junk.
Great resources!
BUMP!
Thanks CW, the way some freepers around here carry on, I wouldn't be surprised if they were Texans for Public Justice operatives.
I guess they actually draw a salary for doing that? I wonder if there are Freepers that need a job? Our researchers are better qualified I bet.
Could be that some are already working there. :)
What happened to me was I was a strong supporter of Sarah Palin. One day, I started receiving this leading from The Lord against Sarah. I ignored it at first, but I can’t do that for long so I did my research on her and Perry [because I could tell He was leading me to support Perry over Sarah]. Once that was completed I had a full understanding why Perry over Palin. I had bought into the garbage out there on Perry, so I did unbiased research on Perry and found the garbage was just that unfounded garbage.
They are the front group for the Personal Injury Trial Lawyers who REALLY hate Perry over tort reform.
Nothing but a bunch of smear mongers.
Yep, we have heard all the BS before.
They keep running it out and they continue to fail.
They are not gutter level they are all the way into the sewer.
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