Stop Too Big To Fail

Rent-A-Front: New Group Wages Stealth Battle Against Wall Street Reform

Justin Elliott | April 21, 2010, 2:50PM

Consumers for Competitive Choice President Bob Johnson (inset)

In the last few weeks, a new player entered the financial reform fray with a $1.6 million ad buy, a respected economist on board, a blitz of opinion columns on left-leaning websites, and a message, cooked right into the group's name -- Stop Too Big To Fail -- that liberals could love.

But as TPMmuckraker has looked into the group, every indication is that Stop Too Big To Fail is an astroturf operation funded by corporate interests to give the appearance of grassroots opposition to reform.

The group's leader has a long history running a rent-a-front operation: offering up his services to large corporations who are willing to pay top dollar for a "consumers group" that will engage in stealth advocacy on behalf of industry. The group refuses to divulge its funding sources. The respected economist whose support the group touts now says he was deceived. And Stop Too Big To Fail has links to DCI Group, one of Washington's best-known astroturf operators.

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Ken Cuccinelli

Virginia AG To State Colleges: Scrap Protections For Gay Workers

Zachary Roth | March 8, 2010, 11:06AM

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

The administration of Virginia governor Bob McDonnell is doubling down on its anti-gay reputation, telling the state's colleges and universities to scrap policies that ban discrimination against gay employees.

In a letter to the state's institutions of higher learning, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli argues that the schools lack the legal authority to ban anti-gay discrimination, because only the state legislature can do so, the Washington Post reported over the weekend. That's a step that the GOP-controlled legislature recently declined to take.

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