All it takes for the triumph of overgrown government is for good men to shut up.
Eric O’Keefe is talking — despite a gag order.
He spoke to the Wall Street Journal, which relates that in recent weeks a special prosecutor has
hit dozens of conservative groups with subpoenas demanding documents related to the 2011 and 2012 campaigns to recall Governor Walker and state legislative leaders.
Copies of two subpoenas we’ve seen demand “all memoranda, email … correspondence, and communications” both internally and between the subpoena target and some 29 conservative groups, including Wisconsin and national nonprofits, political vendors and party committees.
Eric O’Keefe (I could call him “Mr. O’Keefe,” but that would be odd, since he’s been a trusted friend and colleague for decades) heads Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the targeted groups. He’s risking a lot by defying the gag order.
But he believes the public has a right to know.
And, considering that gag orders of this type, especially as applied to what looks like a crazed, partisan political witch hunt, are as un-American as you can get.
In case you were not aware, Eric authored an important book Who Rules America: The People versus the Political Class, after having served as the master strategist behind the nation’s most successful co-ordinated multi-state initiative campaign, for congressional term limits, in the early 1990s.
Eric’s now in the hot seat. Under the state’s “John Doe law” folks have been imprisoned — yes, political prisoners in the United States. And, according to the Wisconsin Reporter, most of those under investigation have remained “tighter than a drum,” not daring to speak out.
It’s always easiest for rulers when their opponents (and victims) are forced to remain silent.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
7 replies on “Talk of the State”
What the heck is going on in this country. It cannot be possible we have another holocust on the way because to me it sure sounds like it. I say get rid of the slime in Washington.
That the the WSJ published the article, gives one hope.
Mr. O’Keefe is a brave American. An endangered species?
Clearly a constitutional issue brewing. It may be that are losing the ability to declare America the “land or the free” but that it remains the “home of (at least some) brave”!
Say hi for me to Eric from Brian in Michigan. I bought the book and am looking forward to his victory over this small shard of the Death Star.
Is anyone really surprised at this?
The only “freedom” we have anymore is the freedom to do what we’re told and to shut up.
Great article, great comments, and what bravery on Eric’s part.
But I think Eric has had lawyers looking at the situation. I don’t believe this Democratic special prosecutor (whom no one seems to have appointed) will risk prosecuting Eric. Because if they go to court, they will lose the ability to use the gag order in such a fashion in the future.
What going on, is political prosecutors, are lawyering their political opposition to death, using taxpayer money to do it so they pay no price for the harms they are inflicting on others.
Government statists often threaten/engage in prosecution against citizens, to bully them into submission, just to get what they want (oppression of political opponents in this case) knowing their legal foundation for doing it isn’t there.
How many government employees, are really political operatives using government force for their political advantage? Far too many. It’s corruption of government.
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