Denial. It's the ultimate refuge of a scoundrel.
And apparently some conservative governors too ...
Kraft Foods, Coca Cola to discontinue membership in conservative ALEC group
by Megan DeMarco, Statehouse Bureau, The Star-Ledger -- April 06, 2012
[...]
The Star-Ledger reported on Sunday that several of Gov. Chris Christie’s biggest policy initiatives include language nearly identical to bills drawn up by ALEC, which specializes in writing measures for state legislatures.
Christie called The Star-Ledger report "ridiculous" and denied involvement in ALEC.
"I don’t even know these people, and I’ve never had any interaction with them," he said.
Richard Bagger, who was Christie’s chief of staff for two years, was a member of ALEC’s board in the early 2000s, but Christie said Bagger never brought up the group.
[...]
I bet Christie
doesn't know who the biggest donors to his PACs are, either ...
Conservatives love to tell the people, how they are looking out for us,
-- meanwhile, behind the public press events, another story is being quietly written ...
Dump deceivers like Christie who plagiarize laws
by Letters to the Editor, Gloucester County Times Gloucester County Times -- April 08, 2012
To the Editor:
Gov. Chris Christie has exposed his true political and legislative agenda through his association with the American Legislative Exchange Commission.
Through this political action committee, drawn from members of the nation’s richest corporations, the governor and his fellow Republicans have access to ready-made templates for bills that are supposed to be in the best interest of the citizens of New Jersey.
Use of ALEC bills outlined in an nj.com article (www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/alec_model_bills_used_in_nj_la.html [See next link] ) has been denied by Christie and Republican New Jersey legislators. However, the evidence is obvious through the wording of the bills, some of which passed.
[...]
The proof is in the product.
... that legacy Conservative governors are leaving us, in form of Corporation-coddling laws:
Some of Christie's biggest bills match model legislation from D.C. group called ALEC
by Salvador Rizzo, Statehouse Bureau, The Star-Ledger April 01, 2012
[...]
It’s called the American Legislative Exchange Council, a little-known conservative group headquartered in Washington, D.C., and funded by some of the biggest corporations in the United States -- most with a business interest in state legislation.
ALEC has quietly made its mark on the political landscape by providing state governments with mock-up bills that academic and political experts say are, for the most part, tailored to fit a conservative agenda. In recent years, states -- particularly those with new Republican governors and legislatures -- have been flooded with ALEC’s model bills. Nearly 1,000 of them are introduced every year, and roughly one-fifth of those become law, according to ALEC’s own count. ALEC’s bills are especially attractive because they are written so they can virtually be copied and pasted onto legislative proposals across the land.
[...]
Drawing on bills crafted by the council, on New Jersey legislation and dozens of e-mails by Christie staffers and others, The Star-Ledger found a pattern of similarities between ALEC’s proposals and several measures championed by the Christie administration. At least three bills, one executive order and one agency rule accomplish the same goals set out by ALEC using the same specific policies. In eight passages contained in those documents, New Jersey initiatives and ALEC proposals line up almost word for word. Two other Republican bills not pushed by the governor’s office are nearly identical to ALEC models.
They used to call this kind of productivity "
plagiarism"
-- today it's just the how the business of Corporate Catering, gets done.
Whether the Governors are clueless to this theft of democracy, or active and willing participants,
-- it really doesn't matter because this ALEC-inspired corporate take-over of the People's democracy -- is happening on THEIR watch.
Governors like Christie are their States' CEO. They damn-well should know about what ALEC is doing to their local economies, their local communities
-- that or explain to the people again, exactly what is it that uniquely qualifies them to lead their states?
... especially when they can't even see, nor dare to stop, the theft of democracy, occurring under their doddering, nodding, unknowing approval.