-Caveat Lector-
It's about time!
Go Mark!
On Mon, 26 Feb 2001 21:30:25 EST William Shannon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
> http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=10793
>
>
> Ashcroft opponents targeted on taxes
> Bill Berkowitz -
>
>
> WORKINGFORCHANGE
>
> 02.20.01 - Mark R. Levin, head of the Landmark Legal Foundation, is
> mad as
> hell and he's not shy about it. Who is this middle aged balding guy
> with an
> attitude angry at? Just about anyone to the left of Attila the Hun.
> Now, he's
> going after some of the 200 or so organizations that lined-up to
> deny Sen.
> John Ashcrof this "righteous" spot heading up the Justice
> Department. Some
> Democrats claim that the 58-42 Senate vote that confirmed Sen.
> Ashcroft was
> meant to be read as a warning to President Bush. Something like, "If
> you come
> around here with an ultraconservative judicial appointment, you're
> gonna be
> in trouble." Seriously though, how much more of an ultra can Bush
> find -
> perhaps a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens? It's
> obvious to
> many observers that if the Dems couldn't summon the backbone to
> defeat, or at
> least filibuster, the Ashcroft nomination, what kind of response can
> be
> expected of them regarding Bush's tax proposal and cuts in domestic
> programs,
> not to mention future nominations. During the first week in
> February, it
> became apparent that Mark Levin's Landmark Legal Foundation wasn't
> going to
> just settle for winning the Ashcroft battle. They had bigger fish to
> fry.
> First, Landmark announced the formation of its "501-C Project" which
> intends
> to "ensure that liberal nonprofit organizations that lobby against
> presidential appointments comply with U.S. tax and lobbying laws."
> The
> Unification Church-owned Washington Times reported that Landmark has
> asked
> the Internal Revenue Service "to investigate accusations that
> several civil
> rights groups and other nonprofit organizations violated their
> federal
> tax-exempt status by participating in lobbying efforts against the
> nomination
> of John Ashcroft as attorney general." According to Levin:
> "Published reports
> reveal that scores of liberal, 501(c)tax-exempt groups spent the
> last month,
> and hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a well-coordinated and
> highly
> organized lobbying campaign against the Ashcroft nomination. They
> have also
> announced that they will lobby against future nominees who they
> consider too
> conservative. The IRS must look at these activities very carefully
> to ensure
> that these organizations are not skirting the law or failing to pay
> their
> taxes." Levin pointed to a January 9 meeting of organizations
> opposed to
> Ashcroft's nomination, held at the headquarters of the American
> Association
> of University Women. Called by the Leadership Conference on Civil
> Rights,
> among the groups Levin identified as in attendance were the National
> Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the
> Sierra Club,
> Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women's Legal
> Defense and
> Education Fund, the National Education Association and the National
> Black
> Women's Health Project. This was just one of several complaints with
> federal
> agencies that Landmark has filed in the past few months. They also
> filed a
> complaint with the IRS and the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
> against one
> of the right's perennial targets, the National Education
> Association. Over
> the years, Landmark has butted heads with the NEA especially around
> the issue
> of school vouchers in Wisconsin, where Landmark provided legal
> support for
> pro-voucher organizations. Levin says the teachers union is using
> millions of
> dollars in unreported tax-exempt funds to influence the outcome of
> political
> races. According to Landmark's website
> (http://www.landmarklegal.org), the
> complaint, part of the its Quality Schools 2001 initiative, claims
> that "the
> last several NEA Form 990 federal tax returns, submitted to the IRS
> under
> penalty of perjury, disclose no political expenditures whatsoever.
> The NEA
> and several of its affiliates have also failed to disclose the full
> extent of
> their political activities to the Federal Election Commission
> (FEC)."
> Landmark is asking these government agencies to "initiate
> comprehensive
> investigations of the NEA's political activities and expenditures to
> determine whether it has violated federal tax and campaign laws.
> Landmark is
> also asking the IRS to consider whether the NEA's tax-exempt status
> should be
> revoked, and whether the IRS and the FEC should impose fines and
> penalties on
> the NEA." Landmark was founded in 1976, as the Great Plains Legal
> Foundation
> with an office in Kansas City, Mo. (it also has an office in
> Herndon, Va.)
> Its mission is to provide litigation and legal aid to conservatives
> and
> conservative causes. In 1995, taking advantage of the Republican
> takeover of
> the House, Landmark stitched together a plan called "Beyond the
> First 100
> Days: A Legal Reform Plan for the 104th Congress," which put forward
> strict
> conservative ideas in several areas including antitrust, civil
> justice,
> criminal justice, and private property rights. For the past eight
> years,
> beginning with the so-called Travelgate scandal, Mark R. Levin has
> been
> especially pissed off at everything related to Bill and Hillary
> Clinton. He
> called for the impeachment of Attorney General Janet Reno. He
> branded Salon,
> the online magazine, "a political tool of liberal fat cats," after
> they
> published several stories detailing the efforts of the right-wing
> impeachment
> crew. During the 1996 presidential campaign, Bob Dole asked,
> "where's the
> outrage?" Levin, who became a fixture on television talking-head
> programs
> during the Clinton impeachment imbroglio, embodied the outrage. He
> seethed on
> CNBC's Geraldo program and was livid on Fox's Hannity & Colmes. He
> dishes
> with the best of them in his commentaries on the op-ed pages of the
> Washington Times. And, via snail mail, his correspondence is always
> acidly
> acrimonious. So what's eating at the guy? I'm not a psychologist,
> but
> occasionally I play one in these columns, so I'm guessing his anger
> has been
> festering for quite some time. He served as chief of staff for
> Attorney
> General Richard Thornburgh and later for Attorney General Edwin
> Meese III.
> His disgust for all things liberal must have received a booster shot
> when he
> represented Meese in litigation resulting from Iran-Contra
> Independent
> Counsel Lawrence Walsh's final report. Levin certainly couldn't be
> angry
> about his organization's current financial situation. The Right
> Guide,
> published by the Ann Arbor, MI-based Economics America, Inc., points
> out that
> Levin's Landmark Legal Foundation received more than $1.2 million,
> or 95% of
> its revenue, from contributions and grants awarded by foundations,
> businesses, and individuals in 1997. That year, sizable grants
> included
> $375,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation, $150,000 from the Scaife
> Family
> Foundation, and $25,000 from the John M. Olin Foundation. In 1998
> $57,500
> came from the William H. Donner Foundation. The Landmark Legal
> Foundation is,
> along with Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch, one of the most
> persistent
> conservative litigation outfits in the nation's capital. By virtue
> of its
> recent activities, Landmark has become one of the key players in the
> long-term conservative project aimed at taking government funding
> away from
> liberal groups. With more ultraconservative appointments waiting in
> the
> wings, liberal organizations are sure to raise their voices in
> opposition.
> When they do, they are sure to be confronted by an ever-vigilant,
> always-outraged Mark Levin.
>
>
>
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