Press Release of the Day

And amazingly enough, it doesn't involve Russell Pearce, Jan Brewer, or any of Arizona's other nativists masquerading as public officials.

From the website of PR Newswire, a press release from the "Campaign for Working Families" -

Former presidential candidate Gary L. Bauer on Tuesday endorsed former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton in the GOP Senate primary in Colorado, calling her a "committed conservative who will unapologetically defend the commonsense values of the American people."

In and of itself, there's nothing particularly newsworthy there - Bauer is a far-right GOPer endorsing another far-right GOPer in a race that doesn't even involve Arizona (though Colorado is a "four corners" state, so it's one of our neighbors).

The biggest item of interest was the "Campaign for Working Families" part.  It made me wonder if the GOP has finally caught on to the fact that their ideology/policy of striving to protect and serve only large corporations and the wealthiest Americans is limiting their long-term viability as a political force in this country.

Then there is this line later in the press release (emphasis mine) -

The Campaign for Working Families (CWF) exists for the express purpose of supporting candidates who will proudly promote conservative values, such as the defense of the traditional family, the sanctity of human life and the promotion of individual liberty and free enterprise.

Turns out that the only place CWF expresses any concern for "working families" is in its name.

Among the many beneficiaries of its largesse over the years (according to FEC records):

Michele Bachmann, current Congresswoman and noted loon - $16K
Trent Franks, current Congressman and embarrassment to Arizona - almost $20K
Sydney Hay, industry lobbyist and Congresscritter wannabe - $6500
James Inhofe, current Senator and climate change denier - $10K
Rick Renzi, former Congressman and current indictee - $7500
Tom Tancredo - former Congressman and hardcore nativist - $13500

Not a lot of support for working families on that list, or among the hundreds of other candidates/officials that CWF has supported.

I'd call CWF an "astroturf" group, but other than the name, there is relatively little deception going on here - they've made it clear that they only support "working" families that are rich, white, conservative, Christian and don't actually need to work.


CBS News coverage of the Norton race in Colorado here.