The Institute for Liberty isn't free

Ken Silverstein points to a remarkable piece of investigative reporting in the Washington Post, a story about the murky finances of some of the most prominent anti-health reform groups. Post reporter Dan Eggen found that the conservative Institute for Liberty has truly, if inexplicably, blossomed in the last year:

The Institute for Liberty, for example, was a one-man conservative interest group with a Virginia post office box and less than $25,000 in revenue in 2008. Now, the organization has a Web site, a downtown Washington office and a $1 million advocacy campaign opposing President Obama's health-care plans.

Andrew Langer, the group's president, said the organization receives no funding from health-care firms but declined to provide details. "This year has been really serendipitous for us," he said. "But we don't talk about specific donors." [WaPo]

It's not clear exactly where IFL's money is coming from, but the group is clearly plugged into the national GOP money machine.

The IFL has recruited some big conservative names, like Kerri Houston Toloczko, a senior analyst at the Alliance for American Manufacturing and a board member of GOPUSA.

In September of 2009, Politics magazine billed Toloczko as the policy director of another national anti-reform group, Conservatives for Patients' Rights, the brainchild of walk-in clinic mogul Rick Scott who has reportedly raised $20 million to oppose health care reform. Conservatives for Patients rights works closely with CRC Public Relations, the GOP-linked firm that orchestrated the notorious "swiftboat" campaign against John Kerry in 2004.

Comments

[Clay Barham]

America’s plight is not irreversible! It will be tough for most people to begin all over again, but it can be done unless Americans, in their hearts, have given up on their own freedom and are ready to accept tyranny. A new book describes how, called SAVE PEBBLE DROPPERS & PROSPERITY, soon to be on Amazon.com, and mentioned in claysamerica.com. It tells how America became what it did and how we need to repeat and begin again if individual freedom is what we want to retain. Clayamerica.com

[Paul_D]

Clay-

Do.
Not.
Want.

[Paul_D]

Getting back to the topic, are there any conservative foundations that don't have the backing of a dysfunctional tycoon?