VA Republicans Indicted Yesterday All Were Part of “National Right to Work Committee”

On Tuesday, I wrote about the person (Rossie D. Alston, Jr.) who Virginia Republicans want on the state Supreme Court, instead of the eminently qualified, extremely well-respected Judge Jane Marum Roush. In that post, I noted that the “National Right to Work Committee,” where Alston worked, is a far-right-wing organization tied to ALEC (Speaker Bill Howell’s organization), the Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, etc., which is one of the “national leaders in the effort to destroy public and private sector unions by pushing anti-union legislation at the state and federal level and by bringing lawsuits.”

So, yeah, that’s the organization Alston worked for. It’s also the same organization featured prominently in last night’s Washington Post story, “Two Virginia Republicans indicted in Ron Paul campaign scandal”:

Two longtime Virginia Republican activists were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in an alleged endorsement-for-pay scheme dating to the 2012 presidential campaign.

Dimitri Kesari of Leesburg, Va. and John Tate of Warrenton, Va. were accused along with Jesse Benton of paying an Iowa state senator to endorse then-Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

… Dennis Fusaro, the whistleblower who exposed the alleged scheme, is also a longtime Virginia conservative political activist.

All three were involved in Virginia-based National Right to Work, as was Mike Rothfeld, a Virginian direct mail expert who went on to consult for Paul.

Also see The Scandal That Could Blow Up Rand Paul’s Machine, which notes the extremely close ties between “Paul World” and the “National Right to Work Committee” – basically extremists of a feather flocking together.

Many of the central players in Paul World hail from the National Right to Work Committee, the leading anti-union group where these operatives spent their formative political years. Doug Stafford, who is Rand Paul’s Karl Rove, is a former NRTWC vice president. John Tate, Ron Paul’s former campaign manager, worked with Stafford at the NRTWC; he is now the president of Campaign for Liberty, the political group founded by the elder Paul. Kesari-described by someone who knows him as “like Radar from M*A*S*H”-previously led the NRTWC’s government affairs department. Mike Rothfeld headed the committee’s direct-mail operation in the late ’80s and early ’90s; he now runs the fundraising firm of choice for Rand Paul’s PAC, as well as the NRTWC and Campaign for Liberty.

So, back to Rossie Alston, Jr., who the Republicans want to put on the Virginia Supreme Court, who worked for that same “National Right to Work Committee,” and whose rulings were “reversed by the Virginia Supreme Court three times” – “three times…for being too pro-prosecution once and too pro-insurance defense in two other cases.” Which is certainly consistent (pro-corporate, anti-“little guy”) with Alston’s work for the NRTWC. The question is, why would anyone other than Virginia Republican puppets and their pro-corporate, anti-worker allies want someone with Alston’s hard-right background on the Virginia Supreme Court?

P.S. Just as a reminder about who Ron Paul is, see Cuccinelli Touts Endorsement by Racist, Anti-Semitic Nut Who Says Social Security Unconstitutional . Also note that another bigot and extremist (sensing a pattern here?), Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, is helping with legal defense for these clowns. That speaks volumes.