The Chamber of Commerce ON FIRE

Jake Tapper of ABC interviews Bruce Josten of the Chamber of Commerce.

Tapper is of course most focused on the White House's charging the United States Chamber of Commerce of accepting foreign funds to run political adds against the progressive movement in America.

And... does Jake get an ear full!

abc blog Jack Tapper

TAPPER: But why not just settle the dispute by opening your books?

JOSTEN: ....What this administration wants is a list of who the companies are who are contributors, and we saw last year, Jake, why, when we very publicly ran ads against the Patients Protections and Affordable Care Act, quoting the CBO, quoting the head of CMS, the Centers for Medicare Services, that it would not in fact bend the cost curve down, that it would bend the cost curve up as they testified before the senate finance committee, there was an attempt to try and find out who were the corporations that were contributing to that effort.

When some of those corporate names were divulged, not by us, by others, what did they receive? They received protests, they received threats, they were intimidated, they were harassed, they had to hire additional security, they were recipients of a host of proxies leveled at those companies that had nothing to do with the purpose of those companies. So we know what the purpose here is. It's to harass and intimidate....

TAPPER: But do you not understand why some people might say, “Let's just have full disclosure of everything”?

JOSTEN: ...Look, if you're in the business that we are in, you are audited annually by the IRS, your activities are reviewed consistently by the federal election commission and others, that's fine with us, because we comply with all the laws.

I think this has nothing to do with the suggestions here, I think this has to do with a desperate administration, trying to change the subject away from what they have been doing, which is what the American people want to talk about, which is economy and jobs. Not this.

TAPPER: But why not just settle the dispute by opening your books?

JOSTEN: I've explained to you, we're not going to subject our contributors to harassment, to intimidation, and to threats and to invasions of privacy at their houses and at their places of business, which is what has happened every time there's been disclosure here.

I would note that the same people, in this administration and the congressional majority, that supported the so-called DISCLOSE act. If you take a look at that legislation, Jake, you'll find fascinatingly that it somehow amazingly carves out the single biggest monolithic contributor to elections: organized labor. 420 million bucks in 2008....

Now... talk about "calling a spade a spade"... Mr. Josten is on fire the entire interview! You will want to read it all... then consider just how thuggish our White House administration has become.

It is a sad, dying, thrashing thing to behold... but rest assured... there is no pity for it's miserable, falling from grace, in the eyes of Americans.

xtnyoda, shalomed