{"id":559,"date":"2010-01-25T07:48:34","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T14:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/?p=559"},"modified":"2010-01-30T06:44:37","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T13:44:37","slug":"answering-the-call-corporations-and-campaigns-part-3-hughhewitt-com-01-25-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/25\/answering-the-call-corporations-and-campaigns-part-3-hughhewitt-com-01-25-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering the Call: Corporations and Campaigns, Part 3 | HughHewitt.com | 01.25.10"},"content":{"rendered":"

This posting appeared as one of a four part series on HughHewitt.com.\u00a0 Hugh Hewitt wrote 1 and 4, another columnist who goes by the handle “Bear in the Woods” wrote<\/em> 2.\u00a0 According to Hugh, “Bear in the Woods” is a senior advertising executive.\u00a0 To see the other entries, please go to the www.HughHewitt.com: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Bear in the Woods’ comments about political communications are exactly right. \u00a0As with all communications, the issue is what the audience wants and believes. Getting it right is a serious business that must be approached with sophistication and care.<\/p>\n

Hugh is right, too, about the dark dynamic that the Supreme Court\u2019s opinion has disrupted. \u00a0Labor union top brass, activists, and trial lawyers are typically more politically determined than corporate CEOs, more sophisticated, and until the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling effectively had more freedom to act under the law. \u00a0For the past year they have totally dominated the economic agenda of the Congress and White House. \u00a0We all know the headliners: card check, cap and trade, the health overhaul, trillion-dollar bailouts to the UAW through the auto companies, trillion-dollar stimulus packages pushing money through the states to the public employee unions that now represent more than half the nation\u2019s organized employees.<\/p>\n

But there are other, less celebrated initiatives coming out of Congress and the Administration, initiatives that are almost as bad as those that would serially seize or disrupt massive sectors of our economy.<\/p>\n

For example, have you heard of the Twombly<\/em> repeal? \u00a0A child of trial-bar friend Senator Arlen Specter, it would reverse the Supreme Court\u2019s 2007 Twombly<\/em> decision. \u00a0In that ruling, the Court found that to file an antitrust civil suit against a company, trial lawyers must show that there is reason to believe that an antitrust violation had actually occurred. \u00a0Sounds common sense enough. \u00a0But it is a trial lawyer tactic to file marginal complaints with little more evidence of an actual offense than the accusation, then run up the cost of discovery until the defendants feels they must settle. \u00a0In big antitrust cases, discovery costs can run in the many tens of millions of dollars. \u00a0So this tactic is a sophisticated way to rig the civil justice system. The High Court banned it. \u00a0Congressional Democrats considering bringing it back.<\/p>\n

Then again, in considering the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act, Congressional Democrats inserted a barely germane section would grant sweeping investigative and enforcement powers to the Federal Trade Commission in deceptive practices cases. \u00a0As one former commissioner has testified, the legislation \u201cwould eliminate the requirement that unfair or deceptive practices must be prevalent, and eliminate the requirement\u2026 to address the economic effect of the rule\u2026 [change] the standard for judicial review, eliminating the court\u2019s ability to strike down rules that are not supported by substantial evidence in the rulemaking record taken as a whole\u2026 [and end] current restrictions on Commissioners\u2019 meetings with outside parties\u201d [by \u201coutside parties\u201d read \u201cactivists\u201d]. It allows the FTC to go after companies that help others with a Federal Trade Act violation, even if executives are unaware of the violation. \u00a0Some believe that the proposal is so expansive that it would allow the FTC to act as a kind of unelected legislature governing entire industries and sectors.<\/p>\n

Congressional Democrats are encouraging rather than using their oversight powers to restrain the Obama Administration\u2019s overreaching regulators. \u00a0For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission is in the process of adopting regulations that would make it vastly easier for all sorts of interests to push candidates for boards of directors and push resolutions at stockholder meetings. The idea is to give greater power to activists, and particularly unions. \u00a0Once the rule is adopted, unions are almost certain to target unorganized companies. \u00a0Corporate leaders will find themselves acting like precinct captains, counting up every possible friendly vote, making sure shareholders show up at the polls, or in this case, the annual meeting.<\/p>\n

I could go on, but you get the drift. \u00a0Just in time, the Supreme Court has now opened the way for companies to support candidates who defend against such assaults the rule of law, the integrity of the marketplace, and economic liberty. \u00a0But will corporate America step up to the plate? \u00a0And if so, will they use their newfound freedom effectively?<\/p>\n

Hugh is right. \u00a0These are key questions in the wake of the landmark decision and the Obama Administration\u2019s decision, following the loss to the GOP of the Democrats\u2019 safest Senate seat, to launch a populist attack on much of American business.<\/p>\n

The opportunities are great, but so are the dangers. \u00a0Many have already started to work at undoing the Court\u2019s decision. \u00a0It is an old rule of our national life: Freedom must be exercised to be preserved.<\/p>\n

In his response to Hugh\u2019s call, Bear in the Woods gave his coordinates. \u00a0If you are a corporate officer considering what to do next, contacting him would be a smart move. \u00a0If you wish to contact me, I can be reached at cjudge@whwg.com<\/a> or send a message through the contact page on the White House Writers Group website: http:\/\/www.whwg.com\/contact-us\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This posting appeared as one of a four part series on HughHewitt.com.\u00a0 Hugh Hewitt wrote 1 and 4, another columnist who goes by the handle “Bear in the Woods” wrote 2.\u00a0 According to Hugh, “Bear in the Woods” is a senior advertising executive.\u00a0 To see the other entries, please go to the www.HughHewitt.com: Bear in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-commentary-general","tag-hugh-hewitt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":561,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions\/561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}