Dick Durbin’s witch hunt

Read it at today’s Steve Huntley column:

Dick Durbin, one of the most powerful members of the U.S. Senate, has set his sights on the American Legislative Exchange Council. The ALEC focuses on fiscal issues in state legislatures but did support stand-your-ground laws that have been adopted by many states.

Such laws have been the focus of much controversy after the Trayvon Martin case, although Floridas statue [sic] was not a factor in the trial. Durbin wrote 300 companies and organizations that donate to ALEC asking their position on the laws. Durbin tried to frame this as a transparency issue, saying the donors may not be aware of ALECs support of the laws. Why didnt he just tell the donors of ALECs position instead of asking for their views?

Conservatives understandably see Durbin using the racial undertones of the Martin case to intimidate controversy-averse corporations and groups from donating to the ALEC, which has been effective in promoting free-market principles in state capitals. Confirming that suspicion is Durbins declaration that he will make the donor responses public in the record of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. In a chilling evocation of another era, Durbin asks, Do you now or have you ever supported stand-your-ground laws?

Scratch a liberal, I say more and more, and you find a fa—st, sometimes incipient, sometimes not.