How the "Business" Lobby Sells Out Small Businesses, Investors & America

If ever we needed proof that the special interest groups in Washington that purport to represent ordinary small businesses were frauds, we have it today thanks to the Christian Science Monitor. That newspaper published a piece about how "businesses" supposedly support the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court – "businesses" meaning the heads of groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, not actual small businesses. The glowing support for Miers shows that these groups really don't care about the small businesses they say they represent – they care about hard core Republican politics and helping huge businesses squeeze small business and ordinary citizens.

Here is the quote from U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donahue, one of the most infamously dishonest people in Washington:

"The president's nomination of Harriet Miers is a good pick for the US Supreme Court. She has a reputation of getting things done and her diverse experience at the state and federal levels will be essential in guiding the court on an array of business and other issues."

Really? Is that so? As I noted a few weeks back, Miers distinguishing "experience" in law was her tenure heading a major corporate law firm in Texas that was forced to repeatedly pay damages for "defrauding investors." That's right – under Miers leadership, the firm wasn't just defending clients who ripped off small businesses and investors, the firm itself was apparently involved in the defrauding itself.

Yet this seems to be of no concern to the groups that piously portray themselves as lobbying on behalf of mom and pop businesses. That's because these groups are as corrupt as the elitists in the Republican Party now under multiple investigations. They don't represent their members – they are front groups for huge corporations that have been putting the squeeze on just about everyone including small businesses for years. And they are trying to rig this Supreme Court nomination fight like they did the last one.

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