Will Obama Reject Invitation of Right-Wing Extremist Group?

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing front group for corporate lobbying in state legislatures, recently announced their summer conference. The list of invited speakers doesn't hold many surprises (Rudolph Guiliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee) until you get to the end: Barack Obama. What does Barack Obama want with a corporate state lobbyist front group?

Hopefully nothing, and I look forward to Sen. Obama rejecting the invitation, rather than lending any more legitimacy to ALEC's extremist agenda. After all, Obama has spent his career working against many of the policies ALEC pushes. Ironically, Sen. Obama, who has advocated for expanded health care, is pictured directly above the announcement of ALEC's campaign against expanded federal funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

As a former state legislator, Barack Obama is in a particularly good position to denounce ALEC's pernicious role in lobbying at the state level on behalf of extreme right-wing interests that openly seek to despoil the environment, crush unions and drive down wages.

Last year, Progressive States Network released a report detailing ALEC's corporate funding, including being funded by the oil industry to deny that global warming is a problem, by the telecommunications industry to fight local municipal wireless systems, by the pharmaceutical industry to fight prescription drug regulation, and by low-wage employers like Wal-Mart to oppose minimum wage and other labor protections.

Let's hope that Obama does the right thing and rejects ALEC's invitation.