Publicity consultant Alan Oxley and Institute for Liberty president Andrew Langer claim that it’s just a coincidence that the Institute is advocating tariff repeals that would be favorable to Mr Oxley’s client, Asia Pulp and Paper. We’d like to think that Tea Partiers would withdraw from their association with the Isntitute upon learning of its thoroughly un-populist campaign, but we can’t bring ourselves to believe that Tea Partiers are quite bright enough to see through the slick.

Tariff-free Asian paper may seem an unlikely cause for a nonprofit Tea Party group. But it is in keeping with a succession of pro-business campaigns — promoting commercial space flight, palm oil imports and genetically modified alfalfa — that have occupied the Institute for Liberty’s recent agenda.

The Tea Party movement is as deeply skeptical of big business as it is of big government. Yet an examination of the Institute for Liberty shows how Washington’s influence industry has adapted itself to the Tea Party era. In a quietly arranged marriage of seemingly disparate interests, the institute and kindred groups are increasingly the bearers of corporate messages wrapped in populist Tea Party themes.

In a few instances, their corporate partners are known — as with the billionaire Koch brothers’ support of Americans for Prosperity, one of the most visible advocacy groups. More often, though, their nonprofit tax status means they do not have to reveal who pays the bills.

Mr. Langer would not say who financed his Indonesian paper initiative. But his sudden interest in the issue coincided with a public relations push by Asia Pulp & Paper. And the institute’s work is remarkably similar to that produced by one of the company’s consultants, a former Australian diplomat named Alan Oxley who works closely with a Washington public affairs firm known for creating corporate campaigns presented as grass-roots efforts.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 10:30 am.