In the Right

The letters, it was reported, were sent over the letterheads of two local organizations — Creciendo Juntos, and the local chapter of the NAACP.

But the letters were not sent by members of either organization. They were forgeries, sent by an employee of Bonner & Associates, a corporate grass-roots lobbying firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.

And who discovered this fraud?

Bonner & Associates.

The firm discovered the fraudulent activity on its own, and then informed leaders of the Creciendo Juntos organization, in person and by letter.

Company founder/CEO Jack Bonner says the individual who sent the forged letters was acting on his own agenda — and in specific contravention of company policy. In an e-mail to the Washington Post, Bonner said the company fired the employee immediately.

Here’s where the story gets interesting — because the likelihood is great that, had Bonner not taken the extraordinary measure of having one of his partners inform leaders of the Creciendo Juntos organization of the forged letters, no one ever would have learned of the fraud in the first place.

I’ve worked as a chief of staff to a member of Congress, and when it came to handling constituent mail in our office, we were no different from anybody else on Capitol Hill — log the mail, put the letters of support in one pile and the letters of opposition in another, keep a tally, make sure the boss knows if any of his key constituents chooses to weigh in on an issue, and get those letters turned around.

With the correspondence traffic levels being what they are in a congressional office, it would have been virtually impossible for any staffer to recognize that any letters were not genuine.

That is, had Bonner never alerted anyone to the fraud he found, it’s quite likely that no one would have been the wiser.

Now Bonner may pay the price, because the left is having none of it.

Democratic Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts — who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming — immediately rushed to the barricades, announcing July 31 that “This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress.”

Actually, it shows no such thing. All we — and Markey — can verify at this time is that someone sent forged letters. We cannot say that it was the “opponents of clean energy” who forged the letters; nor can we categorically declare that they “resorted to forgery and theft to block progress.” For all we know at this point, they “resorted to forgery and theft” for kicks.

Continued Markey: “This is an appalling abuse, and Congressman Tom Perriello deserves great credit for seeing through it and casting a vote that will create clean energy jobs in Virginia and throughout the United States.”

Except, of course, for the fact that it was not Perriello who “[saw] through it,” it was Bonner & Associates who found the forged letters and fired their own employee before Markey had ever heard of the case.

But that wasn’t enough for Markey, whose press release then lowered the boom on Bonner: “My Select Committee will immediately begin an investigation of the extent and scope of this activity.”

We’ve seen this movie before, and we know the script:

First, Markey will privately threaten Bonner: “You say it was a rogue ‘temporary employee?’ Fine. Hand him over.”

And here’s where the wicket gets sticky for Bonner: We can assume that the former employee and Bonner are not on good terms right now (Why should they be? This miscreant was a threat to Bonner’s reputation, and therefore the very lifeblood of his business), but Bonner will have to think long and hard before deciding to hand the guy over to Markey and his staff.

If Bonner gives up the former employee, Markey’s staff will sit with him and soothingly, like Screwtape to Wormwood, explain the facts of life under a Democratic majority in Washington: “We know you didn’t do this on your own. Cooperate with us, and we’ll protect you. Tell us who were their clients, and what were the issues you worked on, so we can begin the process of educating our fellow Democrats as to who else and what other constituent contacts have likely been contaminated by these corporate vermin.”

And then will come the threat: “Or you could decide to keep your mouth shut. Bonner’s already thrown you under the bus, buddy. We’re your last line of defense. So if you don’t cooperate with us, we’re going to drag you by the thumbnails down Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of all the TV cameras, before we send a recommendation to the U.S. attorney that he prosecute you for fraud and forgery.”

The left will line up behind the “wronged” employee — because by this time, of course, he will (with the aid of Markey staff and friends on the left) have concocted a “they fired me because I was about to blow the whistle on them” defense of his behavior, which likely will include a “I didn’t even send those letters — they’re just saying I did because they got caught” statement.

Meanwhile, Bonner will be made to look like Scrooge — after all, he regularly hires “temporary employees,” the left will tell us, so that he can avoid having to pay health benefits. Why, he’s the Washington version of Wal-Mart, don’t you know.

Markey’s “hearings” will “expose” all sorts of corporate grass-roots activity, and Washington will “learn” that corporate executives, faced with the threat of taxation or regulation or other government decisions that can impact their bottom lines, regularly hire lobbying firms who use their expertise to build grass-roots support or opposition back home.

Markey and his Democratic committee colleagues will declare themselves “shocked, shocked!” to learn that there is lobbying going on, in Washington and back home.

Any corporate manager who ever hired Bonner will have to answer to his shareholders, and any trade association executive who ever hired Bonner will have to defend his decision to his members.

All will be put on notice — hire Bonner again on pain of excommunication.

The ironic thing is, Bonner isn’t the right-wing troglodyte the left thinks he is — he got his start in Washington by working in the communications department of the Republican National Committee under Bill Brock, and then as press secretary for the late Sen. John Heinz, one of the true and exalted saints of the Church of Bipartisan Moderation in All Things.

Irony or no, if I were Bonner, I’d be hiring these guys, pronto.

Follow me on Twitter!