The Wall Street Journal is shocked, SHOCKED to discover paid grassroots in Washington.

Last week the Wall Street Journal did an "expose" [subscription required] on AngryRenter.com, a website run by the conservative FreedomWorks Foundation, formerly well known in Washington DC as Citizens For A Sound Economy. 

The website is attempting to channel anger from renters about a housing bailout of unscrupulous borrowers. The tone of the Wall Street Journal article was shock and outrage. 

Foundations and advocacy groups are operating in Washington DC!  Doing the bidding of corporate donors whose identities are kept secret!  Horrors! The disbelief of the Wall Street Journal is similar to that of Captain Renault (Claude Rains) in the classic film "Casablanca" discovering that there is gambling in Humphrey Bogart's club. 

Foundations and advocacy groups in Washington are entirely political, that's why they operate here.  If they wanted to really deal directly with the housing crisis they'd be in Stockton or Irvine California, where foreclosure rates top the nation. Only deeper into the article does the Journal acknowledge that the letters are real, and from real people who are really angry about this issue, even if the people involved in the creation of the site are neither angry nor renters. This I believe goes to the crux of the issue. 

It doesn't matter very much who's funding the FreedomWorks foundation, nor does it matter if Dick Armey has lobbying clients with an interest in this issue.  For all we know this is just a "small government" initiative that FreedomWorks is running to show their colors and then fundraise off of.

What matters is that these letters are real.

For years corporations have fought their market battles in the policy arena in Washington DC and recruited consumers to their cause.  The unscrupulous ones made up consumers, or tricked them into writing letters without knowing what they were signing.  But we as consumers have always been a tool in these campaigns not only because we vote, but because we are affected as well, and usually one side or the other has enunciated our interest better to us.

It's not news, and it's surprising the Journal thinks so.

[Photo of Claude Rains is from the Internet Movie Database Page, and probably taken from a publicity still for "Casablanca"]