April 27, 2012 9:38AM # Obama’s Long Knives Come Out By [Roger Pilon](https://www.cato.org/people/roger-pilon) --- SHARE Today [POLITICO Arena](http://www.politico.com/arena/) asks: > Is Common Cause’s complaint against The American Legislative Exchange Council valid, or is it a smear against a successful conservative advocacy group? My response: Common Cause has joined such [bully-boys](http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/296382/left-wing-pressure-causes-alec-retreat-john-fund) as the discredited former White House aide Van Jones and his “Color of Change” to do what the Left does best—smear those who oppose their political agenda. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a reputable organization of thousands of conservative and libertarian state legislators from across the country. They meet periodically to develop legislative proposals aimed at pro-growth solutions to problems facing their various states. “Stand Your Ground” and voter-ID laws have constituted only a small part of ALEC’s agenda over the years. But this is an especially important election year, so all the stops are out for the Left. And it starts at the top. For a chilling account of the tactics to which Obama is now stooping, read [Kim Strassel’s piece](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304723304577368280604524916.html) in this morning’s *Wall Street Journal*. At an Obama campaign website we find “Behind the curtain: A brief history of Romney’s donors.” Its purpose is plain as day: to expose and shame private citizens who’ve had the temerity to donate to the Romney campaign. “Quite a few,” the post charges, have been “on the wrong side of the law.” Their “crimes”? One is a lobbyist, another a hedge-fund manager, another outsourced jobs. We haven’t seen such tactics since the days of Nixon’s “enemies list.” This is Axelrod and Chicago politics, and it’s not going to get any better, because Obama can’t run on his record. So brace yourself for the politics of personal destruction. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).