…and I didn’t even know it.
Hi there. Amy Bond. Corporate Espionage. Chicago suburbs division.
I guess it isn’t corporate espionage per se if you’re invited in for a tour to celebrate a company’s 50 year anniversary, but really that’s irrelevant to the political relationships that have been blown wide open today(ha! just kidding…sort of). So, what do Phyllis Schlafly and Newt Gingrich have in common? Well a lot of things I guess, but one of them is John Roeser, owner of Otto Engineering a company that graces these quaint riverbanks of my hometown. Or, technically the town next to my hometown but that’s no matter.
For fairly obvious reasons we weren’t allowed to take photos inside the premises otherwise I can assure you I would have got a good shot of the room where John Roeser runs the Family Taxpayer Network, his politcal organization. Sounding fishy already? Oh yeah. There’s a bastion of Republican politics (and I mean decent-level Republican politics, none of this ‘villiage trustee’ stuff although I’m sure he’s got his fingers in that too) right down the road from me! There’s Papa Roesner standing nearly hand-in-hand with Phyllis Schlafly. The photo above Phyllis has him with Newt. Numerous certificates from Senate members adorn the walls.
Well I’ll be darned.
So what is the Family Taxpayer Network (FTN)? A quick Google search tells me that sometimes it’s a foundation and sometimes a network. When it’s a foundation it’s focused on education and how horrible American public schools are and when it’s a network it’s focused on issues relating to taxation.
(thechampion.org) (LOL)
In case you can’t read that small screen shot: “For the past 25 years, Jack has been an advocate of education reform through the application of free market principles and of school choice.” How lovely!
What’s on his “reading list”:
Blimey this guy is going in for the kill. Who would have known?!
I’m off to see if Anderson Cooper or Rachel Maddow is hiring. Or maybe I’ll give Barbara, the head of HR at Otto, a call to see how running political organizations next to the employee lunchroom impacts morale. I took down her info:
Over and out.
