Talk of the State

All it takes for the triumph of overgrown government is for good men to shut up.

Eric O’Keefe is talking — despite a gag order.

He spoke to the Wall Street Journal, which relates that in recent weeks a special prosecutor has

hit dozens of conservative groups with subpoenas demanding documents related to the 2011 and 2012 campaigns to recall Governor Walker and state legislative leaders.

Copies of two subpoenas we’ve seen demand “all memoranda, email . . . correspondence, and communications” both internally and between the subpoena target and some 29 conservative groups, including Wisconsin and national nonprofits, political vendors and party committees.

Eric O’Keefe (I could call him “Mr. O’Keefe,” but that would be odd, since he’s been a trusted friend and colleague for decades) heads Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the targeted groups. He’s risking a lot by defying the gag order.

But he believes the public has a right to know.

And, considering that gag orders of this type, especially as applied to what looks like a crazed, partisan political witch hunt, are as un-American as you can get.

In case you were not aware, Eric authored an important book Who Rules America: The People versus the Political Class, after having served as the master strategist behind the nation’s most successful co-ordinated multi-state initiative campaign, for congressional term limits, in the early 1990s.

Eric’s now in the hot seat. Under the state’s “John Doe law” folks have been imprisoned — yes, political prisoners in the United States. And, according to the Wisconsin Reporter, most of those under investigation have remained “tighter than a drum,” not daring to speak out.

It’s always easiest for rulers when their opponents (and victims) are forced to remain silent.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.