Citizens United’s goal is to restore the founding fathers’ vision of a free nation, guided by the honesty, common sense, and good will of its citizens.

Very little attention was given to this right-wing organization following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that opens the door for big corporations—domestic and international—to influence the outcome of elections. When Citizens United was prohibited in the 2008  Presidential campaign from placing TV ads promoting a documentary attacking Hillary Clinton, the organization initiated the litigation that finally reached the nation’s highest court and formed the basis of the much maligned 5-4 ruling.

Created in 1988, Citizens United, is real classy group of wing-nuts who believe in distortions, dishonesty and win-at-any-cost politics. The organization first gained infamy for producing the notorious Willie Horton ads accusing Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis of granting work furloughs to Massachusetts prison inmates so they could rape and maim citizens. The indecent, racially volatile political commercials were aired on behalf of a pretty decent guy, George Herbert Bush.

My initial encounter with Citizens United occured in 1994 when CNN dispatched me to Little Rock to uncover the real story about the Whitewater scandal. I knew that two years before, it raised money by peddling an attack on Bill Clinton titled, Slick Willie—a book thin in pages and facts. At the outset of Whitewater, Citizens United chief investigator David Bossie—now its president—was handing reporters a three-inch thick stack of material compiled from courthouses and government agencies. From the standpoint of relevance, the mortgages, loan applications and other documents proved nothing, the same as the results of the $70-million, eight year investigation. Nothing.

Yes, I remember Monica Lewinsky, Jennifer Flowers and other so-called Bill Babes. But who cared other than Hillary presumably, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and Starr’s team of pornographers. All the gory details of the Whitewater sham are in my book.

Anyway, David Bossie came to my attention when he accompanied an NBC news crew that was harassing a former Arkansas S&L regulator, who refused to do a TV interview because she didn’t trust the reporter. Bossie refused to identify himself until the woman’s husband snapped photographs. That’s when the camera crew denied he was with them. “Who are you going to believe? Us or your lying eyes.” 

Nonetheless, posing as a reporter was a minor Bossie gaffe compared to his other ethical blunders. The most contemptible was his harassment of the parents of a 22-year-old pregnant woman who committed suicide. In an effort to link Bill Clinton to the pregancy, Bossie barged into a hospital room to question the father while he was recovering from a stroke. 

Given such classy credentials, it is no wonder the guy was hired by right-wing Indiana Congressman Dan Burton as chief investigator of a House committee investigating the President. But Republicans do sometimes have limits—even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. He prevailed on the committee to get rid of Bossie after learning the audio tape of an interview with imprisoned former Associate U.S. Attorney Webster Hubbell was edited by Bossie to make it appear that Bill Clinton was guilty of criminal behavior. Hubbell, in fact, had defended the President.

Bossie says he resigned from the committee. That is what the CNN press release said about me when I was fired, which incidentally is the best thing that ever happened since I remained on the network payroll for another two years. Unfortunately, my golf game still stinks despite all the time I had to practice.

But I digress. Bossie left the House committee to become president of Citizens United. He distinguished himself by becoming involved in the Swift Boat attacks on war hero John Kerry in the 2004 election campaign. And so it is that  Citizens United and ethical outlaw Bossie may one day be able to take credit for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that has the potential of altering the nation’s history. However, that is the stated goal of the organization—apparently by hook or crook.

As a matter of full disclosure, former Citizens United president Floyd Brown attacked my Whitewater reports in a newsletter as “one of the sorriest pieces pieces of journalism” he had ever seen. For me, his critique was a honor—even more so than the Emmy nomination I received for Whitewater reporting. We are often best defined by the character of our enemies.