Sunday, December 18, 2005
Letter To The Editor Supporting Cato
December 18, 2008
Letter to the Editor
The Washington Post
Dear Sir,
I have been a supporter of the Cato Institute for over 15 years. I cannot accurately relate how sad all of us who are associated with this fine organization feel about the news that now ex-Senior Fellow Doug Bandow had accepted payments for some of his articles from on-trail lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Years ago, I had the opportunity to hear Cato President and CEO Ed Crane speak before a group of activists from the free-market movement. His topic for the afternoon's discussion was the qualifications to be a policy analyst at his think tank. The first thing he offered was that the individual had to be thoroughly knowledgably and accurate about what he was advocating. Mr. Crane said that because our ideas are outside of the mainstream, the integrity of what we say or do will be challenged at every opportunity.
But we have never been afraid of the fight. To demonstrate our confidence that we will eventually win in the market place of ideas we have assembled the smartest people available to conduct conferences and produce papers and books that are second to none in their scholarship, all originating from our headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue that looks like it came right out of Ayn Rand’s book "The Fountainhead."
Yes, this news is a shocking momentary setback. But that is all that it is.
Sincerely,
Mark S. Lerner
PermaLink | 10:24 PM |
|
Letter to the Editor
The Washington Post
Dear Sir,
I have been a supporter of the Cato Institute for over 15 years. I cannot accurately relate how sad all of us who are associated with this fine organization feel about the news that now ex-Senior Fellow Doug Bandow had accepted payments for some of his articles from on-trail lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Years ago, I had the opportunity to hear Cato President and CEO Ed Crane speak before a group of activists from the free-market movement. His topic for the afternoon's discussion was the qualifications to be a policy analyst at his think tank. The first thing he offered was that the individual had to be thoroughly knowledgably and accurate about what he was advocating. Mr. Crane said that because our ideas are outside of the mainstream, the integrity of what we say or do will be challenged at every opportunity.
But we have never been afraid of the fight. To demonstrate our confidence that we will eventually win in the market place of ideas we have assembled the smartest people available to conduct conferences and produce papers and books that are second to none in their scholarship, all originating from our headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue that looks like it came right out of Ayn Rand’s book "The Fountainhead."
Yes, this news is a shocking momentary setback. But that is all that it is.
Sincerely,
Mark S. Lerner
PermaLink | 10:24 PM |
| 
