tehran tom's second law firm, cooper and kirk--(gee, is this beginning to sound familiar?)
(once again, my thanks to starroute for this valuable information)
Cooper & Kirk, the RNLA, Claremont, and the Heritage Foundation
I don't find much on Cooper & Kirk in my files -- but one thing that turns up is that the firm's Charles Cooper donated $1000 to the Republican National Lawyers Association on February 23, 2004. That's the group whose name comes up repeatedly in connection with GOP voter suppression tactics, and at some point around then Karl Rove addressed them to tell them what a good job they were doing.
Cotton got his law degree in June 2002 and joined the Army in January 2005 -- so this donation would have been either while he was at Cooper & Kirk or around the time he joined them. Either way, it seems quite possible that he was involved with the RNLA then.
In fact, I find some photos of him addressing an RNLA luncheon a year ago: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153851017650618.1073741845.58343725617&type=3. And there's a mention of the event at http://www.rnla.org/Newsletter/ViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=436 which seems to be saying he was an RNLA member.
Another interesting point is that between graduating from Harvard College and starting at Harvard Law School, Cotton had a fellowship at the Claremont Institute and attended Claremont Graduate University.
Claremont is a well-known old-line conservative bastion. It has multiple ties to the Heritage Foundation. Howard Ahmanson -- the wealthy Dominionist funder -- was on their board of directors. And so forth.
And here I find something saying, "Representative Tom Cotton (R-AR) interned at Townhall.com, which was then a Heritage project, in 1997 while an undergraduate at Harvard. Inspired by Heritage, he spent a year at the Claremont Graduate School, before going to law school and joining the military after 9/11."
http://dailysignal.com/2013/01/28/why-you-want-to-be-a-heritage-intern-summer-internships/
So it's really starting to add up that Cotton was part of the Heritage nexus as early as his undergraduate years and has been steadily moved up the chain of command ever since.
"Ain't nobody here but us chickens."
. . . ..
More on Charles Cooper and the RNLA
I don't have time to dig into this as deeply right now as it deserves, but here are some tidbits. It's significant that Cooper is a Southerner, a traditionalist, and someone with roots in the Reagan administration -- since that fits the profile of the Heritage/Claremont nexus in general. It's also interesting that he was defending Prop. 8, which was Howard Ahmanson's baby. (See http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2008/11/03/the-man-behind-proposition-8.html)
And I should emphasize again that the important thing about these specific people and groups is not that they're conservative but that they have a history of developing long-term agendas to take power and grooming young conservatives to carry them out.
http://www.rnla.org/Newsletter/ViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=412
On February 7th, 2012, Charles Cooper, the Vice-Chair of the RNLA, spoke before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding the recent recess appointments made by President Obama. At the hearing, Mr. Cooper explained that the President’s actions were an unprecedented attack on our country’s cherished system of checks and balances, and that the President exceeded his constitutional authority in making the appointments.
Charles Cooper, who currently works as a partner at the law firm of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, has been a student of the constitution throughout his esteemed career. He served as Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel to the Department of Justice under President Reagan, and he subsequently was involved in several benchmark Supreme Court and Federal Court involving the constitutional separation of powers.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323466204578382792759517454
The face of the argument against gay marriage in the Supreme Court on Tuesday will be a lawyer with a genteel Southern tone and a record of championing conservative causes, including preserving gun rights and limiting affirmative action and gay rights.
Charles J. Cooper will defend Proposition 8, the gay-marriage ban California voters passed in 2008. He is less well known than his opponent, Ted Olson, a fellow conservative who shocked both sides when he challenged Proposition 8 in 2009 on behalf of two same-sex couples, saying it violated the Constitution.
Mr. Cooper's low profile is partly by design, say people who have worked with the 61-year-old Alabama native, known as Chuck. He has avoided discussing this case in the media, and his argument is rooted in deeply conservative views of both the justice system and the historical definition of marriage, they say. Keeping with his practice since the case began, Mr. Cooper declined an interview with The Wall Street Journal. . . .
"Chuck is a traditionalist," said Kenneth Starr, who was independent counsel during the administration of Bill Clinton and is now president of Baylor University. Mr. Starr has been a friend of Mr. Cooper's since they worked together in the Ronald Reagan administration.
"Ain't nobody here but us chickens."
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