The following memo by Richard Delgaudio was sent to his list of Young Americans for Freedom alumni on June 17, 2009…

This by Chuck Muth is, in my view, one of his best. Because it is more needed than most, and less duplicative of anything you may have read in another conservative publication and in fact, may contradict other information you’ve had (as it did for me). Let me explain.

Like many conservatives, I heard a few bits of info on this subject of what appeared to me to be a forced unionization of the legendary American success story, Federal Express. I’ve used them many times over the years and in fact, prior to the advent of the internet, I recall many of our fund appeals launching quickly with artwork off to printers overnight, thanks to them. In fact I recall way back in my days at Eberle and Associates, that I was the first account executive there to discover FedEx as an alternative to much more expensive messengers.

So, I hated to learn that FedEx might have the Obamunists destroy them by forcing them to unionize. Or so it appeared.

Chuck Muth’s piece (newsletter) is cogent, straightforward, and simple enough that it immediately influenced me to reverse course on this topic. One would think that if Rush Limbaugh were aware of these facts he too would reverse course as did I, and have second thoughts about allowing FedEx to have a governmentally granted, special advantage over its competitors in the delivery business.

Yes, a part of me still was thinking, any chance to oppose labor unionizing is one we should grab – but this is a power grab, plain and simple, and it is the use of government power to give one company an advantage over the others.

So, I pass along Chuck Muth’s well written newsletter on this subject.

I might add one other note, both because it is relevant and also in the interest of full disclosure.

A number of years ago, when as President of the Legal Affairs Council we undertook a campaign to oppose the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, we were actually sued by Rush Limbaugh. We thought at first it was simply a misunderstanding, and so we sent to him, a 15 page letter summarizing all of the work of the Legal Affairs Council, its many projects, the conferences, the several Supreme Court Amicus Curiae, our help to embattled conservatives such as Cap Weinberger, Ollie North and many others.

We sent a letter to Rush Limbaugh, after his threat of a lawsuit against us because some of our publications happened to mention his name (as well as other conservative talk show hosts). Our letter was signed by our corporate counsel, later to become Chairman of our Board, Bruce Fein, Esq. Bruce also said that, from his perspective as the legal counsel for the Federal Communications Commission under President Ronald Reagan, he had personally led the charge to eliminate the phony Fairness Doctrine, which led to the rise (and marketplace domination) of conservative talk radio. And, that it was Bruce’s judgement that there did indeed exist a threat to conservative talk radio and that Rush Limbaugh was totally incorrect to claim before the court, that we were spreading falsehoods in so stating.

Mr. Limbaugh, contrary to our expectations, ignored our letter to him and went forward with his lawsuit against me and the Legal Affairs Council, hiring one of the most well known and largest leftwing law firms in New York City (as pointed out to me by our then Chairman of the Board, YAF alumni Donald Derham, Esq., himself a New York attorney).

In fact as it turns out, that law firm, which pursued us in this court fight for over a year in behalf of their well paying client, Rush Limbaugh, handled on a pro-bono basis, the Amicus Curiae of a number extremist leftwing organizations on the American flag burning case, including several that had been branded by a Committee of Congress as communist front (such as the National Lawyers Guild, among others). That is especially ironic, since the Legal Affairs Council had filed, in behalf of itself and Young Americans for Freedom (with us paying the entire tab), an amicus curiae before the Supreme Court on the other side of that case (filed by the former YAF general counsel, and YAF advisor, Wyatt Durrette – who also served as counsel to Legal Affairs Council).

In the end, Rush Limbaugh, despite spending an enormous amount of money suing us, and despite our spending a much lesser amount than him on defense (more than $100,000 plus some donated time by our attorney, Bruce Fein), failed in his lawsuit, and our free speech rights were upheld.

So, as a matter of personal knowledge, I do know that Rush Limbaugh is not always right, does not always listen to reason, and especially does not always act as if he is part of the conservative cause. Thankfully, Rush failed in his lawsuit against me and LAC, although with the money he spent he could easily have prevailed if we had not contested him most vigorously. His argument that there was NO THREAT to conservative talk radio was contradicted by our evidence of his own words – both on radio talk shows and in writing in his newsletters – and the fact that as a public figure he can hardly sue someone for mentioning his name in a publication (where he himself does that routinely – mentions public figures in his discourse, either praising or condemning them).

Ever since then, I’ve always tried to remember that Rush has always said he is an entertainer foremost, not a conservative. While he attacker our non-profit group’s newsletter as designed to profit somebody (who? the printer? me – who had monthly payments on a mortgage and a car versus his wealth?) he continued with HIS for profit newsletter ($30 subscription fee?) and his for profit broadcasts and books? And I’ve always tried to remember – which I’d not thought of because of his prominence as a “conservative public figure” that he is not always right on conservative issues.

I do appreciate what Rush has done for our cause, but I highly commend to you the views opposing Rush expressed in the newsletter of the very consistently conservative Chuck Muth on the subject of FedEx, which is enclosed.

As always, my best wishes to the alumni of YAF, from the former Chairman for several years, of the YAF alumni association.

Richard