ARKANSAS Clinton foes get tax-exempt IRS status

The Counter Clinton Library focuses on the negatives of the Clinton years.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A group dedicated to building the "Counter Clinton Library" -- a rebuttal to the Clinton Presidential Library -- has been granted status as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.
The move could help the group with fund raising but also requires it to be more public about its supporters.
Counterlibe Corp. of Washington, D.C., received word this month from the Internal Revenue Service that it had received the tax-exempt status to pursue its goal of responding to what it sees as "propaganda" planned for the official $160 million presidential library, which is scheduled to open Nov. 18 in Little Rock.
To keep its tax exemption, the Counter Clinton Library must fulfill its plans of building bricks-and-mortar museums in Little Rock and Washington displaying what it promises will be documented negatives from Bill Clinton's eight years in the White House.
Skip Rutherford, president of the nonprofit foundation building the presidential library, said the group has the right to do what it wants.
"I'm too busy working on the Clinton Library and being part of the bipartisan presidential library system to have any comment about that," he said.
Plans
Counter Clinton Library founder Dick Erickson envisions 16 rooms of multimedia-based exhibits in Little Rock in time for the opening of the presidential library. Hard copies of documents will be kept primarily at the Washington museum, he said.
Erickson is visiting Little Rock this week from Houston to woo secret support and secure a museum location in the Little Rock area. He said Wednesday that both efforts require secrecy to avoid subterfuge from Clinton's Arkansas friends.
But the tax-exempt status means that Erickson and co-founder John LeBoutillier, former Republican congressman from New York, will not be able to keep names of contributors or land acquisitions secret for long. Counterlibe Corp. will have to file that and other information with the IRS next year.
Erickson said his organization also needs overt financial and public relations support from prominent Republicans. Erickson already counts on kind words from conservative media personalities such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and help with documents from insiders including fired Clinton adviser Dick Morris.