One of the key right-wing front groups behind both the GOP takeover of our state and national legislatures, as well as the starve-grandma-so-rich-folks-don’t-pay-taxes mindset driving the ginned-up “deficit crisis” (which unfortunately President Obama also buys into, in large part as a way to woo Wall Street donations for 2012), is of course ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council.

One of the right wing’s staunchest and most prolific public defenders of ALEC is none other than John Hinderaker of the PowerLine Blog. However, in his plentiful writings on the subject, there are some words you won’t find — namely, these:

Fighting back against public scrutiny, Koch Industries is relying on a small army of conservative bloggers, reporters, and lobbyists. Chief among them is John Hinderaker, a blogger at the “Powerline Blog.” However, in his now daily defense of the Koch brothers, Hinderaker has failed to disclose that his law firm counts Koch Industries as a major client.

That’s right, kiddies: John Hinderaker, ALEC’s fair-haired cabin boy, has a wee bit of a disclosure problem:

Hinderaker is an attorney for the law firm Faegre and Benson. Despite his previous role handling “ethics and professional responsibility” for Faegre, he has failed to disclose in his Koch-friendly blogging that Koch is a major client for his firm. Faegre represented Koch Industries in cases related to Koch’s theft of oil (using the famed “Koch Method” of manipulating oil data) in Texas and North Dakota, in cases against Koch’s own employees regarding Koch’s speculative weather derivatives business and an environmental whistleblower case, and in a case against a Koch subcontractor. In an ongoing case, Hinderaker’s firm represents Koch Industries in a class action suit brought by a group of plaintiffs regarding oil Koch allegedly stole from wells in Oklahoma. In addition, Hinderaker has defended the Bradley Foundation after we profiled the group and its support for Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). Hinderaker never disclosed that he is a fellow of the Claremont Institute, a front that has received over $3 million from the Bradley Foundation.

For those of us who’ve watched Hinderaker and his fellow upscale cons ply their blog trade over the years, this is not surprising in the least.