For the Common Good

In this All-Star month for Minnesota, St. Paul also will be hosting a big-time celebrity, as presumed-Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton visits Garrison Keillor’s Common Good Books to sign copies of her light-selling tome Hard Choices.

Keillor hopes to sell 1,000 copies of the Clinton book in conjunction with her July 20^th appearance at his St. Paul bookstore.

It may surprise fans of Keillor to learn that the public radio star’s book store is owned by Prairie Books LLC, his for-profit company.  Yes, the man whose A Prairie Home Companion radio program is heavily dependent on state and federal tax dollars for distribution on public radio networks soils himself with the grubby pursuit of coin. 

Prairie Books is just part of the for-profit Keillor empire, which includes Prairie Film Productions LLC, Prairie Films LP, and Prairie Home Production LLC.  Despite his commitment to the common good, Keillor is big into intellectual property rights.  For his radio show alone, Keillor claims ownership of some 32 words, phrases, and titles.

Keillor has parlayed taxpayer-supported public radio into a private fortune, as his various for-profit enterprises have made him a wealthy man.  And he has used his wealth to support Democrat Party candidates and causes.  For example, Keillor donated $1,000 in cash and $3,000 in catering to Democrat Mark Dayton’s re-election campaign earlier this year.

As an individual, Keillor can and does donate to Democrat candidates.  However, for-profit corporations cannot donate directly to political candidates.  In hosting Hillary Clinton at his bookstore, Keillor has found a neat end-around this restriction.  Surely, his bookstore is not the first for-profit one to help sell books written by an active politician.  But the nature of the July 20th transaction cannot be ignored.

His Common Good bookstore will make money—not for the common good—but for its owner and candidate Clinton.

A Pretty Good Deal!