"We also wanted to make sure that the rank-and-file Knights, the guys setting up folding chairs in the social hall for donuts after Mass and selling Tootsie Rolls on church steps on frigid Sunday mornings, know where the money they contribute is spent."
I've read all of the recent NCR articles on the Knights. If there is a Knight, or anyone with Internet access, who did not know that the Knights support a conservative agenda, its not for lack of transparency on the Knight's part.
When I read Roberts' article, with all of the dollar amounts, I hear Democracy Now's Amy Goodman's hyper-exaggeration of number in my head (ooooone-biiiiiiiillion, huuuuundreds of thouououousands, miiiiiiiiiiillions). As far as I can tell, the article serves no purpose but to create subtext and sinister undertones to an otherwise unsurprising story.
The second paragraph is so <<a peine voilee>> that it needn't have even been present; gossamer cover to a later criticism giving seeming lie to the paragraph.