I just posted a comment over at Barefoot and Progressive about the Conway strategy of going after Paul on the Aqua Buddha story. I thought I'd jump on here and expand it a little.
Exclusive: Foreign-Funded "U.S." Chamber of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Ads The largest attack campaign against Democrats this fall is being waged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a trade association organized as a 501(c)(6) that can raise and spend unlimited funds without ever disclosing any of its donors. The Chamber has promised to spend an unprecedented $75 million to defeat candidates like Jack Conway, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jerry Brown, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), and Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA).
As of Sept. 15th, the Chamber had aired more than 8,000 ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates alone, according to a study from the Wesleyan Media Project. The Chamber’s spending has dwarfed every other issue group and most political party candidate committee spending. A ThinkProgress investigation has found that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding. And while the Chamber will likely assert it has internal controls, foreign money is fungible, permitting the Chamber to run its unprecedented attack campaign. According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections.The story goes on to note that the CoC aggressively raises funds overseas, opening offices in foreign countries and raising money from foreign corporations. These funds are then comingled in the Chamber's 501(c)(6) account -- the account used to pay for the attack ads. Already, this is blowing up in candidates' faces. Roy Blunt, the wingnut candidate in Missouri, refused to speak with a reporter asking him about the CoC attack ads in his race. Democrats are planning ads about this all over the country. Maybe the CoC and its right-wing candidates will get the "Al Gore and Buddhist fund-raising" treatment. Let us sincerely hope so.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:42PM in Policy and Politics | tagged Citizens United, Conway, Election 2010, Paul I write a lot of comments on web sites and blogs. If I ever run for office, my opponent will have no trouble doing oppo research on me, as I have left my thoughts all over the place in digital format.
Most of these comments are off-the-cuff and context-dependent, so I don't repeat them here. But, I wrote one tonight over on Page One that I thought was good enough to share. So, in response to an earlier commenter named Lisa Glaas:
I put this up on Daily Kos, so I'll just link it here. Follow the link to read both statements, plus a separate zinger from Jack.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/20/868388/-Kentucky-Dems-Speak-Out-About-Rand-Paul
Poor Mitch -- stuck with Rand Paul as his Senate nominee for the fall. Wonder what he's thinking now? I bet we can tell from the look on his face ...
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 8:57PM in Policy and Politics | tagged Election 2010, Kentucky, McConnell, Paul, Senate 