[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvm0cWgHp6A&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Yup, Republican strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie are spending millions of dollars in secret, undisclosed money, some of it from wealthy foreign donors, to run misleading attack ads against Democrats nationwide. And much of that dirty money is being spent right here in Washington state against Sen. Patty Murray.
And Dino Rossi accuses Murray of being a captive of the other Washington?
Of course, all this is made possible by the Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision, which overturned a century of established precedent by essentially ruling that money has more free speech rights than speech itself. And the secrecy is aided by the Senate Republicans refusing to let the DISCLOSE Act come to the floor for a vote… a bill that Sen. Murray has strongly supported, and which Rossi would oppose. The result has been to dramatically expand the destructive and undemocratic influence of wealthy special interests:
“We have allowed these 527s to run wild, unfettered, unregulated, not subject to the same rules and regulations as the national parties. And I think that’s been incredibly unhealthy.”
— Republican strategist Ed Gillespie
Yup, that’s the same Ed Gillespie who is working with Rove to fund and run these secretly financed ads on behalf of Dino Rossi. But then, it’s hard to be a Republican these days without also being a shameless hypocrite.
Getting a little nervous are you goldy…Come on the “D’s” are doing the same thing. When are you going mention anything about that?!
You need to look in the mirror on this comment: “shameless hypocrite”
So, Axelrod’s unsubstantiated allegations, already debunked by the NYT and by Bob Schieffer, are slightly massaged for local consumption. This passes for originality on this site, I suppose.
Where was Goldy’s concern when Gazans were funneling money to The One two years ago?
Glenno @1,
The D’s are being outspent ten to one in this kind of unregulated money, so to accuse them of “doing the same thing” is pretty damn disingenuous. Or uniformed.
Good! Let them spend it here where it wont do them any good.
Democrats’ attack ad sets new low for midterm mud
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.co.....h_tho.html
Sorry about the late notice. MoveOn is hosting a press conference at the Seattle Chamber of Commerce tomorrow, Tuesday Oct 12 at noon. Can you come?
We are going down there to release a report on just how much money has streamed into Rossi’s campaign from these secret sources.
Here’s the press release regarding the release of this report tomorrow:
MoveOn.org
Political Action
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR CONTACT: Sandra VanderVen, 206-369-1713
October 12, 2010
Corporate Front-Groups Spending Undisclosed Money in Washington State Elections Exposed by MoveOn.org
New report details secret donations for Rossi in WA
On Tuesday, October 12, MoveOn members will hold a press conference to release a new report detailing the amount of money right-wing corporate front groups are spending in Washington elections in support of Dino Rossi.
The report shows expenditures made by organizations that exist to do the bidding of the corporations that fund them. This amounts to buying the election. Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allows unlimited secret corporate spending in politics, front groups funded by Big Oil, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and others, have been spending tens of millions of dollars in support of Republican candidates. Right wing interest groups have outspent Democrat aligned groups by 7 to 1 nationally. During the 2008 general election, it was found that in 94% of Senate races, the candidate who spent the most money won.
Just last week, two of the biggest-spending corporate front groups, the Chamber of Commerce and Crossroads GPS, came under fire. It was reported that some of the $75 million the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending this election cycle came from foreign corporations, while the IRS was asked to investigate the legality of the spending of Karl Rove’s group, Crossroads GPS, which already spent $18 million this election cycle.
“Washington voters have a right to know who is spending all this money in support of Rossi, and why,” says Billy Kemp, a local MoveOn member. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are pouring into our state from deceptive front groups set up to hide giant contributions from foreign corporations, Big Oil, financial institutions and other corporate interests. The effects on our democracy are devastating. It’s impossible for ordinary voters here to make informed choices or have our voices heard, and with corporate CEOs and lobbyists shelling out big money to buy misleading ads in support of Rossi, he’s going to owe them. Who’s going to represent ordinary families in Washington then?
WHAT: Report release on corporate front-group spending
WHO: MoveOn members
WHERE: Seattle Chamber of Commerce, 1301 5th Ave
WHEN: Noon, Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
***VISUALS: Signs/crowd ****
MoveOn.org Political Action is a political action committee powered by 5 million progressive Americans. We believe in the power of small donors and grassroots action to elect progressive leaders to office and to advance a progressive agenda. We do not accept any donations over $5,000, and the average donation to MoveOn.org Political Action is under $100.
###
Obama’s “foreign money” claims are bogus.
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/107664/
fools gold at @3
That might be the case in Washington State, but not nation wide.
Show me the numbers…
Heck, who cares about whether Rove’s money is from inside or outside our borders.
The issue is ROVE. Is Helmet-Hair-Hamlet in line with the Bush agenda?
If yes, why does he think doing the same thing again will deliver anything but the disaster it did the first time (Deadliest attack on the USA in 60 years, Largest string of nominal deficits ever, no job growth, Worst recession in 80 years…)
If no, then if he can’t represent himself how can we expect him to represent us? (We can’t!)
“Show me the numbers”…
You’re a Republican. Numbers, facts, figures, data, reality; you’ve developed a method* to ignore them. Why bother?
*self-delusion
Glenno @8,
Or how about you go show me the numbers to back up your claim? Or, you could follow Joe Scarborough’s lead, and retract your false claim of undisclosed liberal spending, as he did this morning.
Instacracker doesn’t know how to read.
Any multinational corporation spending money on political races should be forced to asked EACH AND EVERY STOCKHOLDER if they have their permission to do that.
NYT and Bob Schieffer did not debunk the foreign money story. They merely reiterated that the Chamber of Commerce should be trusted when they say, but as yet has never shown nor proven, that foreign funds entering their general fund are not used for political advertisements. The distinction matters, unless you wish to remain oblivious. With the Chamber’s, and the variously named Rovian groups’, histories of lying and deceit, trusting them is not an option.
Yawn
Obama Accepting Untraceable Donations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....03413.html
Certainly OK when the liberals hide their contributions.
Yawn. Saw the 2008 point-missing at Instacracker. It’s still just as irrelevant here.
Rossi is such a complete dud that his only chance is for the likes of Karl Rove to do his campaigning for him (since Rossi can’t be bothered to actually campaign).
I shouldn’t be surprised at the level of stupidity amongst voters who have not a clue what Murray does for Washington state. The only information they have are in the ads. I think there are quite a lot of people who have no idea where the ads are coming from and so they just hear this shit in the background on their TV and like the BORG just absorb it.
@6
“your release blah blah blah”
Foreign money? Curious that MoveOn would highlight this aspect..
Pot meet Soros, I mean kettle.
@13
OK how about this then
“Any multinational corporation or UNION spending money on political races should be forced to asked EACH AND EVERY STOCKHOLDER or MEMBER, if they have their permission to do that.”
It’s really that easy.
Dumb Stuff @19:
How false can a single simile be?
Stockholders own the company, whereas labor union members are dues-payers who collectively bargain with the company that’s owned by its stockholders.
As a stockhoder of, say, ChevronTexaco, I employ the CEO and senior management. They work for me, not vice versa, and they’re responsible to me in accounting for what they spend my investment on.
The members of ChevronTexaco’s labor unions also work for me, though what they do with the dues they pay to their collective-bargaining organization isn’t my concern.
The companies I own have the responsibility to tell me how they spend my money. Unions aren’t, because I have no skin in their game.
(And unions do report their activities, far more extensively than is being demanded of corporations.)
@18: Wrong Stuff
Hey, did you even read Goldy’s link from the ?Washington Post?
Hypocrisy? No, the only hypocrisy is the republicans getting foreign and corporate money and recycling Karl Rove and the failed Bush regime.
Bush and Rove lied back then, took the largest budget surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history and claimed that budget deficits did not matter. Now that we are fixing the Bush recession and the republican deregulation of the banks – and have prevented what would have been the worst economic crisis since the great depression – republicans want to bring back the same idiotic policies of shipping good jobs overseas and cutting taxes for the rich.
THAT is hypocrisy.
Rahm Emanuel: “Never let a crisis go to waste”
Goldy: Never let a low-ball smear go to waste.