Posted by debrazza on Fri Aug 22, 2008 at 12:26 AM Pacific

Now what about those 527s again?

Guest post by debrazza

Yesterday brought news that a new "independent" organization called the American Issues Project, flush with $2.8 million in cash, is going to run dirty and despicable ads attacking Obama on Ayers and 911. While this group was surely going to be unveiled at some point, the timing is obviously only coincidental and has nothing to do with the fact that McCain was seriously humiliated today and that his campaign has gone nuclear, issuing "kitchen sink" press releases, a new Rezko attack ad and has declared that Rev. Wright is now "fair game". Talk about temperament.

Not only is the financial investment reminiscent of the $3 million Pickens sunk into the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group's spokesperson, Christian Pinkston, was their media consultant. This group is also closely connected to John McCain. Ed Failor Jr, one of the group's founders, was paid $50,000 by the McCain campaign during the primaries.

So now that the first of probably many more "independent" groups has been unveiled to slime Obama, let's take a trip down memory lane to when Obama announced his decision to forgo public financing for the general election.

Back in June, Barack Obama announced via video to supporters that he was going to opt out of public financing for the general election. The main rationale he cited for that decision was the prospect of Republican 527 groups and the need to not be financially handcuffed take them on. As Obama said at the time,

John McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. And we've already seen that he's not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.

At the time, Obama's decision to opt out of the system was widely condemned throughout all of the media and even by ostensible allies in the Democratic party, such as Russ Feingold's preening declaration, "This is not a good decision." The Washington Post "Fact Checker" gave Obama 3 Pinocchios. The Sunday shows were aflutter. The New York Times editorial page got in on the act. And Liz "donuts" Sidoti saw her opening and she took it.

But beyond that, his suggestion that he needed to be prepared from an onslaught by Republican 527's was widely ridiculed as a false pretense, with Obama lampooned as just citing mythical bogeymen.

Jonathan Martin got the ball rolling on this, writing in the Politico on June 20th,

In a web video emailed to supporters Thursday, Barack Obama explained that he was opting out of the public financing system because John McCain is not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations. Republicans can only wish that were the case. Obama's alarmist prophecy - a bit of typical campaign rhetoric meant to scare his own donors into reaching for their credit cards - is wildly at odds with the flatlined state of conservative third-party efforts. The truth is that, less than five months before Election Day, there are no serious anti-Obama 527s in existence nor are there any immediate plans to create such a group.

He then went on NPR's All Things Considered later that day and said this, prefaced by a chuckle,

I think it was pretty rich for him to say that he was not taking public dollars because there were these big, bad GOP groups waiting in the wings to spend millions of dollars.

That NPR story by the way was titled, Despite Claim, No Major 527 Group Against Obama. Aided by the NPR boost, Martin's opinion soon invaded the inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom. Alex Koppelman of Salon, citing Martin, shortly thereafter arrived at the same derisive opinion.

Still, the rationale he gave in the video in which he announced the move was, pure and simple, spin. And the facts in at least one part of his argument, which has since been picked up throughout the left, were - at best - questionable.

But a true threat to Obama from these groups hasn't really materialized yet. And political observers are not confident that much of one will.

And as these things go, of course "Dean" Broder weighed in with his own particular brand of wisdom borne out of his own separate reality.

In fact, McCain had been far more vocal in denouncing such groups on the GOP side than Obama was in criticizing their counterparts playing Democratic presidential politics

And not to be outdone, the man who Scott Horton of Harpers calls the "WaPo's most pathetic shill" who, "masquerades as a media critic; in fact, he's a media buffoon." None other than the esteemed Howard Kurtz, catches the meme and dutifully disseminates.

Now look, you know, Obama is entitled to do whatever he wants and make the case, but it wasn't a very persuasive case when he talks about how conservative groups may come after him with ads. At the moment there aren't any of these 527 conservative groups to speak of with any money.

The idea that Obama had to honestly plan and prepare for a 527 or "independent" group was treated with such derision that Politico writer Kenneth Vogel even listed 527's as a campaign "myth". Never missing an opportunity for ridicule, TIME's vacuous Ana Marie Cox gets her shot in. Liberal political humor site 23/6 even got in on the act, creating a Craigslist help wanted ad for a "Swift-Boat Captain", titled "MAJOR POLITICAL PARTY SEEKS UNSCRUPULOUS BOTTOM FEEDING SELF-STARTER".

It appears that in Pinkston and Failor, the Republicans have found their men for the job. And the only objections the McCain campaign can muster this far is to say that they are not coordinating with them. "Of course we have nothing to do with them." so says Tucker Bounds. How this squares with "Dean" Broder's claim about how vocal McCain is in denouncing these groups is beyond me.

After everything we now know, I must ask is the case "persuasive" enough for you Howard? How "rich" is it now Jonathan? Still sound like "spin" to you now Alex?

Update: Apparently, while the McCain campaign won't denounce the ad, Fox News will not even run it. I wonder how "Dean" Broder thinks that squares with his "fact" about McCain. Never mind, I don't think I want to know.

Update2: Ben Smith reports that this new group is solely funded by McCain bundler and Texas billionaire Harold Simmons. He coincidentally was also another major donor to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. So we now have 3 people, two have close connections to the McCain campaign and two were integral members of the Swift Boaters. Why the media persist in portraying McCain as against these groups when these facts are known and his campaign has not spoken out against this group. McCain is knee deep in Swift Boaters and I guess unsurprising we have Liz "donuts" Sidoti covering for him today,

McCain in the past has criticized independent groups, even those that support him, that air negative campaign ads.