Adelson to the Rescue, Funds Republican Ads Against Democrats

A hat tip to the Gleaner for spotting “The Fix” this morning, and its report that Nevada’s very own Sheldon Adelson is taking over a movement conservative position once firmly held in Texas – bankroller par excellence angel-sugar-daddy to the radical right’s campaign against any and all Democrats. Adelson’s White House front group Freedom’s Watch is running radio ads in 16 congressional districts the gist of which is that any and all inflation is due to the Democrats in Congress.

Adelson’s perspective demonstrates no understanding that the presidential candidate who told the country on January 26, 2000 he had an inside track on managing energy policy and prices could have been so completely wrong?

“Bush: No, I don't. I think I agree with the energy secretary that the strategic petroleum reserve is meant for a national wartime emergency. What I think the president ought to do is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots. One reason why the price is so high is because the price of crude oil has been driven up. OPEC has gotten its supply act together, and it's driving the price, like it did in the past. And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price. And if in fact there is collusion amongst big oil, he ought to intercede there as well. I used to be in the oil business. I was little oil -- really little oil. And so I understand the -- I understand what can happen in the marketplace.” [CNN transcript] (emphasis added)

Somehow that “jawbone” didn’t secure much, not once, but twice in 2008, as President Bush found it much more difficult to demand what candidate Bush had implied would be so easy. [Perrs]

By April 29, 2008 the President was reduced to whining in the Rose Garden that energy prices would be more palatable if Congress would pass (1) a bill allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; {Study: “Anwar Oil would have little impact” MSNBC}(2) bills to build more refineries; {If increasing refinery capacity were profitable then wouldn’t the energy companies have done this already?} (3) bills to subsidize nuclear power plants; {and, of course put all the nuclear waste in Nevada} and, not pass (4) any “new and costly mandates on producers;” nor (5) any emission controls on coal powered electricity plants. A concise summation of the President’s position is “if you’ll let the energy companies do anything they want, and subsidize them for doing so, then prices will drop.” Logically speaking there’s a large “undistributed middle” in this assertion.

Meanwhile, Nevada’s own little “Checkbook” for the polluters, exploiters, and movement conservatives will continue to pour money into a swampy politics of his own creation.

Adelson Still At It: So-called 501(c) active in Mississippi Congressional Race

Nevada’s own cranky gazillionaire, Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Sands, Etc. and his Freedoms’ Watch organization may be operating as “the cash-strapped NRCC’s de facto independent expenditure campaign [DCCC] according to a complaint filed with the FEC. [Gleaner] The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed an April 16^th complaint stating that Freedoms’ Watch and the NRCC were illegally coordinating their operations in the Louisiana 6^th Congressional District – which the GOP ultimately lost – and in the upcoming Mississippi 1^st Congressional District race.

A second complaint was filed on April 23^rd against Adelson’s organization for running a political attack ad that directly and illegally advocated the defeat of a Democratic candidate, and for failed to properly disclose the names of the organization’s donors. Adelson’s outfit earned a third complaint on April 29^th to the IRS [DCCC] because of allegations it violated its tax exempt status by running political attack ads in the LA 6^th District election specifically against the Democratic candidate. According to the DCCC Freedoms’ Watch clearly meets 5 of the 6 criteria the IRS uses to categorize a group as political, and not an exempt 501c. [DCCC]

Some questions raised by the DCCC were answered when Freedoms’ Watch reports turned up at the FEC showing that they had been filed but were not properly posted to the FEC database. The FEC website has now been updated and shows that FW spent $870,000 on advertising between April 23 and May 6. [CQ]

A 501c is not allowed to directly support or oppose any specific candidate, therefore many of the suspect ads being run by Freedoms’ Watch call for the viewer to “Call Candidate X and tell him not to raise taxes.” Also calling the independence of Adelson’s smear shop into question is the fact that its advocacy director was responsible for the NRCC’s independent expenditures in 2006. [CampDia]

When Freedoms’ Watch filed as a lobbying organization with the Secretary of the Senate in 2007, the form showed lobbyists as Bradley Blakeman (Deputy Asst. to the President), Michael Leavitt (Staff Asst. and Regional Representative in Senator Olympia Snow’s office), and Matthew David (Director of Policy, White House Special Asst. to Director for Policy, Department of Justice Bureau for Justice Assistance). [SOPRsen] via [SrcWtch]

Adelson’s minions aren’t the only ones flooding into the Mississippi 1^st. Georgia Rep. Lynn Westmoreland called for the NRCC to send in the “Young Guns” and dispatched staff to Mississippi to coordinate door to door and other forms of campaigning. The “Young Guns” is a fundraising group launched last February by Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI), Eric “Signature’s Sandwich” Cantor (R-VA), and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). [The Hill] The RNCC has commissioned eight rounds of polling in the Mississippi 1^st, but has yet to release the ‘top lines.’ [SSP] Politico reports that the flap between Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Tom Cole may be papered over by the creation of an advisory committee to the RNCC. The 12 member body would act as a rapid response “vehicle” to coordinate strategy, fund raising, and outreach.”

The GOP is also sending in some of the older guns, specifically Vice President Dick Cheney, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to make election eve appearances with their candidate. Senators Wicker (R-MS) and Cochran (R-MS), and Governor Haley Barbour, have also stumped for the candidate.

Meanwhile back at the Sands: Adelson’s operation “waded in with more than $500,000 in television advertising, mailings, phone calls and other activity.” [RCP]