Democrats Plan $40M Hit On McCain

Politico: Effort To Be Led By Former Right-Wing Journalist David Brock

(The Politico) 
Brock later apologized to Clinton in a public letter and broke publicly with the conservative movement. He wrote about his disillusionment in his 2002 memoir Blinded by the Right, and Hillary Clinton later helped him establish Media Matters, which criticizes reporters for alleged right-wing "misinformation."

Brock is now seen in political circles as closer to Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign than to Senator Barack Obama's, but Brock said he has already met with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a close Obama ally.

"This is a unity play," Brock said.

Donors had begun to complain that while the Campaign to Defend America had built a large organizatio - it has, Brock said, 29 staffers, most devoted to "research," - it had failed to show it could mount a large-scale media campaign.

The Campaign to Defend America aired a single ad called "McSame," in small markets in Ohio and Pennsylvania, polling after it aired to test its impact.

The ad features President Bush's head cut and pasted onto McCain's shoulders, as a narrator intones that their policies on a range of issues are "McSame."

"We need a new direction, not the McSame old thing," the narrator concludes.

"It tested off-the-charts well," said Brock, referring to his group's research into viewers' reactions to the ad.

Brock's words, and his unpaid chairmanship, reflect alarm that Democrats are missing an opportunity to define McCain, even as the presumptive nominee tours the country telling his own story. The plan, conceived last fall, had been for the Fund for America to raise $100 million from wealthy Democrats, and to transfer it to groups including the Campaign to Defend America and America Votes, a Soros-backed independent group aimed a strengthening Democrats' field organizing.

But Fund for America has been unable to raise the money, and Campaign to Defend America had agreed not to raise its own money. Last Thursday, Brock said, he informed an official of the fund that his group would begin directly raising its own funds, a move that puts the usefulness of the Fund for America in question.

"We are as committed at Progressive Media USA to having the money we need to fully execute our mission as we are to seeing to it that America Votes has the money to execute its mission," he said, a formulation that appeared pointedly to exclude the Fund for America, which had been established as a kind of parent organization.

Brock added that he was open to continue to raise money jointly with the Fund for America -- if the distribution is "equitable."

The organizational shakeup also reflects a move away from MoveOn.org, the influential activist group that relies on money from small donors, and back toward the Democratic establishment. Brock's arrival means that Tom Matzzie, a former MoveOn staffer who remains the secretary of Progressive Media USA, is no longer the group's most visible official. A founder of MoveOn, Wes Boyd, also left the group's board, and a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Susan McCue, joined as the group's treasurer.

Brock said that with the help of a new legal team, the group had solved a key question connected to its financing. Incorporated as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, the group has the advantage of not being required to disclose its donors. But it is barred by law from taking money from unions, a major source of funds for progressive causes. Brock said he was creating a linked 527 group, Progressive Media Action, which would accept - and disclose - union and other funds.

Though donors and operatives say they expect the group's highest profile work to be attacks against McCain, the new Democratic groups were conceived to build an infrastructure lasting beyond this election, and Brock - whose Media Matters is on the vanguard of the well-funded new liberal establishment - said Progressive Media USA would live beyond this year's election.

Brock said Los Angeles real estate magnate Steve Bing was among a group of donors backing his group's long-term mission - despite many Democrats' expectations that Bing and other Clinton supporters would only contribute if Clinton is the nominee. Soros, the group's key backer, also supports Obama, and hosted a key, early gathering of the senator's wealthy New York supporters.

Brock said the group would be a ready-made vehicle to conduct media campaigns backing liberal causes on short notice, an analog to the partisan conservative message machine, giving liberals "the ability to create a real echo chambe."

He recalled that in 2004, his fledgling group had debunked "90 percent" of the content of an advertisement Swift Boat Veterans' for Truth that challenged Senator John Kerry's war record - but had no way to distribute the information.

"Progressive Media USA will be a permanent part of progressive media infrastructure," he said.

But while the group's long-term goals may be broader, Brock says his commitment to the group is on a different timetable.

"I've committed to doing this through November," he said.

[mudrose-2009]

He really is the Manchurian Candidate. In November B. Hussein Obama said he would accept public financing for the general campaign if John McCain committed to public funds. Now he doesn''t want to be tied down by the spending limits attached to public funds. This is embarrassing. Solution: call his Internet contributors a "parallel financing" system. Actually B. Hussein lives in an alternate Universe. He is George Soros''s Water boy which is why he can smile in his arrogant way with his little behind up in the air, rather smug because he knows who his pimp is. There is a real parallel funding system ready to support B. Hussein Obama. It''s called George Soros and so-called 527 groups such as the Democrat-supporting Fund for America or the newly named Progressive Media Fund founded by none other than a guy of questionable sexual orientation by the name of Brock. Then there is Bagala. That makes for the Divine Trinity of backers for B. Hussein Obama. Soros, Brock and Bagala. Progressive Media recently announced that it plans for a $40 million four-month campaign against Mr. McCain, and that''s only one group. They are going to smear McCain through the 501(c)s since you can''t identify the donors that way. So while B. Hussein Obama is attempting to preserve his reputation as a reformer, he''s exploiting his new financial advantage. My, my we are all beginning to learn how expansive the meaning of "change" is.

[mudrose-2009]

McCain-Feingold coming back to haunt you, eh John? You''''re a loser RINO adn I hope they give you what you deserve! Maybe this will teach you a lesson about trying to work with democrats.

Posted by LibH8er

Yup, it bit him right in the azz. Good news however, is the the American people will now know who Obama panders to with his parallel funding system. Soros is his pimp.

[libh8er]

McCain-Feingold coming back to haunt you, eh John? You''re a loser RINO adn I hope they give you what you deserve! Maybe this will teach you a lesson about trying to work with democrats.

[jack3213]

LET HIM PLAY HIS GAMES- BECAUSE WHAT HE SAYS AND DOES WILL LOOK AS FOOLISH AS ANY DEMOCRAT RUNNING FOR POSITION, THAT WILL SHOVE NEGATIVE MESSEGES AND EMPTY PROMISES DOWN THE THROATS OF THE PUBLIC FOR THEIR OWN GAIN,EVEN IF IT IS NOT TRUE. HE WILL NEED TO BACK UP EVERYTHING HE SAYS AND WHEN HE CAN''T HE WILL FALL FLAT. THE INSANE AND IRRATIONAL ARE VERY DANGEROUS.

[jockh]

The Clintons are tight fisted money grabbers. Despite lining their pockets with 109 MILLION, Hillary merely LOANS her campaign 5 MILLION. Why doesnt she GIVE it to her campaign instead of LOANING and put her money where her mouth is? After all, other candidates like Mitt Romney put millions of their own money into their own campaigns.

That way she would be showing that she has complete confidence in herself and her campaign and this in turn would encourage other donations.

However, she loans instead of gives to her own campaign because she knows she is going to lose so she would rather lose donors money in her futile campaign and keep all her millions nice and safe; so she can sleep in a solid gold bed with a mattress stuffed with 100 dollar bills. And solid gold pant suits for herself and Chelsea !!

[rowdytexan2]

Where the hell are the democrats going to get their money after they''ve pulled their Obama ***** game!

Core democrats should yank they money, and let this game playing bustward rot!