Ghosts In The GOP Attack Machine

Politico: Despite Obama's Rhetoric, There Are No Serious Attack Groups Operating Or Planned

(The Politico)  This story was written by Jonathan Martin.

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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.

Conversations with more than a dozen Republican strategists find near unanimity in the belief that, at some point, there will be a real third-party effort aimed at Obama.

But not one knows who will run it, who will pay for it, what shape it will eventually take or when such a group may form.

More worrisome for Republicans who believe such an outside attack apparatus is essential to defeating Obama, some key individuals and groups who were being looked to for help say they won’t be involved.

T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who gave $3 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and who numerous GOP sources said was being looked to as a funding source this year, is sitting the race out.

“He is not giving anything to 527s involved in the presidential race this cycle, and has communicated that…to Republican strategists and operatives,” said Pickens spokesman Jay Rosser.

Rosser said Pickens “has a much broader public policy initiative in mind that will focus on energy, and is approaching that in a bipartisan manner.” He only “contributed last cycle because they were in play, and were so heavily funded on the other side.”

Also staying out of the third-party effort this time is the powerful Republican public affairs firm, the DCI Group.

DCI ran the independent Progress for America (PFA) campaign that raised $45 million to tout George W. Bush and tar John Kerry in 2004.

But after helping to underwrite ad campaigns for Bush’s second term effort to privatize Social Security and confirm two Supreme Court justices, PFA has become defunct.

Now, DCI officials emphatically want it to be known-and specifically asked that it be included in this story-that they won’t resurrect PFA or be involved at all in this campaign.

“DCI Group is not and will not be involved in any 527 activity this cycle,” said a spokesman for the group, which has a bevy of image-sensitive corporate clients. “DCI is out of the business.”

Further, Freedom’s Watch, the one third-party group that many conservatives expected to step into the void left by PFA, has decided to exclusively focus on congressional battles.

Asked if was still the intent of Freedom’s Watch to stay out of the presidential fray, Carl Forti, the group’s director, flatly said: “Yes.”

A spokesman for Sheldon Adelson, the chief financial patron of Freedom’s Watch, declined to comment when asked if the Las Vegas casino mogul would help finance other third-party groups targeting the presidential race.

Multiple Republican sources say that Karl Rove has been in contact with donors such as Adelson and Pickens about helping to create an independent effort but that to date nothing has come of it. Rove didn’t respond to an email.

“There has to be a group and there will be a group,” said a GOP strategist who has been closely involved in past third-party efforts. “But when and where it is formed is yet to be determined. And we’re running out of time, the clock’s ticking.”

Another veteran Republican who works closely with outside conservative groups is even more blunt: “[Democrats] think another Swift Boat is coming - and it’s not.”

The situation was far different this time four years ago.

The Swift Boat Veterans were unveiled at National Press Club event on May 4 that year. By late June, PFA was not only up and running but had launched ads in some key states. And a handful of well-funded Democratic third-party groups had already spent tens of millions of dollars at that point hammering Bush and the GOP.

The reasons for inactivity on the right are many: tougher FEC regulations that make it more difficult to launch attacks that aren’t tied to an issue, donor fatigue, lack of enthusiasm among Republicans for McCain, and a fear from both contributors and operatives of being painted as a racist in the first general election campaign in history that features an African American as a major party nominee.

But, in explaining the absence of any anti-Obama groups this time around, every individual interviewed for this story cited the same central reason: a fear that their party’s nominee will publicly denounce them and hold a grudge.

[joan1v]

I guess if Obama is elected. We will not be able to question him or his decisions. Because then we will be called RACIST. Look at Sharpton and Jackson anytime they are questioned it is RACIST.

I would like to see Blacks take responsibltiy for their actions JUST ONCE.

[nevminer735]

You can always tell a Conservative, but you can''t tell him much because he is brain dead from drug adiction. Bill O''Riely and Rush Limbaugh are the tip of the Iceberg and the rest are closet adicts. They rip the liberals because they don''t know how to do anything else. They think that it makes them knoledgeable when it only shows their ignorance. Help for these people is nonexistant because it is not possible to rehabiliitate a moron. Their belief that FOX news is a legitamate news source is all that feed''s their ignorance. Fox News operates as the RNC''s propaganda unit to give credablity to ignorant Republicans, who don''t have the ability to think on their own, but parrot someone elses words and ideas,claiming to be the original source.

[zerato-2009]

The republican party already has a smear machine working for them. They call themselves fox news and talk radio.

[watcher269-2009]

I would rather have Barrack Hussein Obama in office then John Hussein McCain!

[hillary4us]

%u201CTo be honest with you, its not so much whether you believe me or not, as much as you hear me.%u201D

-Larry Sinclair at the National Press Club June 18, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

Larry%u2019s words, but my post! http://www.larrysinclair.org/press.html

[labrat9999]

The GOP just figured out they didn''t need to waste their money funding "Attack Machinces"...they''ve got CBS, CNN and Fox Noise to do it for them. What else can you ask for? But seriously, I don''t think a majority of people that will go home tonight will give one *** about this article or it''s contents!! This is a distraction from the bigger problems that nearly every American faces each day....high gas prices, foreclosures, high food prices, can''t afford college...AND OH BY THE WAY THE WAR IN IRAQ!! My nephew just left last night for his 5th TIME!! (6 month trips in case you were wondering but he has still pasted me in the number of years in country ''Nam.) So do us all a favor and report the news that AMERICANS REALLY CARE ABOUT AND GET OFF THIS MCSame''s wife''s cookie recipe or who is more proud of their country garbage. Or have you become such lousy reporters that you can''t do good investigative reporting any longer? Or perhaps you are afraid you will lose your corporate advertisers!

[jntlw-2009]

Karl Rove and or his demented tactics will be govern the RNC and McCain smear campaign against Obama. There is no ghost - we all know who the King of Smear/smut is. Cheney might chime in too. Between Rush Limbaugh and these other two, they started the truly abysmal, subsewer, uncivil, mocking and ridiculing, perverted political smears that are common place on the blogs today. It got really bad in the 2000 election year but started in the Clinton years when they wanted to oust Clinton from office.

[incog-nito]

Hellooooo CBS! The wingnuts have already been spreading false allegations, rumors, and racist propaganda about Obama for months now. It''s their modus operandi. It''s in their blood. It''s an integral part of their campaign. It will pick up closer we get to election day. Count on it.

[tawpdawg11]

Awwwwwwwwwwwww...........CMON T BOONE ! This Bush thing has worked out GREAT!

[danstoned]

Politico is as Fascist as it gets in US journalism, no different then the Fascist FOX infotainment channel. The biggest autrocity is that the jews at CBSnews.com continue to reference any articles from this reicht winged fascist gazette.