Conservative smear campaign: IOKIYAR

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Remember how the conservative media and Republican politicians all took umbrage and accused Sen. Barack Obama of an insulting smear against Gov. Sarah Palin when he said during a speech in Virginia in September 2008 that "you can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig." Palin Camp Takes Umbrage at 'Lipstick on a Pig' Comment Republican Gov. Jane Swift took umbrage that Obama would use such wording, which she likened to the kind of language most often heard on a children's playground.

"Calling a very prominent female governor a pig is not what we want," Swift said, describing Obama's comments as "offensive."

For the record, Obama was not referring to Gov. Sarah Palin. The McCain-Palin camp made the comparison to contrive a distraction issue. Of course, the McMedia ate it up for weeks.

But no matter, what had conservatives' panties in a twist over the Quitta from Wasilla is perfectly OK when conservatives attack female Democratic members of Congress, like our own Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick and Gabriel Giffords. IOKIYAR.

The conservative advocacy group American Future Fund is dropping $900,000 on a round of television and radio ads urging a group of centrist Democrats to "start over" on the health care bill. Vulnerable Democrats Targeted in $900,000 Ad Buy – The Eye (CQ Politics)The version of this ad running in Southern Arizona concludes with Rep. Giffords photo in a split screen shot with a pig with lipstick – much more a direct comparison than Sen. Obama's unspecified comment. This is the only available version of the ad posted to YouTube.

The 30-second television spots in the 18 districts began airing Monday and the 60-second radio spots are going up Tuesday.

Fourteen of the 18 targeted Democrats face general election races CQ Politics rates as competitive.

They include:

• Ann Kirkpatrick, Arizona 1
• Harry E.Mitchell, Arizona 5
• Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona 8

CQ Politics rates Rep. Giffords general election contest Likely Democratic.

Now for the story behind the story. The Iowa Independent in August 2008 reported the Secrets of the American Future Fund:

A network of Iowa Republicans is playing a leading role in a secretive group advocating nationally on behalf of “conservative and free market ideals” in congressional races around the country. Among the group's leaders are two media consultants who played key roles in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads in 2004 and the Willie Horton ad in 1988, both of which helped defeat Democratic presidential candidates.

The American Future Fund (AFF), operating out of Des Moines, is sponsoring advocacy advertisements in closely contested congressional races from New York to Louisiana to Minnesota and Colorado. It is one of the most ambitious conservative independent expenditure groups to emerge in 2008. Most observers expect AFF to begin increasing its role in elections around the country, stoking speculation that it will spend heavily to prop up lightly funded Republican campaign committees.

Because of the way the group is organized under Internal Revenue Service guidelines for nonprofit organizations it does not have to disclose its donors and is not governed by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

But an Iowa Independent investigation has found the group has deep roots in state Republican politics. And, unlike MoveOn.org, a similar group advocating liberal causes, it’s hard to determine who is actually behind the AFF. The key players include:

Nicole Schlinger, the group’s president, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa.

Tim Albrecht, a former spokesman for Republicans in the Iowa House who worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and spent a short time this year working for the Republican Party of Iowa, is the group’s communications director.

David Kochel, another former state GOP executive director and a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, who has served as spokesman for AFF, although Albrecht said he is no longer associated with the group.

The Washington Post reported in March — and Albrecht confirmed to Iowa Independent — that Ben Ginsberg, of the high-powered D.C. law firm Patton Boggs, is the group’s legal counsel. Ginsberg resigned as chief outside counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign in August 2004 when it was revealed that he was also providing advice to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that sponsored error-laden attacks on the military service record of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Larry McCarthy, president of D.C.-based media firm McCarthy Marcus Hennings, is AFF’s media strategist. In 1988, McCarthy produced the infamous, racially tinged Willie Horton television ad that helped then-Vice President George H.W. Bush bury Michael Dukakis under charges that he was soft on crime.

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In April [2008], Iowa Future Fund effectively split into two groups: AFF, which focuses on federal races around the country, and the Iowa Progress Project, which puts its resources toward state issues.

Albrecht said AFF and Iowa Future Fund “are completely unrelated.” But they share an organizational history. AFF and IFF were incorporated on the same day by the same Virginia law firm. David Kochel served for a time as spokesman for IFF and AFF before becoming president of Iowa Progress Project.

In March [2008], an ad run by AFF in the race between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat caused the state’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to file a formal complaint with the FEC alleging that the group violated federal election law and that its ads constitute blatant electoral advocacy.

“The American Future Fund is a shadowy nonprofit organization,” the complaint said. “It purports to be exempt from tax under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. But its notion of ‘promoting the social welfare’ is to send valentines to electorally troubled Republican Senate candidates. The Commission should take immediate steps to enforce the law and expose this group’s secret financing to light of day.”

Under federal election law, the organization is prohibited from engaging solely in “express advocacy,” which would include asking voters to vote for or against a certain candidate. But so long as the ad hasn’t been coordinated with a campaign and doesn’t outright say “vote for” or “vote against,” it is not considered express advocacy, according to Paul S. Ryan, FEC program director for the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization.

“An organization that is careful about how it writes the script of its ad can fly under the radar or stay outside of the net of campaign finance activity,” he said.

The ad in question didn’t ask voters to vote for Coleman, but rather asked voters to “call Norm Coleman and thank him for his agenda for Minnesota.”

* * *

Since running the Coleman ad in Minnesota, AFF has been busy. [See YouTube – AmericanFutureFund's Channel]

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However, according to reports filed with the FEC on July 13, [2008] the group has raised no money and has had no expenditures, a fact that Ryan called “odd.”

The shadowy AFF is decidedly low-profile, disclosing nothing about its leaders, history or membership on its Web site, and it makes little or no effort on public appearances, press conferences and media bookings.

Perhaps an enterprising law firm would like to file an FEC complaint against this shadowy 501(c)(4) playing fast and loose with FEC and IRS regulations. Shine a light on these cockroaches hiding in the shadows and expose who they are.