The tangled web of Republican deceit and shadowy conservative groups
ThinkProgress deserves a boatload of credit for turning the nation's attention to the huge amounts of money very shadowy groups on the Right--and the handful of people who are pulling the strings. Case in point, a story done today by NPR: "'Independent' Groups Behind Ads Not So Independent."
With these advertisers and others, the same words come up again and again: Grass-roots. Nonpartisan. Independent.
Their ads seem to imply the groups are homegrown. But every single one mentioned here is based within 20 minutes of Capitol Hill. Most of them, in fact, are in just two office suites.
As for their independence: It would be illegal for them to coordinate their attacks with the candidates they're helping, or with Republican Party committees. But among themselves, they're proud of the way they synchronize their efforts.
"If one group puts an ad on television in a certain congressional district, they let everyone else know that," says Jonathan Collegio with American Crossroads. "This way they don't double up on the advertising."
.....
This teamwork didn't happen by accident. But it's hard to grasp just how interconnected these secret donor groups are — so it may help to take a look at this map....
This clearly isn't a bunch of individual, independent groups — as you can see from the map. It's one big network: a Republican campaign operation, working outside the official party.
Here's the map, or in keeping with the season, a spider web with Karl Rove and John Boehner as the big fat spiders connecting just about all the strands.
GOP influence chart
Here's sort of a thumbnail from the story:
Rove co-founded American Crossroads, which later set up Crossroads GPS.... They both use the same media services firm to buy airtime for their ads, Crossroads Media.... Other clients of Crossroads Media include House Republican leader John Boehner, the Republican National Committee, and the Republican Governors Association, or RGA.
This fall, the RGA received a donation of $3.5 million from Bob Perry. You might recognize that name, since Perry helped to fund the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads against presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.
This fall, Perry made another donation: $7 million to American Crossroads, the group co-founded by Karl Rove.
Huge amounts of money (including all that from the Chamber--they're up there in the upper right of the map, linked to Steven Law who is in turn hooked up with, Crossroads GPS, American Crossroads and through American Crossroads, just about every group and every individual on the list) that is almost entirely secret.
Which, yes, is a big issue for American voters: "71 percent of registered voters are concerned that 'a candidate who is helped' by groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, and the Rove-inspired money mills 'could be beholden to their interests.'" And we don't have any idea who they're beholden to, because it's all secret.
While both parties may share some guilt, Republicans have become the slaves of special interests. That must be what conservatives mean when they say we should return to democracy the way The Founders intended. Anyone get the feeling Thomas Jefferson is turning in his grave at America being ruled by flakes and corporatists instead of an enlightened citizenry.
