And They Keep Coming

Independent groups are vying to get in the last word before the election's over, so we'll try too. Here's a litte potpourri of last-minute efforts...

And it doesn't get more last-minute than this: Vets for Freedom just busted out with a TV ad today, airing in Pennsylvania and Ohio, channeling some veterans' anger at Obama. The ad (below) starts out talking about Dwight Eisenhower and some letters he wrote and how Obama only wrote one letter, except that's a metaphor...but the real message is that Obama only saw failure in the courageous efforts of Iraq War veterans. It ends with a spoof of one of Obama's slogans, saying, "Can we win our war? Yes we can."

Meanwhle, RightChange.com picked up a star of Republican Big Money: Bob Perry, the mega-donor who gave millions to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. Perry gave $100,000 to RightChange's campaign against Obama and in defense of Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC). It's somehow reasuring to know that Perry isn't slacking off this election season.

Progressive Future, which we already profiled, put up an anti-McCain ad on cable that's more about mood than message. It shows images of people struggling with the economic downturn set to Paul Simon singing, "I don't know a soul who's not been battered..." When Simon gets to the lyrics, "I wonder what's gone wrong," the ad ends up on a Bush-McCain hug.

Guns and abortion -- with a special appearance by Chuck Norris -- after the jump...

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4:14 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Jim Bopp's Fight To Liberate Political Money

No sooner had we noted that conservative attorney James Bopp seemed to be setting up to sue the Federal Election Commission over an anti-abortion, anti-Obama ad, we got this news: Bopp sued the FEC Friday over an anti-abortion, anti-Obama ad.

Only, it's not the National Right to Life Committee ad we were writing about.

Turns out the indefatigable Bopp also represents the Committee for Truth in Politics, recently formed by a North Carolina Republican operative. Bopp is suing to protect the group from any FEC enforcement actions that might prevent it from running its ads -- even though the FEC hasn't done anything yet and isn't likely to take any action till after the election.

Bopp did essentially the same thing earlier this year on behalf of another group, a 527 called The Real Truth About Obama. That group has also targeted Obama's record on abortion, but its ads haven't run yet.

Bopp won't say whether it all ads up to a coordinated legal strategy. But the three simultaneous efforts hammer home his view of federal campaign finance laws: that they chill free speech if you have to ask permission from a slow-moving government agency, or get a preliminary injunction against the agency, before you air a political ad -- or else face the threat of fines later.

"We have clients that want to do real things," he says. "There's all sorts of people out there that want to participate in our democracy...They don't want to suffer a future investigation and enforcement action when the Constitution protects what they do."

Those who want to regulate political money, of course, see it differently. They say Bopp and his clients want to tear down the legal walls that keep big donors, corporations and undisclosed contributions from having undue electoral influence. And the legal walls are hardly rigid. The McCain-Feingold law made them stronger in 2002. But Bopp blew a new hole in them last year, as lawyer for Wisconsin Right To Life -- just his latest of many victories.

Meanwhile, the Committee for Truth in Politics says in its lawsuit that it's got another hard-hitting ad to let loose. To quote from the ad:

It's tragic, but true. Two-thirds of all prisoners convicted of rape or sexual assault committed their crime against a child. Even worse, the average child predator exploits seven to two hundred victims in their lifetime. In the Illinois Senate, Barack Obama was the only member that voted to allow early release for convicted sexual abusers.

More after the jump...

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9:29 PM ET | 10- 4-2008 | permalink

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Anti-Obama Abortion Ads Latest Cause For GOP Lawyer

Republican attorney James Bopp, the one-man wrecking crew against the McCain-Feingold campaign finance system, is at it again.

Bopp, representing the National Right to Life Committee, recently wrote to the Federal Election Commission asking if the regulatory system will allow the committee to run radio ads critical of Obama. But when an agency gets a letter like that from Bopp, it's usually the prelude to a lawsuit. He has a history of using advocacy ads as test cases to chip away at campaign reform laws he argues are unconstitutional. And he's very good at it.

Bopp, however, tell us his letter isn't leading up to anything. All he wants, he says, is the go-ahead to run the ads. "We want to run these ads -- and we don't want to go to jail," he said.

(Not that he loves GOP nominee John McCain, whose name is on the law Bopp lives to destroy. In the Republican primary, Bopp joined forces with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.)

The radio ad recounts a dispute between the anti-abortion organization and Obama over a bill he voted against that would have given legal protection to aborted fetuses showing signs of life. Citing a Factcheck.org analysis that vindicates some of National Right to Life's allegations and calls Obama "wrong," the ad says, "Will Obama now apologize for calling us liars when we were the ones telling the truth? Barack Obama: a candidate whose word you can't believe in."

More after the jump...

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10:00 PM ET | 10- 3-2008 | permalink

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