Great Expectations for a Conservative Group Seem All but Dashed (Freedom Watch)

[onehandle]

Source: NYT

The group was conspicuously absent this week as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the United States commander in Iraq, returned to Congress to testify. Moreover, the troubles at Freedom’s Watch come as some Democratic-aligned groups are seeking to take the offensive, with one group, Progressive Media USA, planning to raise $40 million to spend on advertisements and other efforts to undermine Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee.

snip...

Backers of Freedom’s Watch once talked about spending some $200 million, a figure that officials now say was exaggerated. Lending to the aura of ambition, the organization moved into a state-of-the-art 10,000-square-foot office in Washington and hired a staff of about 20, with talk of bringing in scores more for a vigorous campaign to promote conservative issues.

Behind the scenes, however, Freedom’s Watch has been plagued by gridlock and infighting, leaving it struggling for direction, according to several Republican operatives familiar with the organization who were granted anonymity so they could be candid about the group’s problems.

Although the organization was founded by a coterie of prominent conservative donors last year, the roughly $30 million the group has spent so far has come almost entirely from the casino mogul Sheldon G. Adelson, the chairman and chief executive of the Sands Corporation, who was recently listed as the third-richest person in the country by Forbes magazine.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us/politics/12freedom.html

[sharesunited]

1. Adelson believes that U.S. military aggression against

Arab nations which threaten Israel is a good use of $30 million.

If I were Sheldon Adelson, that would make perfect sense.

Leverage $30 million into $1 trillion of U.S. taxpayer money.

Is Israel safer as a result, however?

[Happyhippychick]

2. Is this surprising? The entire repuke nomination process has been all about squabbling over the

definition of "conservative". These slackjawed idiots are so label-happy that it has finally come back to bite them in the ass.

Buh bye. And don't come back.

[MidwestTransplant]

8. I wonder how the fundies feel about that casino money.

Kind of Ralph Reed esque.

[woodsprite]

9. Probably fine as long as it's funneled back to a cause the fundies deem worthy.

I know that's how my in-laws fundy church feels. Mom even invited me to a pyramid scheme sales pitch (Your Travel Business - YTB) that the guy was selling as a way for their church to make money. He said him being there was 'a blessing and heaven sent'. BTW, I didn't know what it was when I accepted - Mom's sneaky and told me it was a dinner party for friends. My SILs and I (Mormon, Wiccan, and liberal Christian) had dinner and dessert with about 30 of Mom's closest fundies. I think we deserve some kind of merit badge or something.

Though I vocally shot holes in his scheme, even using fine print that was on the darned slides he showed, he still left that 'party' with over $2000 cash from 4 couples! But it was church related, so to them, it was OK.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Best news I have read all week!!

K & R

[grytpype]

4. Wow, this is the funniest thing I've read all week!

It seems that Freedom's Watch is so incompetent they couldn't convince Adelson to support a "Bomb Bomb Iran" campaign!

[tanyev]

5. Ha-Ha!

[BumRushDaShow]

6. This is why I tell my DU brothers and sisters

that the repukes are very much finished. Do not bemoan the fumbling Dems, we are very rusty after a 40 year nap. The repuke infrastructure is finally crumbling upon itself due to the weight of its narrow-mindedness, its greed, its lust, its viciousness, and the hatred and divisiveness it spews. These people are not and never will be fit to govern.

[Hissyspit]

7. Bush Was Right!

Er... Maybe Not So Much...

[annabanana]

10. Artifices built on Sands will not survive!

Those that live by PR will die of truth.

(you may quote me)

[gratuitous]

11. Freedom's Watch will crumble

And some overrich white guy with the prospect of jiggering the system even further in his favor will try something else. The media will dutifully trumpet the overblown claims, and we'll waste a whole bunch of time and money killing another very bad idea. Then the next very bad idea will come along. It doesn't end.

Notice the original promise of raising $200 million to promote conservative causes. Sure garnered a LOT of attention from the jaded ink-stained wretches (ha!) of the Fourth Estate, didn't it? Where's that $200 million? Oh, that's "a figure that officials now say was exaggerated." Of course it was. But did any of the hard-boiled seen-it-all skeptics in the media evince the least shadow of a doubt that Freedom's Watch would have that kind of money at its disposal? Nope, they reported it straight, in wide-eyed wonder.

It's kind of a shock that the demise of Freedom's Watch even came to major media attention. Usually these partial birth abortions on the right are just flushed away without a trace.

[starroute]

12. But we've still got to watch out for the Chamber of Commerce

Which was threatening to bite us all in the ass back in February.

Don't let your guard down, guys.

[onehandle]

13. Kick for this heartwarming story. nt