Franklin County Democrats

Since it was revealed that the Chamber of Commerce is spending millions this election cycle to defeat Democrats using money from undisclosed (and in some cases foreign) entities, the right and its media enablers have bent themselves into a pretzel trying to dismiss the charges and minimize the public relations fallout. One of their tactics is to present false equivalencies like this one from the Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen:

… Labor unions are spending millions to tar Republican candidates — and they take in far more foreign cash than the Chamber. If the GOP takes control of Congress, investigations into how organized labor funds its political efforts could be forthcoming.

… The U.S. Chamber says it receives about $100,000 from its affiliates abroad (out of an operating budget of about $200 million), none of it used for political campaigns. Compare that to one of the largest labor unions in America, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is spending lavishly to elect Democrats.

There are several glaring problems with Thiessen’s argument.

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ThinkProgress continues to upstage the traditional news media with its excellent sleuthing into the foreign contributions that The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s group, Crossroads GPS, has been funneling into the production of misleading attack ads against Democrats across the country. Their latest entry breaks down how it works and provides a list of foreign corporations whose dollars have wormed their way into the Chamber’s general fund, the same fund used to finance political ads, and in some cases, made direct donations to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6).

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In case you needed further convincing that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has become little more than a political front group to elect Republicans, consider this latest unearthing by ThinkProgress.

Following ThinkProgress’s exclusive report detailing how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce actively solicits foreign money and funds its attack ads against Democrats, many are calling for a Justice Department investigation. Similarly, two campaign finance watchdog groups have called on the IRS to investigate a shadowy group set up by Karl Rove and former RNC chair Ed Gillespie, Crossroads GPS, which is connected to the 527 group American Crossroads. Though both groups — the Chamber and American Crossroads — had flown under the radar by taking advantage of legal loopholes that allow them to avoid disclosing their funders, the extent of their shadowy practices has only recently become clear.

Now, a new investigation by ThinkProgress details just how intertwined the two groups are in their quest to advance a conservative political agenda. At every turn, from the operatives running the two organizations to their targeted races to their media firms, American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are bound to one another. Prior to becoming President and CEO of American Crossroads, Steven Law served as chief legal officer and general counsel of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. His duties included personally overseeing the legal side of the Chamber’s multimillion-dollar political program.

It’s worth reading the entire report but one tidbit that is of local relevence is in regard to how the two groups have worked in lockstep to coordinate TV attack ads against Robin Carnahan here in Missouri.

In addition to the cooperation between top operatives, the two groups have exhibited uncanny coordination in their election targeting. In a number of Senate races, the Chamber and American Crossroads coordinated their advertisements – one group put up ads in a race as the other group pulled its own down – in order to ensure attack ads were always running against the Democratic candidate. Consider the dates of each group’s ads in the following Senate races:

Missouri
Crossroads GPS ads: 8/18-9/3
Chamber of Commerce ads: 9/3-9/8
American Crossroads ads begin: 09/15

ThinkProgress goes on to show the same pattern occurring in four other states. So it’s not your imagination. There are more attack ads than usual this year, thanks in part to these coordinated and well-funded efforts. What country some of that funding is ultimately coming from, and who the individual funders are, is anybody’s guess.

Greg Seargent at the Plum Line talks to Chamber of Commerce spokesperson, Tita Freeman, about the accusations raised by Think Progress that the association is funneling money from foreign corporations via American Chambers of Commerce Abroad (AmCham) affiliates to defeat Democrats and influence the American elections. Instead of making an unequivocal denial she instead attacks Think Progress, labor unions, and even George Soros to avoid coming clean …

When I asked Ms. Freeman whether the dues from AmChams go into the same general fund that bankrolls the Chamber’s ads, she declined to answer. “We don’t feel obligated to answer that question because we follow all applicable law, and no foreign money funds our voter education activities,” Freeman told me.

Why not just answer, no, the foreign money does not go into the general fund but is kept separate?

Of course, this is all perfectly legal either way, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling earlier this year. All foreign corporations have to do is form a U.S. subsidiary or become part of a voluntary association, such as the Chamber’s AmCham, and voilà!, America is for sale to the highest bidder, regardless of nationality.

But you won’t hear any complaining coming from Republicans as they are the main beneficiaries of this orgy of corporate spending — both foreign and domestic.