The de facto reality is, this cycle, the GOP is reverting to media and robo-calling campaigns produced and implemented by a group of folks with known connections to, among other things:

1.) convicted felons, jailed for implementing dirty campaign tactics, as well as,

2.) serial violators of basic FEC regulations.

A comment from a New Jersey blog on convicted GOP felon, Allen Raymond,  author of "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative."

"As for his three months in a Pennsylvania prison, he wrote: 'After 10 full years inside the GOP, 90 days among honest criminals wasn't really any great ordeal.' "

There's more...

As noted in the middle of the past week, the right wing, ultra-neoconservative, 501(c)4 (note: they're not a 527, so they're not subjected to the more stringent 527 reporting requirements) lobbying group, Freedom's Watch, is already  running robo-call programs in the following congressional districts:

AZ-5, AZ-08, CA-11, FL-16, GA-08, IL-08, KS-02, KS-03, KY-03, NH-01, NH-02, NY-20, OH-18, PA-04, PA-10, and PA-11.

I've searched for an answer to the question: "Who is Freedom's Watch?" And, what I've come up with is most disconcerting. Primarily, it's a lobbying group of hardcore, right wing, U.S.-based Jewish supporters of Israel, combined with a generous portion of neoconservative evangelicals, and topped-off by some major league connections to Benjamin Netanyahu's ultra-rightwing Likud Party in Israel--all heavily supported by the uppermost folks running our government today, starting with Chimpy, Cheney, Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer, and all their little dogs (Sembler, Libby, etc.), too!

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If there's one page every Democratic blogger should read this year--perhaps many times over until they have it memorized by heart--it is THIS OVERVIEW!

Please consider this diary a direct request from me--BEGGING YOU--to read this. Know your enemy!

If there's one group that is the focal point of all things evil that Dems are fighting this year, it is Freedom's Watch.

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Bumped from the diaries -- Jonathan... Very exciting stuff. If you want to help out, head over to Act Blue today.

Yesterday, the Cazayoux campaign released the results of a poll it commissioned AnzaloneLiszt Research to do on the LA-06 special general election. Here are the results:

Also, Cazayoux's favorable/unfavorable ratings are 55%/13%, which improved since the March primary, with the favorables increasing by 15%, compared to Woody's 56%/34%, which has remained static over the last month.

Further, the Republican generic ballot advantage in this district is gone ... with voters saying that 43% of them will vote for the Democrat, and 41% of them will vote for the Republican. That means Woody will have to win on his own merits.

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Following up on torridjoe's Breaking Blue post, Freedom's Watch, the conservative pro-war group fronted by former White House press secretary and Iraq war booster Ari Fleicher (in cahoots with a whole cabal of former Bush White House officials,) launched a $15 million ad campaign today to urge both Democrats and Republicans running for re-election around the country to back Bush all the way on his war.

"We want to get the message to both Democrats and Republicans: Don't cut and run, fully fund the troops, and victory is the only objective," Fleischer says.

Cut and run? Really, Ari?

The tired tactics don't end there. The ads hit you over the head with the message the administration has been peddling a bit more subtly for years: 9/11 Iraq Iraq 9/11. You can watch the ads on YouTube HERE. It's no accident, of course, that the campaign is launching today and will continue through September.

What's a little different about these ads is a. the messenger and b. their target.

The advertisements feature Iraq war veterans and parents of veterans who lost family members in the war urging lawmakers who have supported the war not to switch their vote.

Tom Matzzie at AmericaBlog has a breakdown of the adbuys and the members targeted including 37 Republicans out of a total of 41 targeted members, notably: Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Gordon Smith in the senate and Heather Wilson, Jim Gerlach and Wayne Gilchrest in the House.

Matzzie also has an open 'thank you' note to Ari. He's so polite.

Thank you. The news today about a $15 million TV ad campaign targeting Republicans in the name of a group called "Freedom Watch" is probably the best thing we could want right now. It is a gift. [...]

Also, how do you define "progress" in Iraq? This is now the bloodiest summer since the war began. Already 243 Americans have been killed in June, July and August. Last year 169. In 2005, 217 were killed. 162 in in 2003 and 113 in 2003. The Iraqi parliament is on vacation. Nearly half the Iraqi cabinet is boycotting the government. The surge has failed.

Now, for the first time, we're not the only campaign on Iraq making Susan Collins, Norm Coleman, Mitch McConnell and others look over their shoulders. If I were you I wouldn't answer phone calls from the NRSC, the NRCC or the RNC. I don't think they're too happy about these ads.

Also, go check out Chris Bowers' analysis over at Open Left and why this highlights the importance of their Bush Dog campaign.

The point I want to make here is that both the Iraq and the FISA fights are not taking place in the weeks and months down the road. For all intents and purposes, both have already been engaged. As such, we must have equal urgency in out campaign to combat the Bush Dogs, and bring an end to the conservative governing majority in Washington.

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