Cheney's Latest Trick

Josh Marshall has the goods on this new phony Republican "grassroots" organization run by Bush/Cheney aides and funded by GOP millionaires. Beware "Freedom Watch":

First, both articles note that Freedom's Watch is made up of Bush-Cheney big-money givers and former staffers at the White House. But the AP makes explicit what the list of personnel makes clear: These aren't people close to "Bush" or "the White House". It's more specific than that: The activists and givers are people close to Dick Cheney.

Second, as the NYT explains, coming off the Petraeus press-rollout, Freedom's Watch's next press campaign is for confrontation (i.e., war) with Iran.

Your conservative media is trying to equate Freedom Watch with MoveOn, only MoveOn isn't made up of Party hacks and henchmen assigned by their megamaniacal leader to destabilize The World, and it's funded by hundreds of thousands of citizen contributions.

So be on the lookout for this dangerous new Cheney organization and maybe we can still stop the next war.

We'll still be #1.

DemogogueOn

Via Talking Point Memo, David Schuster refreshingly subs for Tucker Carlson and, interviewing Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), strips bare the GOP's ridiculous posing on the surprisingly accurate MoveOn ad (transcript from Crooks and Liars):

Shuster: “Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last solider from your district who was killed in Iraq?”

Blackburn:”The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq uh - from my district I - I do not know his name -”

Shuster: “Ok, his name was Jeremy Bohannon, he was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?”

Blackburn: “I - I, you know, I - I do not know why I did not know the name…”

[Snip]

Shuster: “But you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man, he was 18 years old who was killed, and yet you can say chapter and verse about what’s going on with the New York Times and Move On.org.”

[Snip]

Shuster: “But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? I mean, here we have a war that took the life of an 18 year old kid, Jeremy Bohannon from your district, and you didn’t even know his name.”

In one way, I don't begrudge the GOP for using this total bullshit issue as a fundraising tool (MoveOn has made their share over the controversy), but any Democrat who adopts the Republican meme on this gets a demerit. As Matt Stoller says:

I'm a little worried about upcoming fights over funding for Iraq, inasmuch as they might distract us from discussing the Moveon ad.

Okay, Congress, shut up already about MoveOn and save America now.