Today Freedom's Watch is launching an ad campaign targeting specific Democrats in their districts, urging them to continue funding for the Iraq war. Below is a brief summary of Freedom's Watch and then below the jump is a discussion of the ad campaign as it relates to the Bush Dogs.
What is Freedom's Watch?
Freedom's Watch is a group hoping to be a Right-Wing Move On.
Their mission as they describe it atop every email is this:
For too long, we have been without a steady voice for mainstream conservative values. Freedom’s Watch, a new nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, seeks to fill that void. Freedom’s Watch promotes peace through strength and prosperity through free enterprise. It is dedicated to advancing public policies that protect America’s interests domestically and abroad, foster economic prosperity, and strengthen families.
While they spin themselves as being grass roots, and the voice of the public, that is absolutely not the case. If anything the tainted white house has outsourced its media blitz:
The group, which is “funded by high-profile Republicans who were aides and supporters of President Bush,” is headed by a familiar face from the Bush war effort: former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.
See Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/22/ari-fleischer-returns/
[Note: Sorry the hyperlinks are not working, I do not know why; the paragraph breaks show up correct in the preview and then do not operate correctly in the post-Gremlins]
More on the ad campaign below the flip....
The Ads
From the Freedom's Watch description of the ads....
Washington, DC – Today, Freedom's Watch launched a print ad campaign urging members of Congress to “stop playing politics” and “fund the troops.” These full-page ads feature an open letter to Speaker Pelosi and members of Congress, highlighting the progress we are making in Iraq and calling for “Congress to show resolve, put aside politics and to unite behind victory” from Andrew Robinson, an Iraq war veteran. Andrew Robinson served courageously in the U.S. Marine Corps and was on his second tour of duty when he was wounded by an IED in June of 2006. These print ads appeared in seven newspapers across the country: The Arizona Republic, The Sacramento Bee, The Palm Beach Post, Evansville Courier & Press, Topeka Capital-Journal, The Columbus Dispatch, The [Scranton] Times-Tribune.
http://www.freedomswatch.org/About/tabid/38/Default.aspx
See an ad here: http://www.freedomswatch.org/Portals/0/Ads/Space-OH.pdf
Analysis
The reps being targeted in this campaign are as follows: Ellsworth, Space, Carney, (3 Bush Dogs) and Mitchell and McNerney. All 5 of these reps are Freshmen. They were all just elected last year and are probably the most susceptible to this type of attack ad. Given that 3 of the 5 are Bush dogs, I think their strategy is containment-- if these guys start to vote against the war, there is a good chance more will follow suit.
From what I can tell Mitchell and McNerney are a mix as far as Democrats and both voted for the 7-12-07 Iraq Redeployment Act. Both voted for the April 19th Iraq bill which had provisions for withdraw. McNerney voted against the recent FISA bill while Mitchell voted for it.
My guess is these two are test cases-- they're both freshman and susceptible, and their votes are a mixed bag. It looks to me less like Freedom's Watch cares about these particular reps and more about finding out who is susceptible and who they can push to keep voting on Iraq. With the 3 Bush Dogs they probably want to contain votes, and with these 3 they are attempting to see if they can flip votes.
I think the game has just gotten a lot tougher with these ads.
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