December 21, 2007

Meet the Attack Lads

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Instructions: Click on the images below to watch the ads and meet the attack lads.

Appendix

Alex Castellanos
Castellanos’ credits also include the anti-affirmative action “White Hands” spot for Jesse Helms in 1990. Made ads for former Ohio Governor Bob Taft that were so misleading, they got the campaign reprimanded for violating state election laws.

Charles McGee
Former head of New Hampshire GOP who originated phone-jamming scheme; now runs Spectrum Monthly, a Republican direct-mail firm

Chris LaCivita
Decorated ex-Marine; headed National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) during phone-jamming scandal. Took over as president of Progress for America after Tony Feather stepped down to work for Bush/Cheney ’04.

DCI Group
Lobby shop founded by Tom Synhorst and two other tobacco veterans; firm’s computers were linked to the YouTube climate-change spoof Al Gore’s Penguin Army.
CORPORATE CLIENTS: Lockheed Martin, GM, Verizon, ExxonMobil, AT&T, United Airlines

Edmund Matricardi III
Former Virginia GOP head who pled guilty to a felony in 2003 for illegally wiretapping Democrats’ calls

Feather Larson Synhorst
Direct mail, telemarketing, and fundraising shop that specializes in “microtargeting” voters and building Astroturf support for corporate lobbying. Raked in nearly $27 million from GOP groups and candidates, including Bush/Cheney, in 2004.
CORPORATE CLIENTS: ExxonMobil, General Motors, NRA, AT&T, National Federation of Independent Business

James Tobin
As RNC regional director in ’02, put New Hampshire GOP in touch with telemarketing firm that helped orchestrate phone jamming. Sentenced to 10 months in prison, but verdict overturned on appeal. Tobin is set to be retried this winter.

Mercury Public Affairs
New York-based firm specializing in “high-value public affairs,” including image management, polling, and “grassroots coalition building.”
CORPORATE CLIENTS: AT&T, Pfizer, Wal-Mart (which dumped firm after furor over Harold Ford ad)

Progress for America/PFA Voter Fund
Established in 2001 to build support for Bush’s “agenda for America”; PFA created 527 committee Progress for America Voter Fund in ’04 to get around campaign-finance limits. Voter Fund raised $45 million in 5 months, 70 percent of it from just 13 donors (including Dawn Arnall, cochair of predatory lender Ameriquest Mortgage). Caught sharing staff with Bush/Cheney ’04; fined $750,000 for raising money from prohibited sources.

Terry Nelson
Political director for Bush/Cheney ’04. Named in prosecution of Tom DeLay for allegedly helping launder illegal corporate donations through national party. Was also James Tobin’s boss during New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme. Helped produce “Harold, call me!” while head of RNC’s independent expenditure unit in 2006.

Tim Griffin
Former assistant to Karl Rove and head of RNC opposition research in 2004. Appointed interim U.S. Attorney for Arkansas in 2006; resigned six months later when linked to Justice Department political-firing scandal. Former Alberto Gonzales assistant Monica Goodling told Congress that Griffin was involved in caging during the ’04 election.

Tony Feather
Pal of Karl Rove’s since 1974. Former head of Missouri GOP; political director, Bush/Cheney 2000.

Tom Synhorst
Former field coordinator for R.J. Reynolds; worked on “adults only” marketing campaign that aimed to increase youth smoking by portraying tobacco as forbidden pleasure. Helped Bob Dole beat George H.W. Bush in ’88 Iowa caucuses.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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