It seems one of the Republican's non-profit hit-squads has come back from their post-2008 election cycle obscurity to take up the cause of opposing banking reform.
The Committee for Truth in Politics (one of the worst misnomers ever used by one of these groups) has just started running ads in Pennsylvania against H.R. 4173, the "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009" passed by the House and introduced in the Senate on 1/20/2010. The first blast of this campaign was felt this morning, when the group paid to have their ad aired on CBS3 in Philadelphia (and probably elsewhere in the state, though I haven't been able to find out for sure yet) in the last ad slot before the "CBS Sunday Morning" airing. Needless to say, this is a highly influential timeslot for such an ad, given that it grants them access to an older, middle-class, moderate-to-conservative audience likely to react in the knee-jerk way they desire.
The details are still a bit fuzzy at the moment, but here's what I can determine for sure.
First, the ad itself is a classic deceptive piece in the style we're used to seeing from such groups and did see from CTP at the end of the 2008 campaign. It plays on the fears raised by some (both from the left and right) that provisions of the act could create a future $4 trillion bailout of the financial industry, while obscuring exactly how that might be so. While there are some serious questions about those provisions, the case as presented in the ad is clearly not correct as it makes this "bailout" seem like we'll be paying the banks $4 trillion the moment the bill is passed, which no critic actually contends. Indeed, such as charge is clearly untrue if you read the actual bill. So much for "Truth in Politics."
What is not in the ad is any mention of the bill's title (see above) or the other provisions that make up the bulk of the bill, like the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The ad then ends, after trying to raise the viewer's anger at Congressional collusion with the banks, by directing them to call PA's two Senators and oppose the passage of H.R. 4173 in the Senate.
I would have loved to give you all video of the ad, but I didn't have my DVR set when it came on and have been unable to find it online. It seems to be very new and not to have made it onto YouTube or the other online video sites yet. If anyone in Philly recorded "Sunday Morning", you may have a copy. If so, and you can get it online, I'd greatly appreciate the link. I'm trying to find out from CBS3 when it will run again, but this being Sunday there's no one at the station who actually seems to know. I'll update on that if I get an answer.
CTP itself is exactly the kind of group you'd expect to find behind such a nasty little piece of disinformation. They are a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation chartered in North Carolina in September 2008 ostensible to promote "social welfare of the people of North Carolina by...advocating honesty in government...advocating limited government", which fits with the requirements of a 501(c)(4). Their actual purpose at the time and only known actions were to run ads against then-candidate Obama that promulgated bald-faced lies about his abortion-rights record.
The group was set up and is run by William W. Peaslee, a North Carolina lawyer described at the time by NPR this way:
The incorporator and sole director of the Committee for Truth is NC attorney Bill Peaslee, formerly the chief of staff, legal counsel and political director for the North Carolina Republican Party.
He was also a delegate from North Carolina to the 2008 Republican National Convention. Where the money behind his group comes from is anybody's guess, since the reporting requirements for 501(c)(4)s do not include (and, indeed, specifically exclude) listing them by name. Nor do we know who contributed to either the 2008 or the current ads, because one of the Republican's legal eagles (the infamous James Bopp) managed to block any FEC action to uncover the donors. So we now have the CTP spending who-knows-who's money to oppose H.R. 4173.
The interesting thing is, given the time it takes to produce an ad like this, this must all have been planned and set in motion even before the Citizens United ruling and does not depend on it for it's legality. Both of CTP's ad campaigns have been legal for quite some time, using the "promoting social welfare" loophole of 501(c)(4)s to advocate against any current or potential public policy, as long as they do not directly advocate for or against any candidate for public office. Thus they end with the now-classic "call your ___ and tell him/her to oppose...", even though the message to the voter is clearly "they really support this so don't vote for them."
Unfortunately, we'll likely be seeing more and more of this kind of stealth attack ad again as the 2010 campaign season begins to heat up. With PA's primaries in May, CTP seems to be trying to steal a march on whichever candidate wins the Democratic primary and tar them with being an ally of the big banks before they've even had time to define themselves or the issue for the public. But it's ultimate goal is certainly to try and scare these same Democrats away from supporting financial reform in exactly the same way they tried to from healthcare reform during the summer of 2009.
Now we have our own challenge before us, to get out ahead of the Republican propaganda and disinformation campaigns and not let them undermine reform again.