Crossroads GPS

[Hoosier Hillbilly]

Ad By Crossroads, Karl Rove's Outfit, Yanked Off Air For Being False

First Posted: 11/11/11 06:58 PM ET Updated: 11/12/11 12:56 AM ET

WASHINGTON -- An ad by Karl Rove-backed Crossroads GPS was yanked from rotation on a Montana cable show because it made claims that the network deemed false.

Recently a number of ads by the well-funded conservative outfit have been declared misleading and false, but the spot targeting Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is apparently the first pulled from the air. The Associated Press reported that other outlets are still running the ad.

In it, Tester is accused of supporting an Environmental Protection Agency rule -- a rule that was never in fact proposed -- to regulate farm dust. But the vote that the ad cites actually had nothing to do with dust or the EPA; it was a procedural vote on a measure aimed at cracking down on China for manipulating currency.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had hoped to bring up the anti-EPA amendment -- which targeted regulation of soot, not farm dust -- but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) never even let it get to the floor.

Because of that, Cablevision's Optimum cable service dropped the ad, the AP reported.

Crossroads GPS, which is affiliated with American Crossroads, has also been heavily criticized for ads in several other states, including spots attacking Democratic Senate contenders Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts and Tim Kaine in Virginia.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post highlighted Friday how the Warren spot "falsely insinuates" that Warren supports violence by Occupy Wall Street protesters. And PolitiFact rated as "mostly false" claims made against Kaine. The Kaine spot also accused him of running a deficit as governor of Virginia, but Virginia state law prohibits deficits.

A spokesman for Crossroads GPS could not immediately be reached for comment.

UPDATE: Friday 7:17 p.m. and 8:50 p.m. -- Nate Hodson of Crossroads said in defense of the pulled ad, "It was a very small cable system. The four largest broadcast stations in Montana reviewed the facts supporting the ad and will continue airing it."

He said later, "We are communicating with the cable system and expect that the ad will be back up and running on cable soon."

[Hoosier Hillbilly]

Elizabeth Warren Responds To Karl Rove-Backed Occupy Wall Street Attack Ad



by Tommy Christopher | 1:24 pm, November 11th, 2011

Karl Rove‘s Crossroads GPS PAC has released a new ad, backed by a huge ad buy, attacking Massachusetts candidate for US Senate Elizabeth Warren by tying her to the Occupy Wall Street movement’s most extreme elements. In an interview with a Boston ABC affiliate, Warren responded to the attack by refusing to disavow the movement, or to buy into the notion that support for its principles means support for the actions of all participants.

Warren’s campaign has been warning supporters, for several days, that a Rove attack, backed by a major ad buy, was imminent. The Boston Globe reported yesterday that Crossroads GPS released its ad with a $596,000 ad buy, which underscores the reality of political fundraising in post-Citizens United America. Despite an impressive fundraising haul in just a few weeks of the third quarter, Warren will have to contend with independent groups that can spend unlimited amounts of money to ensure the reelection of incumbent Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA). Despite the fact that Warren doubled Brown’s third quarter take, in half the time, groups like Rove’s illustrate the way the deck is stacked against a populist candidate.

The ad itself is political attack boilerplate, with cheesily ominous music, a dourly concerned voiceover, and the requisite grainy black and white video footage, all in an effort to tie Warren to a cartoon villain version of the populist protest movement that has become a cultural fixture.

In an interview with WCVB Boston’s On The Record, Warren reacted to the ad by resisting interviewer Janet Wu‘s repeated attempts to create a false “in for a penny, in for a pound” choice. Asked if it was fair for Crossroads to link her so closely with OWS, Warren replied, “It’s fair to say that I’ve been protesting Wall Street for years and years.”

Warren described some of her efforts in Washington, then said, “So, yeah, I’ve been fighting Wall Street for a very long time.”

“So these are your people?” Wu asked, and got pretty much the same response, then asked, “So their mission, their philosophy, their tactics, you all agree with?”

“Let’s be clear,” Warren replied, “Everybody has to follow the law. There’s no exception on that. More important, though, this is an independent, organic movement. It’s its own voice. It will go in its own direction.”

Although there have been some very positive early signs for Warren in this race, including (in a way) the fact that Rove’s group felt compelled to drop over half-a-million bucks on a Senate race a full year before the election, this attack, so early on, shows that Elizabeth Warren has a steep climb ahead of her.
[glow=red,2,300]This ladys got clout![/glow]