Republican Party Front Group "Let Freedom Ring" Issues An FEC Complaint Against Blue America

[Joanne98]

Most Democrats are still in the suicidal defensive crouch they got into sometime late last summer. This weekend a friend sent me a note about the thinking of some of the big Democratic donors in regard to the 2012 elections. Some want to try to match Republican outside advertising efforts-- successfully led by career criminals like David Koch, Karl Rove and the U.S. Chamber's Republican Party partisan Tom Donohue-- in 2012 and those who insist the left, by its nature, lacks the resources to level the playing field and would be better served funding more permanent intellectual infrastructure rather than political advertising.

Erica Payne, one of the founders of the Democracy Alliance and, more recently, head of the Agenda Project, is warning that major Democratic donors are unlikely to write multimillion-dollar checks to fund ad campaigns in 2012 because of their experience the last time they did it, in 2004. Bush won despite their efforts, and many of the big donors were targeted for retribution by Bush's uber-politicized FEC and harassed with bogus charges of election-law violations.

The Blue America PAC isn't one of the big Democratic donors anyone is worried about. In all we've aggregated less than a million dollars per cycle. This year it was just over $900,000, for example. Nevertheless, we were routinely harassed by the FEC while Bush was in office, costing us thousands in legal expenses. And last week our attorney informed us that a right-wing extremist group, Let Freedom Ring, had filed what amounts to a frivolous nuisance suit against us. Let Freedom Ring's president, Colin Hanna, and counsel, Cleta Mitchell, both well-known right-wing Beltway crackpots, claim that Blue America's Independent Expenditure Committee coordinated activities with Nancy Pelosi. Although this isn't just untrue but patently absurd, it will cost of thousands of dollars to defend ourselves from the baseless accusations.

Since they were trying to sue us, I looked up Let Freedom Ring at wikipedia. It was just a stub:

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/11/republican-party-front-group-let.html

[Zen Democrat]

1. Is "Let Freedom Ring" still John Birch Society?

In the 60's, I was just a young thing, but my neighbor and her daughter were hardcore John Birch Society and believed the Commies were behind every flower pot. They bought books at the "American Opinion" bookstore which was Birch Society, and listened to the daily recorded telephone messages at "Let Freedom Ring." Let Freedom Ring was a Birch Society watchword back then. When I first heard Hannity's radio program theme song highlighting the "Let Freedom Ring" part of the Martina McBride song, I wondered if it was a Birch Society message.

When I saw this year on C-Span that the Birch Society was a CPAC sponsor, I kind of got the idea that the force behind the Tea Party was John Birch Society. Perhaps now that William F. Buckley is dead, they have moved back in to take over the Republican Party, which he personally prevented all those years ago.

[DCKit]

2. Is there no penalty for filing a frivilous lawsuit?

They can't counter-sue for this harassment?