Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik has taken the Democratic National Committee to task over its ad attacking the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for – possibly – “taking money from foreign interests and using it to ‘steal our democracy.'”
The offending ad:
Did you get that? Amid images of a woman having her purse snatched in a parking garage (huh?) and stacks of Chinese currency, the narrator ominously intones, “It appears they’ve even taken secret foreign money to influence our elections.”
Zurawik:
Here is what’s so appalling to me: The ad makes the totally unsubstantiated charge that the Chamber of Commerce is taking money from foreign interests and using it to “steal our democracy.” And worse, President Obama is out on the campaign trail, according to the New York Times, creating an echo chamber by making the same reckless claims just as the ad hits the airwaves. And when CBS newsman Bob Schieffer Sunday asks David Axelrod if there is any proof for the claim, the senior Obama aide says they don’t need proof — it’s up to the Chamber of Commerce to prove it isn’t true.
The Democratic National Commitee is using the same sort of tactic and logic that Sen. Joe McCarthy used in the 1950s: Level a headline-grabbing and unsubstantiated charge, like the State Department is filled with communists, and then say it is up to the State Department and the employees so charged to prove it is not true.
While they’re at it, the Chamber might want to prove they haven’t taken any money from O.J. Simpson, either.
There’s a China-bashing pattern emerging here – witness this Page One piece in Sunday’s New York Times:
China Emerges as a Scapegoat in Campaign Ads
Nut graf:
In the past week or so, at least 29 candidates have unveiled advertisements suggesting that their opponents have been too sympathetic to China and, as a result, Americans have suffered.
Not to get technical about it, but according to the Center for Responsive Politics (via Politico), foreign-connected PACs have contributed $6,517,903 to Democrats, $5,581,701 to Republicans.
Looks like both parties are equally suspect.
Can’t we all just get a truce?
Campaign Outsider 
That’s a great table from the CRP. It shows exactly which interests are giving to which parties. Can you show me the same breakdown for the contributions the Chamber of Commerce is making?
Is that a trick question, Steve?
No, it’s the point. (Not the point the DNC is making, but the one Toles is making below – which is the point the DNC *should* be making. 🙂
Tom Toles is worth a thousand words
Ezra Klein says: “The Democrats’ attack on foreign campaign contributions is pretty much bunk. […] As far as I can tell, no one who has seriously looked into this thinks it’s any more than some election-season hardball from the Democrats.
“What’s more serious is the issue Toles gets at in the cartoon above, and which Democrats have also been hammering: large amounts of domestic money, from domestic groups and corporations, being funneled into elections without any disclosure.”
Thanks, Steve. Love Tom Toles.
And more from another WaPo blogger, Greg Sargent:
“Virtually every news org under the sun has now weighed in with an aggressive fact check of White House/Dem foreign money allegations against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And that’s as it should be.
“But when are folks going to start getting equally aggressive about fact-checking the false and misleading claims in this dispute that are coming from the right?”
He’s got a point. Rove can go on GMA and spout all manner of falsehoods without a peep of complaint.
When a sitting President publicly accuses an organization of a felony, it becomes news.
If that accusation is not true, it becomes bigger news.
This is another situation where Obama has entered a discussion inadvisedly.
Well, according to Think Progress, the Chamber of Commerce has raised a bunch of money from foreign corporations, put it in a 501(c)6 account. It has also run about $75 million worth of attack ads, paid for out of the same account.
The CoC says it doesn’t use the foreign money in the account to fund the ads, but the money is all co-mingled, so who can tell? It sure seems like the Democrats have the goods here.
Thanks, Steve. Curiouser and curiouser . . .