Freedom's Watch: So Long, Suckers!!!

Hilarious!

A once-vaunted independent organization that was supposed to help Republicans make up severe fundraising shortfalls is closing after just one cycle in business.

Freedom's Watch, the 501(c)(4) organization that ran advertisements slamming Democratic candidates, will effectively shut down by the end of the year, according to a source with knowledge of the plans.

The group, which ran television, radio, phone and mail campaigns against dozens of Democrats this year, received most of its funding from wealthy gaming mogul Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp.

So endeth the most overhyped, overrated, and underwhelming political project since the presidential candidacy of Rudy Giuliani.

Freedom's Watch was supposed to be a major player, with planners budgeting as much as $200 million for ad campaigns. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its chairman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), warned for nearly two years of an impending and unprecedented spending spree on behalf of Republican candidates.

That spree never emerged. In total, Freedom's Watch spent about $30 million on television spots, though it would not reveal how much it spent on phones and mail, neither of which must be reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Let the record show that on the Watch's watch, that $30 million yielded eight Democratic pickups in the U.S. Senate and 24 in the House during calendar year 2008.

So how come the Watchmen are going down?

The economy, fool.

Adelson reportedly was the source of the overwhelming majority of the group's funding as well as the guiding force behind its decisions. But the 75-year-old casino executive, whose company owns The Venetian and Palazzo, has suffered his own reversals of late.

The company has lost roughly 95 percent of its stock market value over the past 11 months, dropping Adelson's rank on the Forbes list of America's wealthiest people from third to 15th.

At the end of October, a New York compensation consulting firm estimated Adelson's net worth had fallen by more than $16.6 billion for the year.

Awwww. Poor Adelson, falling all the way to 15th-richest.

Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya, Watchmen.