Greg Sargent makes a critically important point: thanks to the controversy over foreign corporations that fund the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, we've overlooked the fact that the Chamber's anti-Dem attack ads are riddled with factual errors and outright lies:
Last week I noted that the ads that have been bankrolled by Karl Rove's groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce against Senate Dem candidates across the country have been widely debunked by independent fact-checkers for their multiple falsehoods and distortions.
Turns out the same is true of the Chamber's ads against House Democrats. These Chamber ads, which are running or have run in multiple districts across the country, contain many claims that are demonstrable distortions or have been repeatedly debunked as false by independent fact-checkers.
This is the side of this story that continues to unfold under the media radar. Much of the media focus has been on the high-profile Beltway spat between these groups and the White House and Dems over their undisclosed donors. But the ads themselves are not receiving anywhere near the high-profile media scrutiny that Dem claims about the Chamber have -- even though they constitute a massive national campaign flooding airwaves in multiple races that could tip the balance of power in Congress.
Greg goes on to document 4 major falsehoods from cookie cutter attack ads that the Chamber is running against Democratic candidates across the country. As his research shows, the one thing we know is that these ads aren't true. The thing we still don't know is who is bankrolling the Chamber's ad campaign and what their agenda is.
But even though the Chamber won't reveal any of that information to the public, you can be sure that after the election the GOP's anonymous benefactors will reveal their identities to newly elected Republican congressmen and congresswomen. And when that happens they won't settle for a simple word of thanks. They'll be looking for a real return on their investment, a meaningful payback in the form of favorable legislation. And if the past is any guide to the future, they'll get exactly what they want.