Today's NRCC: Crooked And They Just Don't Care, Sloppy Too

You may have read about how their treasurer was stealing from them.

Or perhaps you read about how they inflated their cash on hand and then had to backtrack.

Well now there is pretty solid information that they're breaking clear, long established campaign finance law:

The DCCC filed a complaint today with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Freedom's Watch and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). Freedom's Watch, a shadowy outside group, and the NRCC illegally coordinated their political attack ads against Democratic candidate Don Cazayoux (LA-06).

The Freedom's Watch and the NRCC's television ads are stunningly similar. A little digging revealed why – electronic identifiers show that the NRCC wrote the Freedom's Watch ad.

"The DCCC is filing this FEC complaint to hold Freedom's Watch and the NRCC accountable for their illegal coordination that is being used to mislead voters about Democratic candidates' positions," said Brian Wolff, Executive Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Tom Cole may have gotten his wish when Freedom's Watch came to the NRCC's rescue, but breaking the law will be the NRCC's worst nightmare. Freedom's Watch own Word document clearly shows that the script for their ad came from the NRCC – that's clearly illegal."

Freedom's Watch is operating as the cash-strapped NRCC's de facto independent expenditure campaign:

• The script that Freedom's Watch provided television stations running their ads included electronic identifiers indicating that the NRCC created the Word document.
• The NRCC's ad buy in LA-06 ended the day the nearly identical Freedom's Watch ad began airing. The NRCC ad ran from 4/10/08 through 4/16/08. The Freedom's Watch ad began airing as the NRCC went dark – 4/16/08 and is scheduled to run through the special election on 5/03/08.
• The message, images, and citations in both the Freedom's Watch ad and NRCC ad are nearly identical. See for yourself – click here to see images of the ads side by side.
  
• Freedom's Watch is being run by Carl Forti, a longtime NRCC veteran who was responsible for the NRCC's independent expenditure campaigns and communications for nearly a decade. [Washington Post, 3/30/08] This is the same Forti who's responsible for attacks that led Republican Members and Republican candidates to call the NRCC "a rogue attack shop," responsible for "smears," "over-the-top accusations," "demonstrably false" and "misleading" attacks and "political mudslinging." [Boston Globe, 3/04/07]
  
• For the first time in memory, NRCC Chairman Tom Cole welcomed the participation of Freedom's Watch and other outside groups like it in House campaigns, saying "We hope we see them in political races all across the board." [Washington Post, 3/30/08]
  

Tom Cole: at long last have you left no sense of decency?

(The text of the complaint can be found in the comments)