NRCC Caught Cheating Again-- Creating Fake News Reports To Mislead Voters

Ex-Sheriff Dave Reichert confesses that Greg Walden (R-OR) was the real Green River serial killer who murdered over 100 women in Washington

A few days ago someone sent me a red hot scoop on corporate shill and ex-bank lobbyist Pete Aguilar. It was too good to be true and I couldn't wait to get it up on my blog. But it actually was too good to be true. I tweeted out that Aguilar-- who is prone to substance abuse-- was taped on a donor call demeaning Israel and comparing Hamas to America's Founding Fathers. I started writing. The more I wrote, the fishier it smelled. I emailed Boris, Aguilar's lame campaign manager to ask if there was any reality to the report in the Times of Israel; no response. I even contacted the DCCC-- not something I do every day-- and they investigated the claims that it was sourced to the A.P.-- which was fake. Just as I was getting ready to publish my story, J-Street, which has endorsed Aguilar as a friend of Israel, also warned me that the report was a hoax. I called Aguilar's Republican opponent, Paul Chabot, who sensed a real opening for his own campaign-- and the distinct possibility that it was a fake. He said he would look into it.

Well, the source of the hoax seems to be the NRCC.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which came under fire earlier this year for a deceptive series of fake Democratic candidate websites that it later changed after public outcry, has launched a new set of deceptive websites, this time designed to look like local news sources.

The NRCC has created about two dozen of these new faux news sites targeting Democrats, both challengers and incumbents, and is promoting them across the country with localized Google search ads.

The NRCC's single-page sites are designed to appear to be a local news portal, with logos like "North County Update" or "Central Valley Update." The articles begin in the impartial voice of a political fact-checking site, hoping to lure in readers. "We'll take a look at her record and let you decide," starts one. Then they gradually morph into more biting language. At the very bottom, in a box, is the disclaimer that the NRCC paid for the site.

"This is a new and effective way to disseminate information to voters who are interested in learning the truth about these Democratic candidates," said Andrea Bozek, communications director for the NRCC.

Political strategists on both sides of the aisle say voters have generally grown weary and dubious of political attacks that are accompanied by dark clouds and ominous music. Wrapping an attack in the innocuous language of fact-checking, then, makes it more likely to sink in.

"We believe this is the most effective way to present information to leave a lasting impact on voters," said Bozek, who declined to say how much the NRCC was spending to promote the sites. The online ad spending, being done by the NRCC's independent expenditure arm, must eventually be disclosed but likely only in the aggregate.

Democrats say it's telling that Republicans are repeatedly resorting to deceptive tactics to push their political agenda. "These sites say more about the NRCC's own toxicity and desperation than anything else," said Ryan Rudominer, a Democratic strategist who previously worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The NRCC's online push comes despite the blowback the committee received for the look-alike Democratic sites, which prompted a complaint from a watchdog group to the Federal Election Commission. Under public pressure, the NRCC changed the design of those sites to make it clearer that contributors were sending their money to the House GOP campaign arm and not the Democratic candidates whose pictures appeared on the page.

Just as the NRCC did last year with the faux-candidate sites, the group is promoting its look-alike news sites through Google search ads. So when a voter in Democratic Rep. John Barrow's Georgia district, for instance, searches the congressman's name on Google, the first ad that shows up leads to the faux news site.

Below is a stub of the all-wrong post had had begun writing when J-Street was able to prove to me that the report was a total fake to make poor Aguilar appear even worse than he is. Besides the ones smearing Aguilar and Barrow, I understand there are similar fake stories out about weak Democrats like Bill Enyart (IL), Ami Bera (CA), Scott Peters (CA), Nick Casey (WV) and Sean Eldridge (NY).

Pete Aguilar likens Hamas to America's Founding Fathers-- except he didn't

Over the course of the last year, we've demonstrated the myriad reasons why Pete Aguilar is unfit for public office- many involving his personal behavior, his penchant for corruption, his adherence to Republican values, etc. Who would have thought he'd be choking on an anti-Israel diatribe that threatens his viability as a Democratic candidate? Was Aguilar coked up and drunk on the call? You be the judge:

In a secretly-recorded conference call on Monday, Democratic US congressional candidate Pete Aguilar can be heard telling supporters that "the United States should back off from military and economic support to Israel. American support of Israel, and really Israel as a people and political power, is a drag on the United States, and frankly, the world."

Aguilar, 35, is currently the mayor of a small California town. He is running in a November election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

When one supporter asked about Aguilar's thoughts on Hamas, the candidate can be heard replying, "Hamas is trying to survive oppression. A couple hundred years ago, a group of brave men like Paul Revere tried and succeeded at doing the same thing here in [what] would become the United States. They didn't call it 'terrorism' back then, but it's the same thing over there."

…The source of the audio recording refused to identify himself, saying only that he "was a supporter and have listened to dozens of these calls, but now I'm disgusted."

Aguilar could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman from the national US Democratic Party office said that party leaders will hold an emergency call Tuesday morning.

I don't think there's a big Jewish population in CA-31 but isn't it ironic that Aguilar's political godfather is Steve Israel of the DCCC, who is always trying to have his picture taken wearing a yarmulka, even though he was caught stealing a great deal of money from his own synagogue. In the past, AIPAC has ended the careers of politicians who have said much less anti-Israeli things than Aguilar-- like Earl Hilliard and Cynthia McKinney. The New Dems, who have pushed Aguilar-- a former bank lobbyist and as much a corporate stooge as most New Dems-- have "no comment" on Israel's anti-Israel outburst. CA-31 is a D+5 district and there is literally no one alive incompetent enough to lose it two cycles in a row other than Steve Israel.