By Cliff Montgomery – Dec. 28th, 2011
Crossroads ‘Grassroots’ Policy Strategies (GPS)–one among many neo-conservative ideological groups whichpretends to be run and funded by ordinary people, but in fact is funded primarily by financial and businesselites–is working to make you just hate Elizabeth Warren, one of the few liberals who is serious in her drive tohold Big Finance accountable. Warren currently is a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Massachusetts.
And what is Big Finance’s master plan? To paint the very well-known Warren as a friend to Big Finance.
If your head just exploded, try to pull yourself back together. Keep in mind that Republican point man KarlRove–who for eight horrid years served as the power behind the debacle that was the Bush Administration–was one of the founding members of Crossroads GPS.
In other words, one simply should not expect an attack founded on reason, accountability or common sense.
To make things even more muddled, just last month Crossroads GPS’ ‘brain trust’ made an ad criticizingWarren for being too chummy with the Occupy movement.
For her part, Warren understandably has simply called Crossroads GPS’ most recent advertisement “factuallywrong and morally wrong.”
Larry Sabato, who serves as director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told OpenSecretsthat the two Crossroads GPS-produced attacks rank among the “least effective” he’s ever seen.
“Rarely do you see such diametrically opposing attacks made by the same group within a short period of time,”Sabato declared to OpenSecrets.“Given her liberal ideology, a viewer could believe that Warren had some sympathy for the Occupy Wall Streetdemonstrators,” continued Sabato, “but to make her somehow sympathetic to big bankers and Wall Street?That strains credulity.”
OpenSecrets is a web site published by the Center for Responsive Politics, “the nation’s premier researchgroup tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy,” according to its missionstatement.
For those readers who may not immediately remember the achievements of Elizabeth Warren, we’ll point outthat Warren was instrumental in creating Obama’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau–“a new regulatorybody that many finance sector interests spent heavily to oppose,” points out OpenSecrets.
Republicans further objected to installing Warren as leader of that new group. It was that fierce oppositionwhich convinced leading Democrats to recruit the lady as a major challenge to freshman U.S. Senator ScottBrown (R-MA).
And that’s not all.
“Since launching her U.S. Senate campaign in August, Warren has pulled in more than $3.15 million–with awhopping 57 percent of that sum coming from small-dollar donors who each contributed $200 or less,” statesOpenSecrets.
“According to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, Warren has raised just 3.5 percent of her warchest, or $110,050, from interests in the finance, insurance and real estate sector,” added the web site.
That’s the ‘friend of Big Finance.’
All right, that may tell us much more about the real Elizabeth Warren. But what about Senator Brown?
“By contrast, the finance, insurance and real estate sector is Brown’s No. 1 supporter,” points outOpenSecrets.
“Since Brown jumped onto the national stage in 2009 when he began running to fill the Senate vacancycreated in the wake of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s death, Brown has raised about $23.6 million,” declares the web site.
And much of that massive sum has come from his close friends in Big Finance.
“According to the Center’s research, Brown has relied on the finance, insurance and real estate sector forabout $1 out of every $8 he’s collected,” continues OpenSecrets.
“The people and political action committees associated with the financial sector have given Brown $2.9 millionsince 2009. That’s 12.4 percent of his total war chest,” states the political and financial watchdog.
And then there’s Crossroads GPS…
“For its part, Crossroads GPS is not legally required to publicly disclose its donors, but its sister organization–asuper PAC known as American Crossroads–is. And American Crossroads has significant ties to the financesector and other wealthy business interests,” declares OpenSecrets.
