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Freedom’s Watch: We’ll Miss Them

By Karen Tumulty | November 24, 2008 | +

Remember when Freedom’s Watch–with former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer as a founder–was thought to be the Next Big Thing in conservative advocacy?

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that they are going under. Though, with ads like this one, how could they possibly have been anything other than a smashing success?:

In Adelson’s own backyard, Freedom’s Watch aired ads locally slamming Democrat Dina Titus in her ultimately successful run for Congress. One memorable spot featured surgeons hunched over an operating table, exchanging the following dialogue:

“Oh my.”

“Colitis?”

“No.”

“Hepatitis?”

“No.”

“Diverticulitis?”

“No, I’m afraid it’s Dinatitus! Taxes up the yin-yang!”

Here’s another gem:

Another anti-Titus commercial played off Titus’ Southern accent and her alleged propensity for raising taxes.

“She must be from Taxes!” the ad drawled against a silhouette of the Lone Star State, even though Titus is from Georgia.

(H/T Guestblogger New Floridian)

Related Topics: Uncategorized

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  • palininatowel

    Halperin is going to miss Freedom’s Watch. He linked to damn near every one of their crappy ads. But election coverage of other journalists was “disgusting” and “biased.”
    .
    Heh-heh.
    .
    The upside? Ari Fleischer is available to become Sarah Palin’s media consultant! I heard Ari’s looking for a place in Wasilla. It’s a great place to raise a family!

  • nibblybits

    Couldn’t happen to a douchier guy.
    .
    Got the fingers crossed that RJC, another Fleischer club of morons, is next.

  • sgwhiteinfla

    I really am hoping hard everyday that Dick Morris goes bankrupt or gets arrested or gets outed for soliciting a male cop in a bathroom or just SOMETHING. There may have never been a more aptly named guy as he. Isn’t it illegal to solicit funds for a pac on a cable news show anyway?

  • Dee in Columbia MD

    SG — now theres a guy I can back you in hating Morri is such a sleaze bag.

  • trifecta

    I got some anti Bev Purdue robocalls and junk mail from them. Apparently she caused all illegal immigration in this country. Who knew? She won the Governor’s race anyways.

  • trifecta

    Dick Morris is a better indicator of Bill Clinton’s character flaws than Monica L. Dick Morris on staff upset me more.

  • sgwhiteinfla

    trifecta
    .
    I still haven’t heard the story about how Dick Morris got to be on Clinton’s staff in the first place. He was hired later on in the presidency wasn’t he?

  • trifecta

    Dick Morris started working for Clinton in 78 in Arkansas. He also worked for Trent Lott. He crossed the aisle quite a bit.

  • FlownOver

    Anybody know how much Fleischer conned Adelson out of with this little song-and-dance routine? I mean, which is more fraudulent – a “fund my patriotic advocacy group” scam or an outright Ponzi scheme?

  • http://pourmecoffee.blogspot.com pourmecoffee

    Ari Fleischer is the Vanilla Ice of politics.

  • palininatowel

    FlownOver,
    .
    Chump change. Ari missed the boat by not being press spokesman for Citi (with a points deal).

  • beccabyrd

    Dick Morris is actually a performance artist from Manitoba. His real name is Sheldon Culpepper. Never goes out of his character of Dick the Blithering Idiot, either.

    I am sure Bradley Blakeman will pop up in another scam to keep himself on TV, with the demise of FW. He’s quite the bad penny.

  • rose83

    Everyone likes southern accents. I wish I had one. That would be like making fun of Obama because he’s athletic. Oh right, they did do that… Actually this whole thing supports my theory about WH press secretaries: they are often chosen precisely because they’re not that smart. If you’re smart, a. you won’t like being kept in the dark about important things. And b. you’ll be less gullible. Of course Dana Perino’s “what’s the Cuban Missile Crisis?” moment is the best evidence for this theory, but these ads are also pretty convincing.
    –
    BTW, SG, I’ve replied to your last post on health care from this morning. Just in case you really did misunderstand my comments and think there was some kind of contradiction.

  • Andy from MA

    KT — I beg your pardon….Maybe you can find out who these people are. They’v e received a pardon or commutation from GWB

    http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2008/11/24/D94LJ1980_bush_pardons/index.html

  • Matt

    Another sign of the complete collapse of the aggressive conservative movement as the mainstream of American politics…

    http://www.political-buzz.com/

  • Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Anybody know how much Fleischer conned Adelson out of with this little song-and-dance routine?

    Fleischer couldn’t con a first grade class out of its milk money. I suspect if anybody took Shelley A. for a ride it was the odious Mrs Carville. I guess if you’re running the long con it’s an advantage to have a face that couldn’t show emotion if you wanted it to.

  • formerlyjames

    I like southern accents, and can tell the difference between Texas and Georgia (Texas is only half southern). The ads are funny, but really, all southern accents sound alike? Not.

  • donovong

    They may be on the way out, but they are alive and well here in Georgia – spreading their bullsh!t about Jim Martin every 30 minutes on the teevee.

    Please, God, make it stop.

  • http://newsmesh.net/2008/11/26/freedoms-watch-remembered-their-greatest-hits/ Freedom’s Watch, Remembered: Their Greatest Hits | NewsMesh

    [...] Karen Tumulty has a piece on Freedom’s Watch that captures their legacy pretty perfectly, as an organization who assaulted America with senses-dulling advertisements that employed a combination of really hamhanded jokes and illiteracy to fully fail to convince wide swaths of Americans. One cited example includes this terrible ad copy, which failed to prevent Democrat Dina Titus from winning her race in Nevada’s 3rd District: One memorable spot featured surgeons hunched over an operating table, exchanging the following dialogue: [...]

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