Politico: Dems tying GOP candidates to unflattering portrayals of Adelson

By Lisa Mascaro

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 | 2:25 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Politico today muses that Sheldon Adelson has become the George Soros of the right.

The paper reports that the Democrats' campaign committee in the House is tying Republican congressional candidates to unflattering portrayals of the casino mogul who is supporting their campaigns.

Adelson, you’ll remember, is a key force behind right-leaning group Freedom’s Watch, launched last year. One of Freedom Watch’s first efforts was to run ads to support lawmakers, including Nevada’s Republican Rep. Jon Porter, who backed the Iraq war. Adelson’s Sands Corp. makes him among the richest men in the world.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as the party's campaign arm is called, has attacked Adelson in ads during recent special elections in the House, including the one this week in Mississippi.

For example, in a Mississippi radio ad, the paper reported, the Democratic committee asked why the Republican candidate was “’accepting support from ‘the world’s No. 1 casino czar and one of atheist China’s top American business partners.’”

The Democrats referred to Adelson’s Macau casino as “’an investment in a country that steals our jobs, persecutes Christians, uses forced labor and forces women to have abortions,’” Politico reported.

Here’s how the paper sums it up:

“The DCCC’s slash-and-burn attacks on Adelson and his group are notable for their resemblance to longstanding GOP efforts to brand Democrats as the lapdogs of billionaire financier George Soros and MoveOn.org, the liberal anti-war group Soros helped fund to protest the policies of President Bush.”

A Freedom’s Watch spokesman told the paper the anti-Adelson ads are “probably the most incredibly convoluted argument to ever come out” of the DCCC.

“Nobody in America – or in China, for that matter – believes the preposterous charge that (Adelson) is responsible for religious persecution and forced abortions,” the spokesman told the paper.

The spokesman went on to say that the attention from the Democrats “confirms for us that we make life uncomfortable for liberals,” Politico reported.

The Freedom’s Watch-backed candidate lost in Mississippi Tuesday night to the Democrat, as did another Republican candidate backed by the group in Louisana.