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The Shameful Truth Behind the Senate Conservative Fund, Freedom Works, and “Traitor” Mitch McConnell

Posted on October 8, 2013
“Traitor” Mitch McConnell

“I’ve never won anything.”

That was Adam Brandon’s famous quote in Slate Magazine.

Who is Adam Brandon and why does it matter?

Well, Brandon runs political operations for Freedom Works, the group that loves to beat up Republicans in the name of conservative values.

Brandon recently penned a fundraising letter where he attacked Senator Mitch McConnell for being a RINO.

Here is what the letter had to say:
Patriot, Mitch McConnell called you a traitor.

I don’t know if you just heard Glenn Beck. But McConnell said that if you supported our fight to Defund ObamaCare, you’re a traitor. Apparently, he thinks that fighting Obama means you and I aren’t patriots.

And Patriot, we’re not going to let Mitch McConnell intimidate us. We’re going to keep fighting Obama. We’re going to keep fighting ObamaCare. And we’re going to fight any RINO who won’t stand up to Obama and Reid.

But to keep the pressure on -- to have a fighting chance at realizing the fruit of our efforts -- we need to continue to mobilize our network of over 6 million conservative activists. And to keep them equipped with the tools they need to win, we need to raise at least $50,000 in the next 48 hours.

Please stand up to Sen. McConnell and donate, $50, $35 or $15 right now to equip millions of activists with the tools to fight Obama!

We can’t let the Democrats destroy America. Senator McConnell may be willing to surrender, but we’re not. And Patriot, if we’re going to stop Obama, we need to replace Democrats like Mark Begich (AK), Mary Landrieu (LA), and Kay Hagan (NC) with real conservatives, people who will fight tooth and nail to stop Obama and his “radical transformation” of America. That’s why we must elect REAL conservatives, not Obama-Republicans.

And Patriot, that’s why we’re not backing down. McConnell attacked us because he is afraid of us. He knows what our network can do. He knows we can beat his cronies. He knows we’ll elect more conservatives like Mike Lee and Ted Cruz.

But Patriot, if we’re going to elect real Fiscal-Conservatives, we need you to donate $50, $35 $15, or more today!

I know you’re tired. I know you’ve put in a lot of hard work. But we can win.

Together, we can stop Obama, defund ObamaCare, and institute real conservative reform. But to do it, we must act now. We need you to help us raise $50,000 to train activists and stay ahead of the left.

Patriot, you and I both know that we have a lot of work to do next year. It’s up to us to replace the RINOs and Democrats with conservative leaders who will STAND UP to Obama. We can do it, but I need your help.

Will you donate $50, $35 or $15 right now? We won’t let Senator McConnell intimidate us. Will you?

Patriot, it will be hard. But, together we can do it.

In Liberty,

Adam Brandon

I love how he uses the words liberty and how he calls suckers who donate to him “Patriots.”

There is nothing patriotic about Brandon’s organization.  It’s all a giant scam.

And what he said about Mitch McConnell is all nonsense.

Mitch McConnell didn’t call anybody a traitor in a closed door meeting, which Beck admitted on his own program.  This is what Beck said exactly:
The actual word was not ‘traitor,’” Glenn clarified. “[The source] couldn’t remember the actual word they said but that’s what everybody heard. And that’s what set this guy off because he was like, ‘Yeah, you put them in their place.’ And then when he heard the word – and he doesn’t remember what it was – but he translated it as ‘traitor’ and he was like, ‘Whoa, that’s a little strong.’"

But Mitch McConnell has a right to be a little peeved at organizations like the Senate Conservative Fund and Freedom Works.

They are sham organizations, dedicated to building their own fundraising bases by bashing Republicans.

As Brian Walsh pointed out in a column in U.S. News and World Report, the Senate Conservative Fund has spent millions of dollars running ads against Republicans and not one dime against the President or Democrats.   The latest example?  Steve Lonegan, who is running against Cory Booker for the Senate seat in New Jersey, has not garnered even a supportive email from the DeMint-run organization, let alone any campaign help.

Nope, the Senate Conservative Fund is mostly focused on beating incumbent Republicans like Mitch McConnell.

Freedom Works is a special case.

Dick Armey, the former House Majority Leader, who early on became the face of the Tea Party, left Freedom Works in a hostile dispute with Matt Kibbe, who now runs the organization.

Here is what Armey told ABC News about his departure:
Armey said his fight with Kibbe was prompted by "pretty underhanded stuff," essentially a battle over royalties being paid to Kibbe instead of FreedomWorks for Kibbe's book "Hostile Takeover." Armey claims FreedomWorks' staff provided research and marketing help for the book and Kibbe tried to get Armey to sign a memorandum saying he did not use the organization's resources.

"We had a very dysfunctional organization that was being used primarily at that time scheduling all kinds of things in the interest of establishing a reputation for Matt and selling his book," Armey said. He also complained that he was being kept out of fundraising meetings and press requests for himself were being redirected to Kibbe in an effort to make Kibbe the face of the Tea Party movement.

In another interview, Armey helped to explain the connection between Freedom Works and Glenn Beck:
“Former FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey says the conservative outlet that helped launch the Tea Party paid Glenn Beck at least $1 million last year to fundraise for the organization, an arrangement he said provided "too little value" for the money. 

"The arrangement was simply FreedomWorks paid Glenn Beck money and Glenn Beck said nice things about FreedomWorks on the air.  I saw that a million dollars went to Beck this past year, that was the annual expenditure."

Armey, who left the organization this past fall after a dispute over its internal operations, said a similar arrangement was also in place with Rush Limbaugh, but did not know the exact financial details.

"I put it down now as basically as paid advertising for FreedomWorks by Beck," Armey said, calling it a mistake.”

And now we have Adam Brandon, misquoting Glenn Beck, who misquoted Mitch McConnell, in a fundraising appeal to conservatives, bashing not President Obama, but instead calling the most conservative Majority Leader in the history of the Senate a traitor.

Adam Brandon got his start working as a press assistant to the 2000 Presidential campaign of John McCain.  So he knows a thing or two about losing.

What he doesn’t know much about it is winning.   Because you don’t beat President Obama by tearing down your own team.

But this isn’t about winning for these characters in the Conservative Industrial Complex.  This is about raising money by exploiting the fears and resentments of everyday Americans, by using rumors and by misquoting leaders in private meetings, all for the greater cause of feathering the nests of people like Glenn Beck, Matt Kibbe and the folks who run the Senate Majority Fund.

It’s a scam, a sham and damn shame.

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