Obama using legal threats again to pull a 527 ad

First it was the American Issues Project’s provacative ad exploring Obama’s relationship with unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Now, Obama’s lawyers are getting in on the act again, this time not via the Department of Justice but instead through a letter written to TV stations who are airing the truthful NRA ad that BO claims “lies” about his record (hat tip: HA).

It goes without saying this is a deeply disturbing pattern with Barack Obama. As I mentioned in the prior paragraph, there was the request for the DOJ to get involved in pulling the Ayers ad off the air, but there’s also been the near-militant style tactics Obama HQ have used in order to try and silence vocal critics of Barack Obama, like NRO’s Stanley Kurtz and David Freddoso.

I think back to all the numerous times I’ve read (and we’ve all read) about how the far left has pitched fits and waged aggressive campaigns over what they feel has been Bush’s intention to “silence” his critics via not allowing them to get too close to him at campaign stops and official visits, speeches, etc. Not a word came from these same people when Democrats in Congress tried to shut down the unflattering-to-Bill-Clinton docu-drama Path to 9-11 via threats to ABC, and not a word has come from those same people in response to Obama’s continuing attempts at stifling dissent. The hypocrisy from these people is simply breathtaking.

Semi-related to all this, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley made a veiled threat earlier this week to target McCain’s family in an ad after McCain supposedly “targeted” his:

Mayor Richard Daley teed off Tuesday on Republican presidential candidate John McCain for including Daley’s brother in a negative ad about Barack Obama’s Chicago political roots.

The TV ad claims that Democratic presidential candidate Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, was “born of the corrupt Chicago political machine.” The commercial seeks to link Obama to four power-brokers: the mayor’s brother Bill, convicted former fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko, Obama mentor and Illinois Senate President Emil Jones and embattled Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

“People get desperate in their political life,” the mayor said when asked about the ad. “My theory about politics and government: You build yourself up. You don’t have to tear people down.”

Daley also warned that McCain has his own vulnerabilities, noting the Arizona senator’s involvement in the “Keating Five” influence-peddling scandal that involved his ties to banker Charles Keating Jr., a poster boy for the savings-and-loan meltdown.

“If people start throwing dirt and mud—remember, it comes back and hits you right in the face,” the mayor said. “I think, to put my brother Bill there . . . they want to put me there, fine, they put me there all the time anyway.”

The ad described Bill Daley, a former U.S. Commerce secretary, as a “lobbyist” and “the mayor’s brother.”

“First of all, my brother is not a lobbyist. He’s not a lobbyist. He’s not a lobbyist. He’s never been a lobbyist,” the mayor said.

In fact, Bill Daley was a key Washington lobbyist for top U.S. and foreign companies, and President Bill Clinton picked him to lobby Congress for passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. When he was president of SBC Communications Inc. in 2003 he coordinated lobbying campaigns to sway both state and federal lawmakers.

[…]

“People love money. Some love sex. Some love drugs. Some love power. It’s human frailties,” Daley said. Asked whether he is suggesting a Keating Five ad, Daley shot back: “It would be a great ad. People lost their life savings. Life savings, their own homes, for a guy named Keating out of Arizona.

“You want to get tough in politics, I can get tough in politics as anyone else,” Daley said. “When you start throwing mud, mud is going to be thrown at you and it’s going to be sticky.”

When Obama quips, “I’m skinny but I’m tough. I’m from Chicago” we all know what that means, and none of it is good. And thanks to him, we know dirty tricks, underhanded tactics, and attempts at silencing the opposition in Chicago doesn’t start and stop with the Daleys. Obama’s carrying on that tradition on a national scale all by himself.