Coordination between Obama campaign and super PAC? Flashback to 1984 IL Senate race

Here's a bit of sleaze from the Obama campaign and its super PAC, Priorites USA.

From Politico:

[Joe] Soptic, laid off from Bain Capital-owned GST Steel, stars in a Priorities USA Action spot this week in which he tells of how his wife died without health insurance after he lost his job. Soptic also appeared, wearing what appears to be an identical shirt, in a May television ad for the Obama campaign.

Asked about the Priorities spot on MSNBC Wednesday morning, Robert Gibbs said he doesn't "know the specifics" while Stephanie Cutter said on CNN: "I don't know the facts about when Mr. Soptic's wife got sick or the facts about his health insurance."

And Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One that "we don't' have any knowledge of the story of the family," according to Yahoo! News.

But Cutter hosted an Obama campaign conference call in May in which Soptic told reporters the very story featured in the Priorities spot.

Coordination between PACs and official campaigns are illegal.

Oh, the Soptic story is quite misleading.

And here's a nugget of history that may prove relevant: David Axelrod is a top advisor to the Obama campaign. He also ran the 1984 Senate campaign for Democrat Paul Simon.

Coordination?

From Marathon Pundit in 2008:

n 1984, Ronald Reagan crushed Democrat Walter Mondale in the presidential race. The Gipper easily won Illinois--which was then a "swing state." Meanwhile Percy, running for his fourth term, was weakened in that year's Republican Primary by a candidate who questioned Percy's conservative credentials. Simon won the general election, but by just 88,000 votes.

How did that happen? Sources familiar with Simon's 1984 run tell me that the campaign spent less than $7 million. But a pro-Israel California businessman, Michael Goland, spent $1.2 million of his own money--a huge amount at that time--on attack ads against Percy.

But you didn't hear much about this story in Illinois. The media back then favored the Democrats--that hasn't changed--and was sympathetic to Axelrod, who of course was a former reporter. Simon was once the owner of a small downstate Illinois newspaper.

Percy, who by the way as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman achieved far more than the ineffectual Simon did in his 12 years in the Senate, filed suit after his defeat. Percy charged collusion occurred between Goland and Simon. The FEC fined Goland $5,000.

The worst was yet to come for Goland. Two years later Goland got caught illegally financing third party conservative Edward B. Vallen, who was running against incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Cranston. He donated $120,000 to the conservative, but Goland, who was a Cranston supporter, hoped that Vallen would pull votes from the Republican candidate. Cranston won.

Goland's cash was surreptitiously hidden in the guise of 56 individuals.

In 1990, Goland was found guilty of exceeding the federal limit on individual donations--which was then $1,000, he was fined, and served 90 days in jail.

It can be argued that had Paul Simon lost in 1984, and had Goland not dumped cash into his effort to defeat Percy, Axelrod would have crawled back to the Chicago Tribune.

And last week, Obama complained to Axelrod's old employer, complaining of "Karl Rove's old tactics."

Meanwhile, Obama has his own Karl Rove--David Axelrod.

In 1987, Chicago Magazine profiled Axelrod. The article's headline was "Hatchet Man: The Rise of David Axelrod."

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