It's Adelson's Freedom's Watch vs. DCCC

If it’s Friday afternoon, it's a schoolyard fight between the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee vs. Freedom’s Watch.

Think Mean Girls meets the Potomac.

It’s no secret that the DCCC and Freedom’s Watch, the conservative advocacy organization heavily funded by Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, are not exactly the best of friends. This week, in response to a series of attacks Freedom’s Watch has launched targeting Democratic House candidates across the country, the committee went live with a website titled “The Real Freedom’s Watch,” which aims to detail the ties between the group and the Bush administration.

"If you ever wondered what the Bush political team is up to this campaign season, you need look no farther than the team behind Freedom's Watch. Their goal is clear -- to preserve Bush's legacy by delivering a third Bush term," U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the chairman of the DCCC, said in a statement announcing the launch of the site.

On one part of the site is a listing the connections between the Freedom’s Watch and the National Republican Congressional Committee. The site notes, for example, that Adelson is a past contributor to the committee and that former NRCC staffer Carl Forti is now working at Freedom’s Watch. The site also notes that the Freedom’s Watch press secretary is Ed Patru, another former NRCC employee.

But today Patru saw an opportunity to get even, composing a snarky email to DCCC Communications Director Jen Crider that included a photograph of Patru pictured with none other than a smiling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at a recent White House gathering

“Jen, I noticed you all are missing my picture on your new Freedom’s Watch website, so I thought I’d send along this snapshot – it’s the least I can do,” Patru wrote.

"By the way, I took the Metro to that event; the Speaker and her entourage arrived in a mini-motorcade via several gas-guzzling SUVs (hate to think what all those Tahoes are doing to the planet – or her quest to save it, for that matter – but that’s neither here nor there)," the Freedom's Watch spokesman continued.

But Crider, who just happens to be a former Pelosi staffer, wasn’t about to go silently into the night.

“Thanks for sending over the picture,” she wrote back to Patru.

Crider went on to challenge Freedom’s Watch, which as a 501(c)(4) organization doesn’t have to disclose its contributors, to open its donor files. “Will you make public who is contributing to Freedom's Watch? Has Freedom's Watch received any money from Big Oil or oil company executives?” she wrote.

It’s not the first time the two sides have wrangled. In a Louisiana special election earlier this year, the DCCC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Committee accusing Freedom’s Watch and the NRCC of improperly coordinating efforts. This week came the DCCC’s website targeting the organization.

With Freedom’s Watch poised to take aim at Democrats through the fall, there’s likely plenty more sparring between the two sides to come.