Attack of the Anonymous Ads

The era of big-money, anonymously financed attack ads has arrived in Connecticut with commercials accusing two Democratic congressmen of providing free health care to illegal immigrants and Viagra to sex offenders.

U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, D-5th District, one of the targets of the ads, immediately linked his new tormentor, the American Action Network, to a Who's Who of Republicans prominent in the George W. Bush administration.

But the group, while it does share office space and a telephone system in Washington with an organization run by Bush advisor Karl Rove, has roots that go farther back, to the re-election campaign of Richard Nixon in 1972.

The American Action Network's founder is Fred Malek, a high-ranking official in the Nixon White House and re-election campaign, whose excesses led to post-Watergate reforms requiring transparency in campaign finance.

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