Obama Truth Squads?!?

[I know I'm a little slow in getting this out ... I've got the flu! NOT fun!! But, the following story is important ... and a tad alarming.]

In a related story posted last week (go here), it seems that Obama is getting even more aggressive with assuring that "the truth" gets out about him. After pressuring the Department of Justice to prosecute the group American Issues Project for an ad it funded and ran regarding Obama's ties to Williams Ayers, a terrorist with the Weather Underground, it also pressured TV stations that ran the ad. Luckily, the DOJ rejected the request.

Now, Obama is bringing his "truth" and "change" to Missouri by creating a "truth squad" made up of state and county law professionals. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulluch, whom I've until now always greatly respected, have come on board.

Here's a part of what Springfield, Missouri's News-Leader.com reports (emphasis added):

On Wednesday, Obama’s Missouri campaign announced U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill would lead a group of Democratic lawmakers, prosecutors and one sheriff “who will be proactive in letting voters in the Show-Me State know the truth in the face of the distortions by the McCain campaign,” according to a news release.

The group includes prosecutors from St. Louis, Dunklin, Lafayette, Cass, Clay, Ripley, Audrain and Jackson counties volunteering to be surrogates for Obama on their own time.

The Missouri Truth Squad will “respond quickly, forcefully, and aggressively when John McCain or his allies launch inaccurate claims or character attacks about Barack Obama, or when they distort Barack Obama’s record or plans.”

In a conference call Saturday with reporters from battleground states, Obama national campaign manager David Plouffe said those who spread lies and mistruths about the Illinois senator have to be “held accountable,” but did not elaborate how.

Despite having law enforcement officials on the truth squad, none of them have publicly said they will invoke their official powers to enforce facts about Obama’s record.

The controversy was sparked by a KMOV television report featuring St. Louis County Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Attorney Jennifer Joyce saying they would respond to paid advertising twisting Obama’s record (the story was picked up by influential right-wing blogger Matt Drudge.)

They never said they would invoke their powers, but Republicans say just attaching their law enforcement titles to their names for political reasons gives off a perception of a police state.

“Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society,” Blunt said in his 258-word statement.

Frank Donatelli, deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee, held a conference call with reporters Saturday morning while touring the state’s offices for GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

In a telephone interview with the News-Leader, Donatelli admitted the Democratic prosecutors “haven’t specifically said” they would use their prosecutorial powers on Obama’s behalf.

“I don’t think you have to use the power. I think if you just call out somebody and you have the power, you’ve made your point,” Donatelli told the News-Leader. “It’s not that you have to prosecute a guy, but people think you might.”

Donatelli said prosecutors don’t normally join campaign truth squads because their mere presence as a campaign attack dog “has a chilling affect on people’s rights of free speech.”

But a review of McCain’s own truth squads shows he has a district attorney from New Mexico and the South Carolina attorney general ready to respond to misleading ads from Obama and Democrats in their respective states.

Democrats maintain the GOP has twisted the context of a news report to manufacture this controversy.

McCain's website states that it started a "truth squad", but along the lines of protecting his military record. When you look at the names listed, they are all retired military -- not sheriffs and prosecutors. Jo Mannies of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that "McCain’s campaign has an Honest and Open Election Committee, whose Missouri members include former Sen. John Danforth and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, and another state McCain group monitoring any Democratic jabs at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin."

So, who wins here? The truth squad backed by sheriffs and prosecutors, or the truth squad backed by political leaders. If any one loses, it sounds like the American public. Either way, we've got people putting out smears and lies, or people trying to get the truth out but being hindered and threatened from doing so.