Anti-Sestak group has Iraq war past

Salon has a bit more on the conservative group that launched ads against Joe Sestak last week, targeting him on support of Israel:

If there's a headquarters of neoconservatism in Washington, there's a good argument it's 918 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.

That's where the new Emergency Committee for Israel -- the group that launched with a Politico feature and an ad calling Pennsylvania Senate candidate Joe Sestak a terrorist symp -- is currently operating. And it's the same building that was base for the old Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (the Iraq sign is even still outside, apparently).

The latter was the outfit, rememeber, that had a brief but influential run in the early 2000s providing an outside assist to the Bush Administration's push for an attack on Iraq. It included neocon luminaries like Bill Kristol (who is also on the board of the new Israel group), Richard Perle, and James Woolsey, along with senators like John McCain and Evan Bayh.

. . . So what does all this mean? For one, it's a pretty striking illustration of just how small a world the still-influential neocon foreign policy community occupies. It's also a good reminder that the Emergency Committee for Israel is following  much the same low-budget, high-impact model that was used so successfully by the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. It's a model that involves a very small staff and physical footprint coupled with the ability to get lots of free coverage from a hungry political media.