[R-G] Right-Wing Lobby Group Loses Its Angel

[Anthony Fenton]

POLITICS-US:
Right-Wing Lobby Group Loses Its Angel
Analysis by Eli Clifton
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=1864

HONG KONG, 26 Nov (IPS) - The right-wing U.S. advocacy group Freedom's  
Watch is reportedly shutting down as its main funder, Casino magnate  
Sheldon Adelson, becomes one of the high-profile casualties of the  
global economic downturn.

Freedom's Watch, which according to the Las Vegas Review Journal, has  
scheduled huge staff layoffs for the end of December, was one of the  
most prominent advocacy groups aligned with the Republican Party.

Adelson contributed over 30 million dollars to Freedom's Watch in 2007  
and 2008, but has had to cut back on his philanthropy as his net worth  
-- estimated at 36 billion dollars in 2007 -- shrunk by 13 billion  
dollars.

His company -- the Las Vegas Sands Corporation -- faces huge losses as  
its aggressive expansion in Singapore and Macau coincided with the  
global financial crisis.

Freedom's Watch was conceived in March 2007 as an offshoot of the  
Florida Republican Jewish Coalition in which Adelson is a longtime  
member.

The stated mission of Freedom's Watch has been to 'support mainstream  
conservative public policies' but the focus of the group's lobbying  
and media campaigns has reflected the staunchly pro-Iraq war and pro- 
Israeli-Likud Party politics of its chief benefactor.

In November 2007, Adelson placed himself to the far right of the  
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), when he denounced  
the organisation's support for a two-state solution to the Israeli- 
Palestinian conflict.

'If someone is going to jump off a bridge, it is incumbent upon their  
friends to dissuade them,' he told the Jewish Telegraph Agency. 'I  
don't continue to support organisations that help friends committing  
suicide just because they say they want to jump.'

Freedom's Watch spent 15 million dollars on an ad blitz in the summer  
of 2007 supporting the George W. Bush administration's troop surge in  
Iraq, and the group bought both print ads and television time, in four  
Senate and over 30 House races in the Nov. 4 election.

But recent reports have suggested that Adelson's grip on the group's  
purse-strings and his need to authorise and approve every media  
campaign and expenditure have led Freedom's Watch board members and  
top Republican party operatives to express frustration with his top- 
down management style.

The global economic downturn and the rapid expansion of Adelson's  
casino empire in Asia has coincided with a split between Adelson and  
Christian evangelicals who had aligned themselves with the  
neoconservative foreign policy interests promoted by Freedom's Watch.

Tensions between the Christian right and Adelson's business interests  
boiled over on Sep. 29 when the Christian Coalition of Alabama's  
president, Dr. Randy Brinson, denounced Adelson as 'not sharing our  
values as Alabamans'.

Adelson's casino interests in Macau, a Chinese gambling enclave near  
Hong Kong, has called attention to his expanding casino empire and his  
backroom politicking on behalf of the Chinese government who the  
Christian right are quick to point criticism at for its human rights  
violations, restrictions on religion and the government's communist  
identity.

On May 25, 2008 a Las Vegas, Nevada jury awarded Richard Suen -- a  
Hong Kong businessman -- 43.8 million dollars in damages against the  
Sands Corporation. The judgment was the conclusion of Suen's lawsuit  
which claimed he had served as a 'fixer' for Adelson and the Sands  
Corp. in arranging meetings with high-level Chinese government  
officials in Beijing.

Suen's version of events is that Adelson and the Sands Corp. had been  
seeking a casino license to enter the lucrative gambling market in  
Macau. In meetings, arranged by Suen in 2001, Adelson learned that  
Beijing was concerned about an effort led by U.S. House Republicans to  
stop China from winning their 2008 Olympic bid.

Testimony given by Suen revealed that Adelson, eager to curry favour  
with Beijing, immediately phoned then House Majority Whip Tom Delay  
and, after getting off the phone with DeLay, reportedly turned to the  
mayor of Beijing and said, 'The bill will never see the light of day,  
Mr. Mayor. Don't worry about it.'

Sands Corp. received the lucrative casino license and has since opened  
the Cotai Strip development and the Venetian Macau at a cost of 2.4  
billion dollars and an estimated 10 to 12 billion dollars in costs by  
2010.

The close relationship between Adelson and the Chinese government  
damaged Adelson's alliances with the Christian Right -- a powerful  
constituency within the Republican Party.

'Where Sheldon Adelson has placed his treasure makes it quite clear  
where his heart is: in gambling and backing the regime in China that  
persecutes Christians,' said Brinson.

Adelson's shrinking fortune has also meant huge cutbacks in his other  
high-profile philanthropic venture-- Birth Right Israel -- which sends  
young Jews on all-expense paid trips to Israel.

With his wife Miriam, Adelson contributed 70 million dollars over the  
past two years but his pledged contributions for 2009 and 2010 have  
been reduced to 20 million and 10 million dollars, respectively.

The combination of the global financial crisis, increased media  
attention on his business dealings in China, and a split between  
Christian evangelicals and Freedom's Watch has marked a particularly  
inauspicious year for a man who in 2006 ruefully commented to the  
interviewer Charlie Rose, 'A billion dollars doesn't buy what it used  
to.'