The American Spectator

p> THIS CALL IS BEING MONITORED br> The network funded by the likes of George Soros and the AFL-CIO and other labor unions is now funding automatic phone calls dealing with port security, the Dubai Ports World deal in particular. According to sources inside the DNC, the left-wing, labor-funded outfit, American Family Voices, which worked tirelessly to smear Republicans in the 2004 election cycle, is running the phone call operations in as many as 15 congressional districts held by Republicans in Pennsylvania and Ohio, among others. /p>

While the DNC has no direct ties to the AFV, the group’s decision on which districts to run the phone calls was based on DNC polling data that revealed at-risk Republicans on national security issues. The calls play on terrorism fears, and claim that Dubai is a “country whose banks were used to launder money for al Qaeda.”

The phone calls come at a time when Ports World has been working with the federal government to close the deal for the ports. The AFV had been counting on a much bigger furor around the deal — in fact, according to AFV sources, it had been coordinating the calls with the office of Sen. Chuck Schumer, who coincidentally, is in charge of the Democrats’ campaign funding for Senate candidates. But Schumer has been strangely quiet about the Ports World deal, perhaps because some of the biggest backers of the deal are Wall Street firms he regularly hits for contributions.

p> OLD JOE br> Barring emails to young boys, Sen. Joe Lieberman seems on his way to re-election a month from now, yet his colleagues continue to keep their distance. Last week, Lieberman threw a Washington fundraiser at the Phoenix Park Hotel on Capitol Hill. The only current Democratic Senator we saw in attendance was Colorado’s Ken Salazar . /p>

The attendees were a mix of moderate Democrat activists and bipartisan industry lobbyists, but if the support from his own party faithful was lacking, the financial haul confirmed where the smart money was going for the Connecticut race. Last year, Lieberman pulled in a bit more than $150,000 for the fundraiser. This year, staff believe he pulled in almost $500,000.