A heads up from the AP: the GOP group Freedom's Watch will be treating the Prairie State to an "onslaught" of robocalls targeting Barack Obama and opposing the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. From the looks of it, the calls feature all the usual scare tactics:

The calls are the first by Freedom's Watch to make the Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois senator the focus of a paid media campaign. The group is launching hundreds of thousands of the calls Friday aimed at senators in seven states [...]

The telephone calls tell listeners that the climate change bill would increase gas prices and electricity rates. "Even worse, Obama's vote could cost Illinois over 100,000 manufacturing jobs," the caller says.

The Obama calls will be made in Illinois. Senators in six other states also are targeted, including Debbie Stabenow in Michigan and Claire McCaskill in Missouri.

As Adam wrote a last week, Lieberman-Warner is a relatively toothless bill. However, it's also the first attempt to curb climate change we've seen in three years, and would set a good foundation for an incoming president willing to really do something about global warming.

It strikes me as odd that Freedom's Watch is taking this fight to Obama's home turf, though. Illinoisans seem quite fond of their presidential hopeful, and government action to curb climate change is a popular idea nationally. But if these lobbyists want to waste their money here, I guess that's fine with me.

Regardless of what the group hopes to achieve, their efforts have had little political impact recently, as the AP notes:

In April and May, Freedom's Watch aired ads in Louisiana and Mississippi aimed at Democratic candidates in two special elections and tried to equate their stands to Obama's. Both Democrats won.