When Barack Obama attempted to (poorly one might add) find an excuse for taking the politically opportune road over the principled one by rejecting public financing, one of his reasons was the always-so-evil 527s that would pop-up on McCain’s side to attack him. He would need the large cash infusion, he said, in order to fight the “smears” that would come from these mystical groups.

Well, guess what? It’s not exactly pro-McCain 527s that are raking in all of the money. In fact, Democratic-friendly groups raised more money even in 2004.

So far this year, so-called 527 groups—named for a section of the IRS tax code—have raised a staggering $210 million, up from $182 million at this point in 2004.

But here’s the ideological bottom line—roughly two-thirds of that $210 million has been raised by Democratic-friendly groups, according to 527 tax filings compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics…

But most outside money—and most of the toughest ads—has come from liberal groups.

That includes a recent spot depicting a small boy sitting in the lap of his mother, who asks McCain if he is counting on her son to help fight an endless war in Iraq. “Because if you were, you can’t have him,” the mother says.

That was MoveOn.org’s anti-McCain ad, of course, which would bring even liberal comedian Jon Stewart to refer to it as cringe-inducing. Among the other biggest 527s? Pro-Obama union groups.

Unions are among the biggest 527 players, with the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union topping this year’s list. The union last week vowed to spend $75 million to help its chosen candidates this year.

“We expect to be the most aggressive union on the ground and on the air across the country,” SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger vowed.

But remember: Obama needed to sell-out his principles because evil right-wing 527s would just pop-up to attack him. Yeah, right.