By now most of you have heard about the NRCC’s harassing robo-calls which have been inundating as many as 50 districts nationwide. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has the best explanation, so I might as well just repeat most of it here.
Most of the call’s script is a fairly standard attack robocall, a series of Republican talking points aimed at the Democratic congressional in a particular district. Nothing particularly noteworthy. The key is the introduction. The lead into the call starts with the speaker saying ‘I’m calling with information about’ Dem candidate X. Then there’s a short pause.
At this point, you know it’s an annoying robocall, so a lot of people just hang up. If you hang up then, you think it’s a call from the Democratic candidate.
Second, the repetition. And this part is the key. If you don’t listen through the whole message, the machine keeps calling you back, often well in excess of half a dozen times with the same call. It only stops if you listen all the way through.
As you can imagine, that’s driving a lot of people through the roof.
In other words, the Republicans behind the calls win either way. If you keep hanging up, you think you’re being harassed by the campaign of the local Democratic House candidate. If you give up and listen all the way through, you hear the political attack. The true source of the call, the NRCC, the GOP House campaign committee, is only revealed at the end of the call.
(Federal regulations dictate calls be identified at the top of the call.)
Third, and for this there is as yet only anecdotal evidence, many of the calls seem to be going out overnight or during, say, a major sporting event in the given district.
These sorts of operations are supposed to glide under the radar, having maximum impact with minimal press attention.
And that’s pretty much how it worked.
People only started catching on mid-late last week as Democratic campaign after campaign started fielding complaints from voters about robocalls their campaigns weren’t even making. Even then, individual campaigns dealt with it mainly on their own. Only over the weekend did different people start putting the puzzle together.
It’s impossible to say how many voters out there are pissed off because they think they’re being phone-stalked by the local Democratic candidate. And there’s no way to tell just what the effect will be at the ballot box. But the intention is clear: suppress the Democratic vote by harassing voters with repetitive phone calls and deceiving them about who it is that’s calling them.
Remember, this is the same crew that pulled a not dissimilar phone scheme in 2002 which resulted in multiple felony convictions. This time they’ve just taken it nationwide. This is their strategy.
This is a big story that’s only gotten minimal coverage in the press, when it should have generated above-the-fold headlines. The NRCC doesn’t care that this is dishonest. They don’t care that this undermines our democracy. Apparently, they don’t even care that this is illegal.
I understand why some people still vote Republican, but for the life of me I can’t understand how they can do so with pride.
Just look at the imbecile rethugs that comment here, that’s all the understanding you need.
Republicans lie, cheat and steal elections.
It rains in Washington.
Rumsfeld is incompetent.
Water is wet.
Cheney shoots people.
I’ve said it 1000 times. Until we stoop as low as they do, we’ll loooooose. I hope that Dems finally understand that the GOP will lie, cheat, steal, murder, OUT CIA agents, whatever they have to do to win. We should do the same.
Okay I was just kidding about the murder and CIA agent thing. Even I won’t stoop that low. But it’s clear from comments made by the righties that they will. For instance Ann Coulter says liberals should be executed. And we know about the Bush regime’s outing of CIA agents. Since those things would be harmful to our country no matter who did them, I am against using those tactics to beat the righties. We have to hang on to SOME moral values even if the righties won’t. But the rest should be fair game. We should plan on our own robo-calls, push polls and Election 2000 Florida – style voting system if we’re going to win.
By the way, the DNC is suing the GOP over the latest robo-calls so like we saw this year, the GOP assholes behind this will be going to jail, just like the GOP assholes who did it in New Hampshire did.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/06/109-congress/
109 reasons to replacethe 109th Congress…
Looks like Michael Kinsley (isn’t he a hero of Goldie?) has it right:
“What will a Democratic House of Representatives under Speaker Nancy Pelosi be like? The Republicans have been painting an unattractive portrait of Democrats roasting young children on a spit in the Capitol rotunda and whatnot. Hoping for a more encouraging view, I picked up “A New Direction for America,” a 31-page manifesto released to little acclaim by House Democrats in June. By all means, read it. But do me a favor and vote first. …
Apparently and unfortunately, President Bush is right that the Democrats have no “plan for victory.” (Neither does he, of course. Nor, for that matter, do I. But I don’t claim to have one. And I didn’t start it.) For national security in general, the Democrats’ plan is so according-to-type that you cringe with embarrassment: It’s mostly about new cash benefits for veterans. Regarding Iraq specifically, the Democrats’ plan has two parts. First, they want Iraqis to “assum[e] primary responsibility for securing and governing their country.” Then they want “responsible redeployment” (great euphemism) of American forces.
Older readers may recognize this formula. It’s Vietnamization—the Nixon-Kissinger plan for extracting us from a previous mistake. But Vietnamization was not a plan for victory. It was a plan for what was called “peace with honor” and is now known as “defeat.””
http://www.slate.com/id/2153062/fr/rss/
When donk identify the moonbats for what they are, even clueless has to take notice. We the neocons already knew this about moonbats. Now introspective ones finally ADMIT IT ON ELECTION DAT!
When you read more on Kinsley, all you moonbats suggest are plans for the standard moonbat asset redistributions to special-interest groups and selected victim classes. Feed the base?
Remember, it’s ELECTION DAT, so stick it to the NRCC and get out there and vote for Democrats.
I realize clueless won’t read Slate eventhough is moonbat in nature, and Kinsley wrote in Slate, why won’t the moonbats identify new revenue sources for all of their new programs? Taxing the rich gonna do the job?
Again selective use of the NYT Goldie?
In most midterm elections, an out-of-power party picking up, say, 14 seats in the House and five seats in the Senate could call it a pretty good night.
But for Democrats in 2006, that showing would mean coming up one seat shy of taking control of both the Senate and the House. And it would probably be branded a loss — in the case of the House, a big one.
For a combination of reasons — increasingly bullish prognostications by independent handicappers, galloping optimism by Democratic leaders and bloggers, and polls that promise a Democratic blowout — expectations for the party have soared into the stratosphere. Democrats are widely expected to take the House, and by a significant margin, and perhaps the Senate as well, while capturing a majority of governorships and legislatures.
These expectations may well be overheated. Polls over the weekend suggested that the contest was tightening, and some prognosticators on Monday were scaling back their predictions, if ever so slightly. (Charlie Cook, the analyst who is one of Washington’s chief setters of expectations, said in an e-mail message on Monday that he was dropping the words “possibly more” from his House prediction of “20-35, possibly more.”)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11.....38;emc=rss
Imagine if you guys DON’T win? Moonbats will go apoplexic with finger pointing and gnashing of teeth!
Even the British are scared of a moonbat win. Free Trade agreements abrogated by moonbats!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2440737,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=World
Too bad the HA moonbats don’t read. Goldie never posts from Haaretz or Jerusalem Post. Otherwise some of you critical thinkers (a moonbat crtiically thinking?) would question some of your moonbat party positions.
So if the Republicans are sooooo good and sooooo nice and soooo angelic. Why the fuck do they need to stoop to election fraud?
Why are they calling democrats and telling them that they’re polling places have changed? Why are they calling democrats and warning them that if they show up to vote they could be arrested for a variety of things such as unpaid child support, voting in the wrong place, etc.
These Republicans will be found and will be sent to jail for their illegal and immoral actions.
Republicans, the party of morality. BULLSHIT. They are all lying, hypocritical, theives. And soon they will be convicted felons.
When moonbats get into power more illegals will arrive and then more nice people will be killed:
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/st.....id=4733912
So moonbats how do you reconcile your policies?
If moonbats win, we’ll see more of this:
http://www.nbc10.com/news/1023.....d=10101521
Why dress as a suicide bomber unless you are truly a moonbat?
If the moonbats win, coming to a location near you:
http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....;cset=true
Clueless won’t read this as it’s not MSM enough! Facts hurt his little librul mind!
Can you imagine if Nancy Pelosi becomes Sleazer of the House with San Francisco “values”, has no clue on Al Qaeda?
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11.....rials_.htm
Oops… not MSM enough for clueless. Maybe that’s why he’s clueless. The world marches on around him and he’s in his “clueless bubble”. Clueless – Bubble Boy!
If Dick Cheney and George Bush were going to go bird hunting together, but Bush looked too much like a lame duck, so he passed.
Dear Democrat Mooooooooooslims, “guvment” employee parasites, union hacks, Daddy Love, GBS, JDB, and welfare losers, If it is raining, you can vote on Wednesday!!! Relax and vote when the weather is better!!!! Illegals CANNOT VOTE!!! Border Patrol will be at EVERY poll to arrest you and bus you ass back to Mexico!!!! Democrat Felons will be arrested at the polls and your drugs and weapons will be taken. Finally, NY Jews “double” voting in NY and Miami will be “boxcarred”!!!! Best regards, JCH
How many vans did black democrats in Milwaukee destroy last night???
So if Harold Ford loses it’s racist white conservatives, if Michael Steele loses it’s racist libruls?
“According to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, if Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford loses Tuesday, you can blame it on white conservatives. On Sunday morning, as he appeared in a segment hosted by Alex Witt, Matthews chided whites for an unwillingness to vote for black politicians, contending that “blacks vote for whites,” but “whites don’t vote for blacks.” Matthews added that in states with large black populations, fear leads whites to become conservative Republicans. Matthews: “The larger the black population, where the whites are afraid historically, and in Deep South states, they tend to become very conservative Republican out of fear, whatever, of an overwhelming, or a large number of African-Americans because of the kind of culture.”
Ignored by Matthews was the willingness of white conservatives to support black statewide candidates like Maryland’s Michael Steele, Ohio’s Kenneth Blackwell, and Pennsylvania’s Lynn Swann, in this year’s elections, while white liberals will be supporting white Democratic candidates instead, demonstrating that party affiliation is the deciding factor in whether white conservatives vote for a black candidate. Notably, in Maryland’s Senate primary, Democratic voters rejected black Democratic candidate Kweisi Mfume, a former Congressman, in favor of white candidate and Congressman Benjamin Cardin during their party’s primary, while the Republican nominee, Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, is black.”
Osama is rooting for the GOP. After all, the Bush regime has proven to be the best terrorist recruitment tool Osama has.
WOS – I got more important things to do today than deal with child like you. I’m attending to adult business today: voting.
“I’ve said it 1000 times. Until we stoop as low as they do, we’ll loooooose. I hope that Dems finally understand that the GOP will lie, cheat, steal, murder, OUT CIA agents, whatever they have to do to win. We should do the same.”
Commentby RightEqualsStupid— 11/7/06@ 4:46 am
This election seems the perfect time to test your position. The Republicans have pulled out all the stops on this in order to hold onto control of the House and keep us from making gains in the Senate.
They’ve lied, cheated, used every method available to suppress the vote, violated federal and state laws and generally outdone themselves as to how low they can manage to go in the name of “win at all costs”.
While there have been a few isolated exceptions, primarily carried out by individuals with what could be described as an “excess of zeal”, we’ve run an amazingly clean, honest campaign.
If, as I suspect, we win control of the House and make substantial gains in the Senate, then my position, that honest and ethical campaigning is the way to go and is in the long-term best interest of the Democrats will be vindicated. The voters will have spoken and said, in no uncertain terms, that character and ethics matter.
But, if the Republicans do manage to hold onto control of the House, then you may have a point, even if I will still believe that ethics are more important than victory.
If we take control of the House, the last thing we want to do is to emulate the tactics of the folks that lost. At that point, it would not only be unethical and morally wrong, it would be stupid.
We’ve run a clean, ethical campaign and I think that the Democrats will gain control of the House this election using honest campaining. That is how I define a “win”.
You seem to think that the dishonest and unethical methods that the Republicans are using will allow them to retain control of the House. That would be a win for them.
Care to put a small wager on who wins control of the House of Representatives? Say, $100 to the charity of the winner’s choice? Mine would be the Northwest Lions Club Sight and Hearing Foundation. I’m not much of a gambler, but I think this one is a sure bet.
Honesty and ethics is the way to win long-term.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” – P. T. Barnam (often attributed to Lincoln)
To say the DEM’s don’t pull campaign shenanigans is laughable. Any response that uses that as a basis for their argument loses all credibility with me. Both sides do it, period. If you want to speak to specifics, then do so and move on.