{"id":8968,"date":"2006-11-06T08:38:19","date_gmt":"2006-11-06T13:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8968.html"},"modified":"2006-11-06T08:38:19","modified_gmt":"2006-11-06T13:38:19","slug":"the-republicans-cowardly-robo-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-republicans-cowardly-robo-calls\/","title":{"rendered":"The Republicans’ cowardly robo-calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a line in the movie “Serenity<\/a>” in which Jayne Cobb, who’s something of a mercenary, explains a bit about his philosophy on shooting people. “Hell, I’ll kill a man in a fair fight,” Jayne said, “or if I think he’s gonna start<\/i> a fair fight.”<\/p>\n

We’d all like to think that there’s some nobility in the political process, and a fair right will produce a fair victor, but it’s important to remember that when Republicans anticipate a fair fight, they cheat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the second straight day yesterday, Democratic field offices [in New Hampshire] received dozens of phone calls and e-mails from frustrated voters upset about repeated automated phone calls they thought were coming from Democratic candidate Paul Hodes – though the calls were paid for by a Republican group instead.<\/p>\n

The National Republican Congressional Committee spent nearly $20,000 on the calls last week. Depending on the rate, that could mean more than 300,000 automated phone calls into the Second Congressional District. […]<\/p>\n

[A] spokesman for the NRCC said the automated phone calls would continue indefinitely. “The calls will continue as planned,” said Alex Burgos, a spokesman for the NRCC, the national group charged with electing Republicans to the House.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s quite a scheme. The NRCC has decided to make repeated [tag]robo-calls[\/tag] to households late in the evening or early in the morning, when they expect people to be sleeping and most annoyed by the calls. When someone answers, they’re led to believe the call is coming from Democrat Paul Hodes’ campaign: “Hello, I’m calling with information about Paul Hodes.” Most hang up, thinking that the Hodes campaign was responsible for the call. If they keep listening, they’ll hear a dishonest smear of Hodes. At the very end of the call, which few seem inclined to sit through, it’s disclosed that the NRCC is responsible for the call.<\/p>\n

Of course, practically no one gets that far. Instead, they’re left with the impression that the Hodes campaign keeps annoying their family. A letter-writer to the Monitor said she had been “bombarded by recorded election messages from Paul Hodes.” Marilyn Jewell of Concord wrote that she would be sure to vote for Bass, in part because “he doesn’t pester me to death.”<\/p>\n

In other words, the Republicans’ deceitful plan is working.
\n
\nThere are a few angles to consider here. First, the NRCC’s calls are illegal, especially in light of the fact that some of the many harassing calls are going to households on the do-not-call registry. The New Hampshire calls are already under criminal investigation, but that won’t stop them from happening anyway.<\/p>\n

Second, make no mistake, this isn’t just limited to [tag]New Hampshire[\/tag]. We know of at least five states<\/a> where this is happening, and there may be more.<\/p>\n

Third, Republicans respond by noting that Dems make robo-calls, too. That’s true, but it’s a painfully stupid argument. As Kleiman explained<\/a>, “[T]he Democrats’ calls are (1) not intended to deceive; (2) made at civilized hours; and (3) not made to numbers on the Do Not Call list.”<\/p>\n

And finally, and most importantly, as Kevin Drum noted<\/a>, let’s not forget exactly who’s responsible for this.<\/p>\n

In every election, there have always been individual wingnuts who go over the edge with desperate campaign tactics. It happens on both sides. This time, though, the desperate tactics are coming straight from the Republican central committee<\/i>. What’s more, there’s not even a hint of embarrassment. In fact, they sound pretty proud of themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The NRCC is dishonest, dishonorable, and disgusting. They are shamelessly and intentionally destroying politics in the United States. They are cowards who, faced with a fair right, feel the need to cheat.<\/p>\n

And if Americans fail to do their part tomorrow, they’ll win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a line in the movie “Serenity” in which Jayne Cobb, who’s something of a mercenary, explains a bit about his philosophy on shooting people. “Hell, I’ll kill a man in a fair fight,” Jayne said, “or if I think he’s gonna start a fair fight.” We’d all like to think that there’s some nobility […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}