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The New Hampshire Union Leader, a newspaper even Ann Coulter couldn’t call the liberal media, says:
Manchester police have alerted the U.S. Justice Department to an Election Day operation allegedly ordered by a Republican telemarketing dealer that jammed get-out-the-vote phone banks operated by the city’s firefighters union and the state Democratic Party.What’s this country coming to, that the GOP is hiring their dirty tricks done, rather than doing the job themselves?Lt. Fred Roach of the city’s detective bureau said this week Idaho-based telemarketing firm Milo Enterprises was hired by GOP Marketplace of Alexandria, Va., to make repeated hang-up calls to a group of New Hampshire phone banks on Nov. 5.
If the current USJD (DOJ?) does anything about this, I will be astonished. Dirty tricks are only worthy of investigation when Democrats do them, remember? Plus, if they had to investigate every campaign tactic of dubious legality perpetrated by GOPpies in the name of "we really own the country anyway, so anything we do to get elected is really all right," they'd be up to their asses in alligators damn quick.
Not to mention other reptiles (Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Cheney...).
Conservative responders, check one:
[ ] "The people who didn't vote were probably illegally registered anyway!"
[ ] "Why are you worrying about this when there's an Orange Alert on?"
[ ] "They weren't blocking that phone bank, they were trying to let people know about exciting new products and services. Are you against free trade, you damn commie?"
[ ] "Yeah, but Bill Clinton slept with an intern!"
Oh, I almost forgot:
[ ] "'The *Union* Leader,' huh? Yeah, like they're not biased."
I gather that the largest class of people who didn't get to vote because of this were elderly New Hampshire retirees.
Doncha just love it when they're caught with their jammy bottoms down? And by their own folk, too.
Jane
Talking Points had a teaser on this story last week and and a longer article today (which I haven't had a chance to read yet -- I've been looking at houses all over Seattle)
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/feb0302.html#020903221pm
MKK
I'd be happier about this coming to light if I thought it would *change* anything. I don't think the GOP machine has a sense of shame.
It's outsourcing. Privatizing. The RNC is doing to its own operations what they want to do with the federal government.
Now: if only the RNC were small enough to drown in a bathtub...
--k.: Not a problem. Invite 'em to dinner and drown 'em one at a time. You can get them into the bathroom by telling 'em about your family tradition, the pre-meal bap . . . .
Um, I'm sorry. Only kidding. I'll stop right there. That was uncalled for. Really, just fooling around.
Maybe it's just me (or a .uk perspective), but I find the idea of telephoning people to try to get them to vote exactly as disgusting as any other sort of cold-call telesales.
Stefan, don't worry. Homeland Security will visit and check you out, but I'm sure they won't find anything, will they? You won't mind if they spray luminol over every inch of your house, dig through all your plants, dissect your cat (might be hiding wmd inside hir), and interrogate your children into catatonia, would you?
You would? Then you must be hiding something.
"[Firefighters' union head] Clayton said the firefighters don92t ask riders their party affiliation. He noted many union members are Republicans and the state firefighters union backed Republican Craig Benson for governor."
These were people offering rides to the polling place to those who couldn't otherwise get there. While it's true that the firefighters were backing Benson for governor, they were also backing Shaheen (popular two-term governor) against Sununu (son of George I's chief of staff) in the race for US Senate. Sununu won.
Roger -- to emphasize Jim's point, consider the rotten public transportation (virtually nonexistent in NH), the weather (as noted here recently) and the generally weaker turnout for non-presidential elections in this country. Yes, this last is a disgrace; yes, the Montenegrin solution of invalidating elections with low participation is attractive; no, I don't think there's a grand solution that could be implemented in this country, although the thought of the Republicans having to scramble to get out enough votes to legitimately turn Democrats out of office (when the Republicans have largely opposed measures to make voting easier) is delightful.
It's also unclear from the story how cold the calling was. In this country you have to register in order to vote; all you need to do to get calls from telemarketers is be slightly less inconspicuous to the economy than Thoreau in his cabin.
The person who did this must live in a neighbothood like mine. Out here they hire out for everything except breathing.
I'll bet the person who contracted for the dirty tricks also has a truckload of illegal aliens come put up Christmas decorations and may even have subcontracted the begetting of children.
Suburban values: Don't get dirty; hire someone else to.
Having worked a few precincts myself, the parties often assemble a calling list of folks known to need transportation.
On the other hand, since the firm hired to do this came from Idaho, it's good to see the GOP providing paying work for their Aryan Brotherhood for a change...
Ain't apologizing for the GOP's antics in NH: discouraging voters is wrong, but this piece in the Phoenix while illustrating the good ways the Dems get out the vote, also shows that they're not above the same kind of behavior when they're in the pinch—and in the very same state.
Maybe it's a New Hampshire thing....