Posted on 11/21/2007 7:07:01 AM PST by JRochelle
I thought that I was going to have a nice quiet Thanksgiving. Perhaps not.
Erick Erickson at Redstate (disclosure I too contribute to Redstate) has uncovered some more information on the Mitt Romney phone scandal. Leon Wolf, another Redstate contributor who today endorsed Mitt Romney, also pointed out that this happened previously (described then) when Leon was on the Brownback campaign.
The basic facts are that a Romney staffer, Marshan Roth contacted the Salt Lake Tribune, identified herself as "leaning towards Romney", and told her story:
Marshan Roth, of Fairfield, Iowa, got a call on Wednesday night. It started out like a regular poll, she says, but then asked positive questions about Sen. John McCain and delved into disparaging things about Romney. She was asked whether she knew that Mormons have ‘baptized thousands of dead people’ and that the Book of Mormon was more important than the Bible to Mormons. ‘It was sick. It really was. It made me just furious,’ says Roth, who is leaning toward backing Romney. ‘If you didn’t know enough about McCain, you’d think he was the white knight coming in on his charger saving the world and that Mitt Romney was tantamount to the devil
Erick points out that Roth receives $500/month from the Romney campaign.
Similarly, Rose Kramer, another Romney staffer who describes herself as "a supporter," told a McClatchy reporter her story:
Rose Kramer was at her Dubuque, Iowa, home, waiting for the TV show ‘House’ to start at 8 p.m. Tuesday when a pollster called and started asking her about John McCain. After a few polite questions, the caller started saying unflattering things about Mitt Romney. Kramer, a Romney supporter, got so angry that she missed the opening of her show. ‘I was still ranting at my husband,’ she said.
Rose isn’t just a supporter. She is a staffer, making $1,000/month. She is also a co-chair of Romney’s Iowa Faith & Values Steering Committee.
It doesn’t stop there. Rose told a different story to Real Clear Politics:
Rose Kramer, an Iowa voter who backs Romney, told Politics Nation the call, which she received around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, began with typical screening questions on whether she planned to caucus and if she had caucused before. After an initial ballot test — on which she says Romney’s name was listed last — the pollster offered five questions about John McCain, all of which she characterized as ‘glowing.’ Kramer said she asked the caller whether he was working for a campaign; he said no, his was an independent research group.
First, when Rose talked to McClatchy, it was Tuesday 8pm. With Real Clear Politics, it was 8:30 on Wednesday. She lied to one of the reporters.
Second, in both (all three?) cases, the Romney staffers highlighted the McCain questions. It seems to me that the Romney campaign was deliberately pushing the McCain angle.
Third, either the staffers didn’t disclose their relationship to the reporters or the reporters didn’t disclose it in their stories. My money is on the staffers, something that, as Leon pointed out before, Romney consultants in Iowa have done in the past.
This raises several questions:
First, is there any evidence that this poll contacted anyone in Iowa who was not a Romney staffer or supporter? If not, is there any evidence that the calls actually occurred? Could this be a story manufactured by the Romney campaign? After all, Western Wats only seems to talk through another Romney official, Justin Hart.
Second, were they directed by either Boston or Des Moines to deliver these messages? If so, were they told to hide their relationship with the Romney campaign?
Is Romney auditioning for FEMA Administrator?
UPDATE: Jonathan Martin had reported a non-Romney supporting phone call recipient.
Perhaps the attackers were dislexic?
How many times can Romney use this excuse? When his campaign came out against Rush Limbaugh in response to Harry Reid's phony soldier smear, it was blamed on the spokesperson -- even though two different spokespeople on two different days slammed Libaugh.
When the anonymous "PhonyFred" site came out and was traced back to Romney's agent in South Carolina, it was blamed on a rogue staffer (even though Romney hired reportedly the sleaziest operative in SC who has a reputation for launching just such anonymous attacks).
When Weyrich came out and claimed that the NRLC was paid to endorse Thompson, it was claimed that Weyrich is a private citizen (even though Romney did nothing to distance himself from the claim).
Some executive Romney is turning out to be -- with him, apparently the buck stops over there.
So let’s be clear. Roth and Kramer, both Romney staffers, told the Romney campaign that they got the calls on Tuesday, but they told the press Wednesday. Kramer has told both stories.
One of these is false.
“Perhaps not. But, we do know that several Romney staffers ran to the media, and lied through their teeth. “Leaning toward Romney,” lol. The “victim” scam is something I’d expect from a liberal, and that does not help Mitt Romney, with his shakey record on core conservative issues. Liberal is as liberal does, I guess.”
Excellent view. I’m not about to say this a grand conspiracy, but the underlinging story doesn’t sound good.
This is another misrepresentation (at least). Marshan Roth is not some politically clueless letter-stuffer -- she's the County Chair of the Jefferson County GOP (or at least was as of March 2007.
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/ia08/2ndcd08.html
And Rose Kramer is also not a low-level clueless envelope-stuffer — she’s the co-chair of the Romney For President Iowa Faith And Values Steering Committee Chairs!
It’s quite interesting that Justin Hart pretends not to know that, given that he was on that committee until he resigned.
http://www.mittromney.com/News/Press-Releases/IA_Faith_And_Values
Nope.
This is HUGH.
I'm series.
Ellery, I LOVE you for your research!
When I re-read the article, I saw that the author had already tracked down Rose’s position...so I was merely redundant with that one. :)
Well, I imagine the Romney campaign and all its shills will be extra thankful tomorrow for Joran van der Sloot. But I think it will just put off the inevitable.
From Justin Hart:
"Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated"
I knew it would happen when I pulled the trigger. I knew that Soren, Dotan, Flap and others would try to make hay out of the act. And they did. They did so for propaganda. They did so with a bit of vitriol. They did so without asking me to clarify why.
First know this, I am still very much here and will be blogging non-stop for Mitt. All I did was simply remove my name from the Faith and Values Steering Committee so that Soren, Dotan, Flap and others could not use it as a weapon against me.
You see again and again, they have implied that my efforts were campaign sanctioned, that I was an "agent of the Romney campaign" and a "campaign official". All of this was hyperbole to fashion clubs against Romney and belittle my hard hitting specifics negating all the silliness out there. So, now they used my self removal to imply:
1. I worked for the campaign (false)
2. I resigned because of the current controversy (false)
3. The Romney campaign kicked me out (false)
4. I'm part of some Romney cabal secretly positioning my candidate through deceit to take over the world (hilarious)
------
So, opponents made up yet another story about the Romney campaign and you, being eager to put out anything negative on Romney, jumped at the chance to smear him with this email even though you had no idea if what you were posting had any basis in fact. No fact checking, just a rush to smear. If that's what you have to do to get your guy elected, is it worth it?
You say you won't vote for a RINO but you will throw ethics to the four winds to get a guy you will vote for. If he's such a wonderful candidate, why do you have to spend so much time and effort belittling his opponents? Maybe your familiar with the scripture "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26) Is your candidate worth it?
Smear him with what e-mail?
You don’t make any sense.
Are you talking about this FAKE e-mail that I posted on another thread?
NOTE: ITS A FAKE.
As most of you probably read in today’s National Review , our campaign has been tied to the anti-Mormom calls made here in Iowa attacking Gov. Romney for his faith. It appears our campaign’s chief strategist, who we have paid nearly $800,000 in fees, is behind the calls.
Our office has been swarmed with hundreds of phone calls since the National Review, the most respected national conservative publication, broke the story. Many Iowans are upset that our own campaign would smear our own candidate and Mormons and try to tie it to another campaign.
Because we were not able to answer all your phone calls, we’d like to issue a sincere apology. Our campaign believes that we must say and do anything to win — which sometimes gets us into trouble.
It has been a tough couple of months, as our staff has been under intense scrutiny because of our aggressiveness.
1. You probably read in the Washington Times that just 5 days ago, our top social conservative liaison, Paul Weyrich, accused National Right to Life of being bribed by the Fred Thompson campaign.
2. You probably read in the Washington Post about our consultants in South Carolina who made an offensive, anonymous website about Fred Thompson.
3. You probably heard from the Associated Press (AP) about how our campaign employed a director of operations who made fake police badges and would pull reporters over .
4. You probably read in The Hill, Washington’s leading newspaper, that our former Finance Co-Chairman, who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for our campaign, has been sued for severe child abuse, specifically sexual abuse .
5. You probably read in the Boston Globe about another one of our chief fundraisers who defrauded companies by $32 Million Dollars.
6. You probably heard that one of our top Homosexual supporters, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, will most likely not run for re-election. Luckily, we have found new support in the Homosexual Community by the endorsement of the Gay and Lesbian Log Cabin Republicans. You can view the endorsement by the Homosexual Gay and Lesbian Republican Group Here .
While we do not have the time to explain each and every of these offenses, including the newest one, we can assure you, our valued supporters, that the Team Romney campaign is 100% committed to saying anything and using any campaign tactics to win.
To Victory,
Iowa Team Romney
I have said all along that I don’t think Romney knew about this. He isn’t that dumb.
I suspect a rouge staffer or a crazy supporter.
If its not, I will take back everything I said!
Well, after being fooled by Romney on the pro-life issue, I’ve become jaded where his methodology is exposed. I happen to believe this is a failed attempt to prepare the country for the Mitt speech to wall off his Bishop status in Mormonism, to set up the ‘questioning my religion is bigotry’ ploy. YES ploy. This man is sleazy like a clinton, only he has a nicer family. This revelation was orchestrated to be exploited during the Thanksgiving holidays. It will be interesting to see if the Romney speech is still given since most of the nation is far behind the curve ... FR is usually way ahead of the general populace in exposing the truth. If the mainstream media doesn’t focus in on the duplicitous nature of this revelation, look for the speech to soon ‘appear’.
Update:
Blogger in contact with Western Wats resigns from Romney campaign
November 21, 2007 – 2:52 pm
Justin Hart has notified me that he has resigned from his position as a Vice Chair of the Romney campaign’s Faith and Values Steering Committee after I challenged himfor not disclosing that he was an official in the Romney campaign.
Justin had been, until today, the only person who Western Wats would speak with. This afternoon Liz Mair wrote about a discussion she had with Jeffery Welch, a senior Western Wats executive and Romney donor.
He appears to have resigned soon after contacting the Romney Iowa staffers who the Romney campaign has now admitted to misrepresenting to the press.
125 posted on 11/21/2007 12:11:39 PM PST by JRochelle (Thanks to RomneyCare, abortions in MA are at the reduced price of only $50.00!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 124 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
Email, press release, Internet rumor, call it what you like. It was false, as evidenced by what I posted prior to this posting. Now how about addressing my question in post 152? If you have to abandon principle and ethics in order to get your guy on the ballot, how good of a candidate could he really be?
Since they were leaning towards Romney, that is why they were willing to talk to the media after relating this to their bosses. If they had said they worked for the Romney campaign, rather than honestly admitting that they were “leaning” in that direction—just not stating the full extent of their support as workers for Romney—do you believe that the main stream media would have been at all interested in hearing what they had to say? I doubt it.
What makes us believe that this push polling didn’t happen, just because two Romney sympathizers reported their experience. If an individual who was polled was leaning towards supporting McCain, would we expect them to come out and complain to the media about the way the poll was being conducted, since it was describing McCain in such glowing terms as opposed to what it had to say about Romney? My guess would be probably not.
Yes, this report of push polling might have been much more credible, if it had come from someone undeniably disinterested in either candidate. But my guess would be that only Romney sympathizers of whatever degree would be the ones to be concerned about the direction this push poll was taking.
If it had been an anti-Hillary push poll, i’d expect we’d be hearing from many “disinterested” contacted parties, who would certainly be reported as such in the MSM, rather than admitting any degree of “interest” on their part in seeing Hillary crowned queen.
“So far, Romney has pointed the finger at McCain and had his campaign manager say it wasn’t himself nor his supporters.”
Don’t you recall what McCain’s mother had to say last week about Romney and the Mormons, and afterwards McCain tried to smoothe things over by trying to make the case that his mother really didn’t harbor any ill will towards either. That’s my guess as to why the Romney camp pointed the finger at the McCain camp for this push polling.
No surprise........
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