Posted on 01/20/2012 6:00:59 PM PST by greyfoxx39
Here we go again … as if the final 24 hours of the 2012 South Carolina Republican presidential primary haven’t been sufficiently bizarre, into the fray at the last minute jumped U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint.
Well … Jim DeMint circa 2007.
A recorded phone message featuring DeMint’s 2007 endorsement of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney began burning up the phone lines in the Palmetto State late Friday – a desperate last-minute attempt by pro-Romney forces to fool people into thinking that DeMint is support their candidate on the eve of Saturday’s election.
He’s not … something the popular U.S. Senator made perfectly clear a few months ago.
While DeMint did not endorse a presidential candidate this go-round, he has spoken out enthusiastically on behalf of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul – and permitted Paul’s campaign to use his voice in its campaign materials.
Now Romney backers are using DeMint’s voice without permission to imply support for their candidate that doesn’t exist.
“Just got a robocall playing Demint’s 2007 endorsement of Romney. Desperate,” S.C. Rep. Tommy Stringer wrote on his Facebook page.
Numerous other sources confirmed to FITS that they had received the calls.
Romney – who enjoyed a double-digit lead in South Carolina earlier this week – has seen his support erode over the past few days. Meanwhile former U.S. Speaker Newt Gingrich has been enjoying a second surge in the Palmetto State.
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S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office will investigate the two-pronged email assault leveled against former U.S. Speaker Newt Gingrich on the eve of the 2012 South Carolina GOP presidential primary, FITSNews has learned.
Sources at the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) have also confirmed to us that the state’s top law enforcement agency has launched a preliminary inquiry into the matter as well.
Less than 24 hours before Palmetto State Republicans went to the polls in the pivotal “First in the South” presidential primary, Gingrich’s campaign was rocked with a pair of fake emails.
The first email took the form of a fake CNN news alert, while the second was a fake “official response” to the news alert ostensibly sent from the Gingrich campaign. The gist of both emails? That Gingrich had been accused 0f (and later acknowledged) pressuring his second wife Marianne Gingrich into have an abortion.
That allegation is not only false, Gingrich’s ex-wife never even made it- although she has alleged that the ex-Speaker asked her if he could have an “open marriage” after revealing a six-year affair with the woman who is now his current wife.
Wilson’s decision to launch the probe came after several top Gingrich supporters – including House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham – called for an investigation.
“In 2000, a dark event in our state’s history took place when a last-minute smear campaign against John McCain was launched hours before the Republican presidential primary,” Bingham said. “While there were suspicions, no one was ever brought to justice. It is happening again. Unlike last time, however, this state will not tolerate it, will investigate it and those responsible will be prosecuted.”
Bingham is referring, of course, to this infamous smear orchestrated by the consulting empire of Warren Tompkins – which is working on behalf of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the current election.
Gingrich has also said that those responsible for the attacks should be prosecuted.
“If we can find out who they are, I would urge the government to prosecute them,” Gingrich told Buzzfeed on Friday.
While the vast majority of Palmetto politicos suspect Tompkins – or his former underling Wesley Donehue (who engineered an anonymous smear campaign against former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson four years ago)- of launching the attack, a few think that the Gingrich campaign is employing a “false flag” strategy.
A “false flag” refers to a negative attack that’s deliberately launched by a campaign in an effort to generate sympathy for a particular candidate while assigning blame to one of their rivals.
Ordinarily we might be inclined to agree, but with the other disingenuous pro-Romney shenanigans taking place this election eve and the aggressiveness with which the Gingrich camp is pursuing a criminal probe into the matter, such a theory seems like a stretch.
Plus, the timing of the attack would lend itself to a legitimate attempt to hurt Gingrich.
“If you’re going to do a false-flag, you do it in sufficient time pre-election that media picks up on it and rails on it,” one veteran GOP operative tells FITS.
You, Charles Wayne CT, a die-hard Romney supporter in 2008, part of a gang that regularly flat-out LIED about Romney "endorsements"!!! One of the claims you Romney sycophants made back then was that Michael Reagan endorsed Romney! So I went to Romney's own official campaign website, and indeed saw the endorsement -- identified as an official endorsement, touted there, words of nice praise from Michael Reagan, "Romney is (such and such, nice things)." Finding it hard to believe my eyes that Michael Reagan had actually officially thrown his support to Romney, I dug deeper and found the original column from which the quoted "endorsement" was lifted, and THE VERY NEXT SENTENCE following it was: "The same could be said for Rudy Giuliani."
Pretty obviously NOT intended by Michael Reagan as any kind of endorsement, let alone an official one, but deliberately misrepresented by Romney's people to be just that.
So PU-LEEEEEEZE, Charles Wayne, have a little self respect, for crying out loud!!! Oh, yes, I know you must be scandalized at such misrepresentation!
If it IS what Newt's doing, it bothers me, and I'm not afraid to say it. But for YOU of ALL PEOPLE to pretend to be outraged --
-- that's RICH.
Foxx, ping to my post 21. CWCT is a HOOT!
Here you are, still fighting in Romney’s behalf.
Bachmann DID gush over Newt - even calls him a Renaissance Man!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8zz5myJ_hs&feature=player_embedded
Willie Mitty shot himself in the foot again...
This time he cant blame his SuperPac and whine he has no say in the matter...
its his campaign...hes the boss...
Typical lyin Willie Mitty...
Lyin, cheatin, unreliable, untrustworthy..
Thanks for the ping, Finny...I well remember the MittBots.
Thanks for the link!
Only you could object to me calling Romney wrong for claiming a DeMint endorsement he didn’t get this time.
The question is, why.
Since that is what Romney is being accused of, and therefore I am complaining about what he did, you have a bizarre interpretation of the words "fighting on Romney's behalf".
Maybe you object to my asking other people whether they think that what Romney is doing is worse than what Gingrich is doing. But asking that question clearly isn't fighting for Romney, since it pre-supposes that Romney is doing something wrong, and only asks which wrong would objectively be considered worse.
As I said, I'd be pretty upset if I endorsed someone in 2008, and got accused of doing it now. That was a sarcastic attack on people like Finny, and maybe you, who do this to people like me ALL THE TIME, but now are outraged when Romney does it. My point is it is wrong when Romney does it, and it's wrong when you do it, and when Finny does it, and when others here do it.
An endorsement in 2008 does not mean, or imply, endorsement or even support in 2012. And now that I see you all understand that clearly, I'll call you out on it when you pull that crap on me.
Good old Charles, doing what he can for Mitt, within the lines.
Well, what do you think the definition of “worse” is? If I ask whether your implication is worse than the Romney campaign’s implication, do you think that means I support your idiotic comments?
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