Listen my appearance on Hugh Hewitt last night here.
In the past 12 hours I have had to deal with and debunk yet one more crazy theory that Romney is really behind all this push polling.
After RedState publishes their non-apology, non-recanted post about yesterday’s egregious “push poll” theory, Erick Erickson couldn’t help but delve once more into the fever swamp and pull out a self-admitted “off-the-wall theory”, that only Romney people are the ones complaining about the poll. On top of this Soren Dayton implies that Romney planted the people who reacted negatively to the Mormon poll from his own paid staffers.
You see, in a few press accounts, Marshan Roth and Rose Kramer told their stories of receiving the anti-Mormon polls. But wait! ALERT! Roth and Kramer have been paid by the Romney campaign. It seems they might be staffers! It’s true.
So, I pull out my arsenal of exclusive tools and skills (my forefinger, a phone and a brain) and I look up said Marshan and Rose and find them at home (I woke them both up, sorry ladies).
You see, I conjured up my own theory as I read the Erick’s post. I’m thinking these ladies actually received the bad polls, called their local Romney office (which they know well) and told their stories. The Romney office made a note of it. When the press comes calling they point them to Marshan and Rose.
Shocker! I was right. Marshan and Rose, who are both seemingly retired, roused enough to confirm my story.
Please remove your tinfoil hats! There will be no more conspiracy theories!
UPDATE: Lots of complaints now. “Why didn’t they reveal their status with the campaign?” I asked Marshan that last night. Her reply: “What? Why? What do you mean? Why do they want to know that?” Folks, these are non-political septuagenarians. They just were answering a phone call and telling their story to someone in the press. My guess is they went to Ames and they help out at the local office stuffing letters.
November 21st, 2007 at 1:50 am
Poisoning the Well…
After RedState publishes their non-apology, non-recanted post about yesterday’s egregious “push poll†theory, Erick Erickson couldn’t help but delve once more into the fever swamp and pull out a self-admitted “crazy theoryâ€, that Romney planted the people who reacted negatively to the Mormon poll from his own paid staffers.
November 21st, 2007 at 1:56 am
#1 – Sampo, please go away.
And Justin, like I posted on a separate thread, thank you for doing other people’s jobs for them. With the advent of the internet and blogging, any idiot can post a blog entry claiming anything they want. And other idiots (read Sampo) then come up with these hair-brained schemes linking to these invalid claims to try and further their own wacked agendas. I for one, am getting tired of reading all this crap about people trying to villify Romney. It is getting to be tiresome to see one more bogus rumor debunked by someone such as yourself who is willing to do a tiny bit of research to verify their claims. Again, thanks for being responsible Justin.
November 21st, 2007 at 2:00 am
Nah, I’m not going anywhere. Might it have something to do with the fact that Slick Willard shamelessly disingenuously and hypocritically blamed the anonymity of pushpollgate on McCain-Feingold? You-bet-cha.
November 21st, 2007 at 2:05 am
Sampo, reading comprehension please. This is not “poisoning the well.”
I’m sure you have not noticed that Justin has actually made the phone calls and talked to the key people involved with this. He has established some facts.
You and those sites are all getting too carried away attempting to smear Romney with his own smearing. You and the others are very near Ron Paul conspiracy levels with all this.
November 21st, 2007 at 2:08 am
Will this _non-story_ every go away?
Less then 20 calls in two states and as far as I know no tape of any of them, and clearly not directly related to anyone’s campaign too boot and yet all this wasted back and forth about it.
November 21st, 2007 at 2:10 am
Yes, McCain-Feingold deserves some blame for all this. McCain-Feingold deserves blame for a lot of other things.
Why do you defend John McCain with his worst piece of legislation? You want to debate McCain-Feingold? Bring it on..
McCain-Feingold is the reason why John McCain won’t / can’t be elected. McCain-Feingold is the reason why so many Republicans dislike the man.
McCain-Feingold is a failure at most every level that it tried to do. People now just hide behind covert 529′s thanks to McCain-Feingold.
Wake up & smell the coffee there Sampo, McCain-Feingold is a total disaster..
November 21st, 2007 at 2:15 am
cwpete, you must know who was responsible for the push poll in 2000 that accused McCain’s daughter of being a bastard. that was around BEFORE McCain-Feingold, but still during the time Mitt Romney was firmly to the LEFT of McCain-Fiengold in his idea of CFR.
So tell us cwpete, who did it?
November 21st, 2007 at 2:29 am
Sampo,
I don’t know who smeared John McCain in 2000. I did not buy those stories when they came out anyway.
You are avoiding my question regarding the merits of McCain-Feingold. Since McCain-Feingold, 529′s abound. You can’t see how that can be a problems for smears such as what happened to McCain in 2000? Or what is happening to Romney now?
Again, are you still defending McCain-Feingold?
November 21st, 2007 at 2:44 am
Sampo,
Let’s be clear on one other thing, John McCain did not lose SC as a result of any push poll smear, he lost SC and the nomination in my opinion, by describing in a speech Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance.” This was construed as an attack against people of faith.
That is what did him in. That push poll probably would have backfired on Bush if McCain hand not made those comments.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:04 am
You are doing a great job Justin.
The next President will owe you a big debt of gratitude.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:16 am
It’s reached a point where people have made up their minds and more commentary one way or the other is just that.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:38 am
I haven’t made up my mind…. I figure this will play out and we’ll find out at some point. I think most of us have to be in that camp.
November 21st, 2007 at 6:18 am
Republicans should face it Romney and Rudy are the worst candidates we could put up against the Dems. McCain or Thompson are much better candidates.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:50 am
Good grief. I find it increasingly remarkable that, for at least some Romney devotees, it is offensive, despicable, and potentially a “hate crime” to say anything regarding Mitt and his religion short of glowing songs of praise. The “offensive” language described so far is nothing new. I have yet to see mention of any content that goes beyond the factual. Something tells me if we could see the actual scripts, the misdiagnosed “push polls” included negative statements about McCain and positive statements about Romney.
But as we’ve seen here often, some of Romney’s acolytes take umbrage when their candidate is not deified in the same breath that his opponents are demonized.
May the Great Granite State AG subpoena us all into more luminous insight!
November 21st, 2007 at 12:39 pm
What strikes me is how little in the way of hard facts have been proffered by the Tin Foil Hat crowd. Unless you can find it on the Internet they are not interested. The Salt Lake Tribune, historically full of animus for Mormons, actually did some spade work by interviewing people at Western Wats and found
“The chief executive officer and other executives are not Mormon.. Moreover,” not one board member is Mormon,” “That’s a connection that just isn’t there,” Western Wats Mormon founders have had no interest in the firm since 2004.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7512821
November 21st, 2007 at 1:36 pm
[...] race42008.com, Sam Stein, scandal, talking points memo, tpm electioncentral While Justin Hart continues to insist that the push-poll scandal is an non-story, stories abound. This, friends and well-wishers, is how not to manage a crisis. Note how the [...]
November 21st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Full disclosure: the poster (Giliad Dolan) above is a dedicated anyone-but-Romney blogger.
He is among the virulent Anti- Mormons who may actually have funded the push poll. Ask Qui bono or who has the most to gain and who the least to gain form the push poll? The only candidates are anti-Mormons and/ or Kos Kids have the most to gain and least to loose.
Full discloser The poster (Giliad Dolan) above is a dedicated anyone-but-Romney blogger.
He is among the virulant Anit- Mormons who may actually have funded the push poll.
November 21st, 2007 at 4:22 pm
This is from Gilad’s wordpress blog (http://dotan.wordpress.com/willard-milton-romney/):
NOTA: You will find nothing about Mormons, Mormonism, or about Romney’s alleged Mormonism in this web log. Nothing. Not a single word. Nor will you find a single link. And we summarily delete all comments and trackbacks that admit of Mormonism as a theme or an issue.We have nothing but the deepest and profoundest respect for the Mormon tradition. So Romney’s alleged Mormonism is simply not an issue for us. Our issues are with Romney, Romney the person, Romney the candidate, and not with Romney’s faith tradition.
yours &c.
gilad dotan, phd
/quote
He may be anti-Romney, as many of us are, but he is not anti-Mormon.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Rich,
Why attack someone who sees things a lot differently than you. I have never read anything on Dotan’s blog that would give him the “anti-Mormon” label. He doesn’t like Romney, but that is not a reason to label him as anti-Mormon. Heck, I don’t like Romney, and I have no problem with his religion.