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A Troll Through The Muck

 

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For more than a month, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has tried to distance himself from a secretive political group, financed by several of his campaign donors, that has been bombarding voters with "robo-calls" attacking his Republican campaign rivals. The automated calls—up to one million have been made in South Carolina alone—allege that John McCain wants to conduct research on "unborn babies" and that Mitt Romney set up "sanctuary cities for illegal aliens." "I wish they would stop," Huckabee said to reporters when asked about the calls last week.

While publicly decrying the attacks, however, Huckabee has done nothing else to stop them. In fact, Patrick Davis, executive director of Common Sense Issues, the group behind the calls, told NEWSWEEK that he's had no contact at all with the Huckabee campaign. Davis said his group is "helping to define the issues" and that it may launch a new wave of robo-calls during the run-up to contests in Florida and key Super Tuesday states. Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart says federal election laws bar the campaign from telling Davis directly to stop. "It's a violation to coordinate with them," she said. Not so, said Kenneth Gross, a top federal election lawyer who is unaffiliated with any campaign. "Telling somebody not to do something does not constitute coordination," he said. "I don't see why they couldn't send a missive that says, 'We don't want these calls to continue'.''

Common Sense Issues' campaign isn't the only attack under scrutiny. An Oregon pollster who organized a pro-McCain phone survey has been subpoenaed by the New Hampshire attorney general's office, which wants to know who ordered the survey. According to a script obtained by an Oregon TV station, the pollsters asked voters whether their views would be affected if they knew Romney "got the Mormon Church" to help him avoid the Vietnam War; by contrast, the poll noted that McCain's son, a Marine, is serving in Iraq. (Operators are instructed to pronounce it "eye-rack.") The pollster, Bob Moore, told NEWSWEEK that he plans to fight the subpoena and keep his client secret. He insists his phone poll was a legitimate exercise in "message testing."

© 2008

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: hoopes_az @ 01/22/2008 2:06:21 PM

    Sounds like he heard you loud and clear. Whatever takes...there is no lie too little or too big for Huckabee. Way to stand up for your moral beliefs Huck. What an example. Truly, the voice of reason.

  • Posted By: hoopes_az @ 01/22/2008 2:02:53 PM

    Seems astonishing to me that a Dem would show up and talk about how the Republicans play dirty in campaigns given the current environment between Obama and Clinton. That is the filthiest of campaigns and it is likely to leave them both scarred and hobbled come the general election.

  • Posted By: hoopes_az @ 01/22/2008 2:00:15 PM

    Huckabee "wishes" the calls would stop just like he "wishes" the economy would be better, or how he "wishes" America would be safer; or how he "wishes" illegal immigration would stop.

    We need a president who, in addition to wishing for results, can actually make things happens. He's either incompetent to the point that he honestly doesn't know how to stop the calls, or he's lying through his teeth. I tend to think it is the latter, but either answer is really unacceptable.

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