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David KnowlesRomney's Secret 'Push'?
It is no secret that the issue of religion is a touchy one for Mitt Romney. Many pixels have been posted, and ink spilled as to whether or not the Mormon candidate should deliver a JFK-like speech to directly address the role faith may play if he is elected president. So when the news broke that coordinated telephone calls, known as "push polling," were being made to Iowa voters disparaging Romney and his Mormon faith, the outcry was textbook outrage:
Of course, crying religious discrimination now sounds a bit odd, considering yesterday's revelations that Romney himself would not be inclined to appoint a Muslim to a cabinet-level position. But let's return to the calls. Naturally, every other GOP campaign has denied any knowledge of who was behind them. Rest assured, however, that the investigation into those responsible has indeed been undertaken, and it is the press that is leading the way.
Kudos go out to The National Review's Mark Hemingway, who, using good old-fashioned gum-shoe methods, has discovered the following:
After reading the NRO piece, the Romney campaign was fuming, and issued another statement:
"Whatever campaign is engaging in this type of awful religious bigotry as a line of political attack, it is repulsive and, to but it bluntly, un-American," Romney spokesman Matt Rhoades said. "There is no excuse for these attacks. Governor Romney is campaigning as an optimist who wants to lead the nation. These attacks are just the opposite. It's ugly and divisive."Here's Romney's direct response to the matter.
Of course, crying religious discrimination now sounds a bit odd, considering yesterday's revelations that Romney himself would not be inclined to appoint a Muslim to a cabinet-level position. But let's return to the calls. Naturally, every other GOP campaign has denied any knowledge of who was behind them. Rest assured, however, that the investigation into those responsible has indeed been undertaken, and it is the press that is leading the way.
Kudos go out to The National Review's Mark Hemingway, who, using good old-fashioned gum-shoe methods, has discovered the following:
Shortly after reports of Romney being targeted in a push poll emerged, the firm was identified as Western Wats, which is based in Utah and has a number of Romney contributors on the payroll. Western Wats was founded by Ron Lindorf who has ties to the business school at the Mormon-owned Brigham Young University, Romney's alma matter (Lindorf has since divested himself of the company).Furthermore, Hemingway writes that there's ample evidence showing that Western Wats "may be directly tied to the Romney campaign."
After reading the NRO piece, the Romney campaign was fuming, and issued another statement:
Let me be perfectly clear: our campaign was not and is not involved with any efforts to engage in alleged push polling calls against our own candidate.You may be asking yourself, why would Romney's campaign do something as counter-intuitive as attack its boss? Christopher Hitchens, God love him, sums it up pretty neatly:
You encourage the raising of an awkward question in such a way as to make it seem illegitimate. You then strike a hurt attitude and say that you are being persecuted for your faith. This, in turn, discourages other reporters from raising the question. Yes, that's the three-card monte.So you see, Romney may have had his JFK moment after all, albeit with smoke and mirrors.
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David Knowles
A journalist, musician and novelist, David Knowles has covered politics at AOL for the past two and a half years...more
Comments (3)
1-4-Romney
11:35AM Nov 28th 2007
David,
I am getting very tired of responding to the appalling and absurd articles accusing Romney of being behind the push polls. If you look at Western Wat Co. there's not any Mormons on the board, the CEO is not Mormon, and the SIX Mormons that work for the Co. have no significant title.
It would make no sense for Romney or any of his constituency to orchestrate these calls. Romney has done nothing but try to put political issues on the forefront and his Mormon faith as an afterthought. He has refused to give some grandiose speech on the matter. If he wanted sympathy a speech would be a sure sympathy grabber not calls injecting fear into voters ears. Anti-Mormon calls hardly give the ring of sympathy to a public that is already leery and afraid of Mormons. The whole theory is just a diversion tactic to evade the bigotry in one or more of the other candidates campaign. It screamed set up from the very beginning. A Utah based firm? Wow! If anyone wanted to be more obvious, they couldn’t.
I see no poll in which Romney skyrocketed with these sympathy votes that you claim he got from the calls. I do not see McCain suddenly running up the polls. Instead, I see Huckabee rising like a tainted star. Hmmm!
Now that theory actually has some merit. No one has even mentioned the fact he has been fined by the ethics board and has had numerous run ins with them. He has more ethics issues then all of the candidates combined. Here are two links on the good Christian candidate that everyone seems to put on a pedestal to high to be capable of such unethical behavior.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/7000_Page2.html
Politico :Huckabee rivals unearth ethics complaints
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12205
I am getting very tired of responding to the appalling and absurd articles accusing Romney of being behind the push polls. If you look at Western Wat Co. there's not any Mormons on the board, the CEO is not Mormon, and the SIX Mormons that work for the Co. have no significant title.
It would make no sense for Romney or any of his constituency to orchestrate these calls. Romney has done nothing but try to put political issues on the forefront and his Mormon faith as an afterthought. He has refused to give some grandiose speech on the matter. If he wanted sympathy a speech would be a sure sympathy grabber not calls injecting fear into voters ears. Anti-Mormon calls hardly give the ring of sympathy to a public that is already leery and afraid of Mormons. The whole theory is just a diversion tactic to evade the bigotry in one or more of the other candidates campaign. It screamed set up from the very beginning. A Utah based firm? Wow! If anyone wanted to be more obvious, they couldn’t.
I see no poll in which Romney skyrocketed with these sympathy votes that you claim he got from the calls. I do not see McCain suddenly running up the polls. Instead, I see Huckabee rising like a tainted star. Hmmm!
Now that theory actually has some merit. No one has even mentioned the fact he has been fined by the ethics board and has had numerous run ins with them. He has more ethics issues then all of the candidates combined. Here are two links on the good Christian candidate that everyone seems to put on a pedestal to high to be capable of such unethical behavior.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/7000_Page2.html
Politico :Huckabee rivals unearth ethics complaints
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12205
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Richard from Ventura Co. CA
3:23PM Nov 28th 2007
The National Review's Mark Hemingway, is a really poor gum shoe since Western Wats has not had a Mormon in the Executive Suite of Board Room since 2004 when the original owners sold it.
Bad on you too for repeating this meme
Bad on you too for repeating this meme
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(0) John Harrison
12:11PM Nov 29th 2007
These polls assume that Romney's campaign is behind these calls. Are you guys journalists or political operatives? When you have facts to report then report them. When you want to state your assumptions as fact you have a problem. I for one hope that all the facts come out and that the guilty party (be it Romney or another candidate) is found out.
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