ABSOLUTELY A BUNCH OF BOLOGNA!
The story is that there have been numerous “push polls” which attack Romney recently and Romney is doing a nice job at playing the victim and pointing fingers at other campaigns. The attacks brought sympathy to Romney and anger to anyone who was suspect to be behind it. As a result many skeptics pictured Romney as being the mastermind. He does have the largest motivation of all of the suspects.
Think about it Romney is attacked and he complains. He looks like the victim and no one questions him. It would be the perfect way to defame his opponents and bolster his support.
Recently we have had a firm come out and claim to be attacking Romney in the name of Mike Huckabee. Mike’s campaign has denied any involvement and show the public that these acts would be counterproductive to the campaign he is trying to run. He has asked the people who are doing this on his behalf to stop. They did not… This is more than just fishy it is plain wrong.
Huckabee: He has absolutely nothing to gain with this! It is contrary to his campaign strategy and it defames Huckabee. Huckabee asked them to stop and they did not. Any self respecting Huckabee supporter would stop is their candidate asked. I would urge that Huckabee take action against these “supporters” for libel through defaming acts in the name of another.
McCain: He has been cited as a primary suspect in all of this, but to what end? He has no motivation to push poll Romney or Huckabee. Iowa is way out of his reach. I also don’t see McCain as the type who would even think of this type of thing. It goes against his character.
Guiliani: This action tends to be more counter productive towards Huckabee than Romney. Rudy may have recent motivation to start something like this, but hard evidence points elsewhere.
Thomson: I can’t see him even attempting to defame a turkey, but that add on the CNN debate proved otherwise. Not only does it seem impossible for Thomson to gain the motivation, but I don’t see his staffers willing to do anything like this for Thomson. Besides evidence points elsewhere.
Romney: This dude has the largest incentive of all the candidates and he has sympathy for the victim as he is the one being attacked. No one would expect this would they? Romney makes it look like others are attacking him and then calls it illegal. Smooth… the only person either of these “push polls” helped was Romney. Like it or not the evidence also points in his direction.
Then we have another odd case of push-polling in Iowa. A group has claimed responsibility, a self-described “grassroots independent organization committed to educating voters to support Governor Mike Huckabee for the Republican Nomination for President of the United States” and notes that they aren’t “authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.” Huckabee says he doesn’t approve of their tactics.
The firm making the calls, ccAdvertising, has also done about $53,000 worth of work for the Romney campaign. Gabriel Joseph, the head of ccAdvertising, donated $1,000 to the Romney campaign on June 11.
I spoke to Mr. Joseph. He confirmed the donation to the Romney campaign; when asked about any work for this Huckabee group, or for the Romney campaign, he said that he could not disclose anything regarding his firm’s work.
When I said that the call number led back to his firm, he said, “Jim, our clients are confidential, and our work for our clients is confidential.” He said that if his firm’s clients choose to talk about them, that’s their decision, but that the confidentiality agreements do not permit him to confirm or deny anything regarding any work for anyone.
How do you feel if you’re Mitt Romney, and a firm you hired – a firm headed by one of your donors! – is running push polls against you?
By the way, below the fold is the trail leading back to ccAdvertising:
Iowans received calls for “poll” from Caller ID of “PRDR 07” and phone number of “703-263-9011.” “Received a call said to be a Presidential preference survey for the Republican caucus in Iowa… this was a Push Poll Phone Call! Will report this to the local Republican office.” This is from the WhoCallsMe? website.
(An NRO reader in Iowa reported the same phone number.)
The “PRDR” Caller-ID was linked to “Freeeats.Com, Inc., DBA ccAdvertising.” This comes from the OurCommunityPower.org website, 7/13/06.
“PRDR 571-522-1511 are made by Freeeats.Com, Inc. DBA ccAdvertising C/O Gabriel Joseph 13800 Coppermine Road Herndon, Virginia 20171 703-234-2200 (Voice)”
This is from the Californians Against Telephone Solicitation website, 7/13/06.
Gabriel S. Joseph III is the president of FreeEats.com. (FreeEats.Com, Press Release, 9/13/07; Virginia State Corporation Commission Records, accessed via Nexis.)
Visitors to FreeEats.Com are redirected automatically to CCAdvertising.biz. (www.freeeats.com)
Gabriel S. Joseph of Centerville, VA, who lists himself as a consultant, gave Mitt Romney $1,000 on June 11, 2007, according to the Center For Responsive Politics.
Romney For President disbursed $53,755 to CC Advertising Of Herndon, Va. on August 9, 2007, for “Survey Research.” NRO
More than just fishy… Isn’t this. This is convenient for him is it not? People are losing faith in Romney’s honesty and for good reasons…
Romney has not overcome a record of shifting views on abortion and other social issues. His failure to present a clear picture of his faith and its role in his life appears to be just one part of a broader challenge: proving to GOP voters that he is being straightforward with them.
Romney’s predicament is underscored in the new poll, which found that he ranked last when Republican voters were asked which of the top-tier GOP candidates were “best at saying what they believe, rather than saying what they think the voters want to hear.”
Just 8% said Romney was best at saying what he believes, compared with 18% for former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the national front-runner, and 20% for Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor, who has sprung from near obscurity to a leading position in Iowa. LA Times
The political ad company that Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign says is violating the law with phone calls in support of rival Mike Huckabee is the same firm Romney employed in August to place calls on his behalf before the Iowa straw poll…
“As you heard me say, I repudiate anything that attacks another person,” he said in a press conference in Iowa. “It does not help us. I believe it hurts us.”FOX AP
Huckabee is being attacked, but at it’s face Romney appears to be the target. Huckabee asks the group to stop and they refuse and say they will go even farther. Not only is this suspicious if these facts are proven to be true and Romney and his campaign are behind this than he can be charged with a felony and be kicked out of the campaign. I think that Huckabee needs a VERY good lawyer and he needs to call for investigation of this group and a sue on libelous grounds. Romney has denied any cooperation, but he did not prove his claim or answer for the fact that the company doing the adds is an extremely strong Romney machine and has been historically. The fact that the organization is a 501 (c) shows the HUGE possibility for loophole exploitation as 527s have much more restrictions than a 501 (c).
Davis’ nonprofit group is a registered with the IRS as a 501(c)4.
Unlike the better known “527″ political groups — named after the section of the tax code that regulates them — CSI does not have to reveal its financial transactions, including donors and expenses.
Unlike 527s, Common Sense Issues cannot advocate the election or defeat of any particular candidate, but can only “educate” the voters. Rockey Mountain News
That alone should be suspect. This entire issue is sticky to the core…
A spokesman for the Romney campaign said that there is “no coordination whatsoever” between Romney and the ICA on any efforts to undermine Huckabee’s campaign.
Oh and what would you expect. At least Huckabee has shown how this hurts him and has asked for it to be stopped. I believe Huckabee here because he is more direct about the problem. I wish the MSM would pick up on this!
Romney is the one pointing fingers. Huckabee is not…
