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In a twist worthy of Memento or The Usual Suspects, a number of right-wing bloggers are pointing out that the push-poll phone calls attacking Mitt Romney for his religion seem to be coming from people close to the candidate himself. They’re not all necessarily claiming that Romney is actually behind the calls, but they note a number of interesting connections.
Why, asks Soren Dayton, would operatives trying to smear Romney employ a Utah-based call center to do the job? And it’s not just a question of geography: as Dayton finds, Mitt Romney is in fact “friends with the family of the Founder and Chairman of the company that is placing anti-Mormon and anti-Romney phone calls.” A blog supporting Romney even has pictures of the candidate greeting members of the Lindorf Family, who run Western Wats, the company in question.
Dayton’s first post also wonders about the fact that one of Romney’s prominent Iowa supporters, an Iowa State Representative who has endorsed the former Massachusetts governor, was on the list of people who received the calls:
My educated guess is that Rep. Watts was put on the list because he would report it to the Romney campaign and the media. I would assume that the next call by Rep. Watts was to the Romney IA state director. Again, made for media and made for outrage.
Meanwhile, not only is Western Wats run by friends of Romney, David Freddoso reports that at least one employee of the company is sending a lot of money Mitt’s way. Liz Mair, meanwhile, found that a Senior VP at Western Wats was also a Romney donor. Oh, and who gets the exclusive insider interview with “a senior Western Wats employee”? A Romney supporter. (In the interview, the Western Wats representative says that “many times” the company doesn’t know who is employing its services — though in this case it’s apparently just a question of a non-disclosure agreement — and insists that what they do is not “push polling,” but “message testing”. Which, I’m sure, is just totally different.)
So far, nobody really seems to be outright accusing the Romney campaign of being behind the calls. But the whole affair does seem to be raising some very interesting questions.
Update: Huffington Post has the story, too.
6 Responses to “…And Even Curiouser”
Assuming it is actually a frame-up of McCain — why McCain and not Rudy? Do those behind it assume McCain doesn’t have the resources to push back against the media, or is there interternal polling showing Romney and McCain competing for the same voters — or what?
[…] A strange story going down some strange curves. posted in: Main […]
[…] Interesting tidbit about this, apparently the calls are being made from a company whose owner is friends with Romney, has donated to his campaign, and has put people who are in a position to talk to the media about the calls on the list.. fueling speculation that perhaps Romney is behind this in order to drum up sympathy for his campaign while painting the other Republican candidates (specifically McCain) as playing dirty / being character assassins.. More information: The Corner on National Review Online Could Romney Be Behind the Anti-Mormon N.H. Phone Calls? - Politics on The Huffington Post The Right’s Field » …And Even Curiouser […]
[…] * Mitt Romney is push polling himself. […]
It turns out that all those pointing to Mitt and/or his chief adviser (Gage) are already ending up with plenty of egg on their faces.
The “ROmney did it” theory doesn’t even pass the smell test, and NRO and RedState sure have some “splainin” to do on this one.
Something to say?
[…] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt In a twist worthy of Memento or The Usual Suspects, a number of right-wing bloggers are pointing out that the push-poll phone calls attacking Mitt Romney for his religion seem to be coming from people close to the candidate himself. They’re not all necessarily claiming that Romney is actually behind the calls, but they note a number of interesting connections. Why, asks Soren Dayton, would operatives trying to smear Romney employ a Utah-based call center to do the job? And it’s not just a que […]
Left by Iguanaz » …And Even Curiouser
November 17, 2007 at 2:08pm