Daschle telephone campaign broke law

[Freddie Stubbs]

Mike Madden
Argus Leader Washington Bureau

published: 4/28/2004

Phone ads pulled amid Republican criticism

WASHINGTON - Automated phone calls placed by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's campaign blaming Republican John Thune for negative advertising in South Dakota broke federal election laws and have been stopped.

The calls were illegal because they did not include a required disclaimer saying Daschle had paid for them, Democrats acknowledged this week. The calls featured a woman, identifying herself as a Republican, asking South Dakotans to contact Thune's campaign and tell him to keep outside interest groups from advertising in the state.

They were a companion to Daschle's latest TV ad.

Calls had been going out around the state since the weekend. They were stopped Monday after Thune's campaign pointed out they needed the disclaimer.

more: http://www.argusleader.com/news/Wednesdayarticle1.shtml

[Robbien]

1. Daschle should know better than anyone

The right wingers are organized and will pounce on every little oversight. If Daschle wanted to do this, he should have made sure every tea was crossed and eye dotted.

[demdave]

4. You make an advertisement representing yourself as a Rep

and fail to say that you are really a Dem? Quite an oversight don't you think?

Is Daschle really this stupid?

[markses]

7. Whoa Whoa Whoa, Demdave

I know you are quite the stickler for facts, and for busting people when they make claims not supported by facts. So I have to wonder about your formulation here. You say

You make an advertisement representing yourself as a Rep and fail to say that you are really a Dem?

Who does the "you" refer to here? Does it refer to the woman who - as the article states - identifies herself as a Republican? Because if it does, you have no evidence to indicate that this woman is NOT a Republican, at least from what we have here. or are you making an inference that she couldn't at once be a Republican and be doing phone messages for the daschle campaign? That would be, as i see it, a reasonable inference, but not iron-clad, and certainly not up to your rigorous standard of evidence.

Or are does "you" refer to Daschle? If it does, then you have no evidence that Daschle "represented (him)self as a Rep and failed to say that (he) was really a Dem."

Or are does "you" refer to the ad in general. It's quite a strange pronoun to use, in that case.

[demdave]

9. Let me diagram my impression.

Daschle authorized a telephone campaign in order to accomplish the goal of having Reps call Rep John Thune and ask him to "keep outside interest groups from advertising in the state." The call Daschle authorized used a woman who "identified" herself as a Rep, you notice in the article it didn't state she was. Then it didn't mention that this was in fact a Dem call.

I think it is reasonable to assume, and I also think that it was the intended purpose of the call to encourage people to assume, that this was a call from a Rep. If not, why didn't they have a call from a woman identifying herself as a Dem? They purposely used a "Rep" woman to add credence to the plea.

This is not a criminal trial but the level of beyond a reasonable doubt has still been reached, it obviously reaches the level of "tipping the scale...as in a civil trial. :)

[markses]

11. The woman may be a Republican

Is my only point. Thanks for admitting it waqs an inference.

[RapidCreek]

12. I received one of these calls....

and it was not made clear the calls origin was the office of the Daschle Campaign....That said it is hardly unusual for Republicans to work for Daschle in the state of South Dakota. There is, in fact, an organization which refers to itself as Republicans for Daschle...to which several of my towns carpet bagging city fathers belong. I have absolutely NO DOUBT that the woman who did the phone message was a Republican. Over half of the people who vote for Daschle every year ARE Republicans.

The phone call in question is mirrored by a television ad with roughly the same script....this ad is accompanied with the "I endorse this ad" tag line from the candidate.

In any case...what the hell difference does it make...who owns the machine which placed the call. The person in the call WAS a Republican...and that DOES lend credence to the point she is making. The fact is, as I pointed out above, over half the people who vote for Daschle are Republicans. Basically it makes clear that not all South Dakota Republicans are mouth breathing, knuckle dragging, self made retards...of the sort who find Mr. Thunes modus operandi appealing. I should think Republicans would view such an effort on their behalf as flattering. I'm sure those who vote for Daschle do.

In any case I found the call annoying. It serves no purpose other than to annoy. Such shit wastes peoples time and erodes their patience. There are better ways to put forth a message than this. I personally couldn't give two shits that Daschle's campaigners broke the law. It ain't the first time and it won't be the last in this state....either by Democrats or Republicans. What irritates me is their willingness to use such patronizing, sophomoric, Republican like methods.

RC

[Judi Lynn]

2. Isn't it pathetic to seize on this mistake, which was corrected?

From the article:

Daschle strategist Dan Pfeiffer said Republicans were blowing the incident out of proportion. He noted the campaign stopped the calls as soon as aides realized they needed the disclaimer after Thune issued a news release about it Monday.

Pfeiffer compared the calls to a fund-raiser invitation from a Colorado Senate campaign Wadhams managed in 2002 that was sent to federal offices in violation of the law. Pfeiffer called both incidents mistakes - not intentional violations.

"We take him at his word that it was a mistake and hope that he will take us at our word," Pfeiffer said.

Wadhams said the 2002 incident is irrelevant to the 2004 South Dakota race.
(snip)

[jobycom]

3. Gee, no one stops the Republican calls in Texas

Oh, that's right, it's illegal to a Democrat but not a Republican in Texas. I had this confused with America.

[sandnsea]

8. Can you write the paper please

That's a local paper and there might be a slight chance your letter would be printed if you give a personal account of receiving calls without the notification of who is paying for them. Provided you know the campaign, itself, is actually paying for them.

[jobycom]

10. It was two years ago. Last I heard the court case is still pending

At least on the state rep issues. They also blasted Ron Kirk with a lot of lies, but no one seems interested in suing over that one.

Besides, my local editor is getting tired of printing my letters, it seems. Haven't had one published in months.

[Democat]

5. The press is always ready to make definitive statements about lies and law

When a Democrat is involved.

When it's a Republican, it's "mistakes" and sometimes "exageration", not "broke the law" and "lied".

[damnraddem]

6. Daschle adopting GOP tactics?

The differences: (1) they get ruled illegal when Dems do it; and (2) the Dems stop doing it when they're ruled illegal.