Robo-Call-Gate: staunch Obama supporter on the board

[Dogmudgeon]

Oops.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Obama_camp_responds_to_robocalls.html">Obama camp responds to robocalls

In a conference call with reporters, Obama aides tentatively accepted the Women's Voices Women Vote apology for ill-timed robocalls, but simultenously compared the calls to deliberate voter suppression tactics.

...

There are some arguing that this was a pro-Clinton conspiracy, rather than a disruptive mistake, as the group claims; those suggestions are based in part on the fact that Maggie Williams used to be on the group's board, and that it's staffed with other former Clinton types.

This seems, so far, unconvincing to me. Also on the board, for instance, is William McNary, the president of the progressive coalition USAction and a leader of Illinois Citizen Action who has been, reportedly, a vigorous Obama supporters since his 2004 Senate race.

--p!

[crimsonblue]

1. it looks like election fraud is bipartisan and widespread..

that makes me feel soooo much more confident in our election system.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. It can be assumed that any sort of mainstream moderate/liberal political group

will have somebody in it that's connected to the Clintons somehow.

[John Q. Citizen]

3. McNary may be an Obama supporter, but he doesn't appear to have contributed to his POTUS race, as

far as I can tell from the open secrets data search.

So what does "staunch" mean?

[writes3000]

4. It means "I'm trying to tilt this story to protect my candidate."

There is no excuse for this kind of voter suppression crap. None.

And it's near impossible to believe that this is a mistake that's gone from state to state to state.

[John Q. Citizen]

6. I agree.

[mckeown1128]

5. Yea but the rest of the board members are hillary supporters...

ohh and the executive director was a former Bill Clinton campaign guy. ohh snap..

[MarjorieG]

7. And no mention of Rendell vote suppression over machines poorly allocated and broken.

Her win was not so big and decisive, despite the media.

[Dogmudgeon]

13. "Rendell vote suppression" = "My candidate lost"

When Obama wins, the People's Voice has been heard and Justice has triumphed.

When Clinton wins, it was because of fraud, crooked deals, and the hand of Satan.

And to think, a lot of Obama supporters really believe that.

--p!

[backscatter712]

8. I wonder how much of this is campaign hackery...

I remember one of the guests on the Daily Show was a former GOP strategy hack that ended up spending time in prison for his misdeeds, then came clean and wrote a book about the things he did.

On the show, he mentioned one of his dirty tricks.

Say you're a Republican candidate that needs money, and SleazeCo is offering you loads of cash to help you out in exchange for whitewashing their misdeeds.

But, you don't want the fact you took money from SleazeCo to be used against you. What to do...

You take the money, then you ask SleazeCo to make a small donation to your opponent. Just a basic donation on the web site or by phone or mail. Chances are your opponent won't even figure out he got a donation from SleazeCo - it's one name of thousands on the donor list.

Then when you get attacked by your opponent for taking money from SleazeCo, you immediately retaliate with "YOU HAVE A LOT OF NERVE TO BRING THAT UP, CONSIDERING YOU ALSO TOOK MONEY FROM SLEAZECO! LOOK AT THE HYPOCRISY!!!!!!!111one"

I suspect we have the same sort of trickery here from the Clinton campaign, or a related dirty trick.

[mmonk]

9. Good. Maybe now we can get to the things that matter most to this

nation like Jeremiah Wright and the obvious problem Obama has with being sufficiently patriotic or being enough of a good American.








:sarcasm:

[Fermezlabush]

10. Oh, noes! It's passportgate all over again! Only without KO!

Will yesterday's outrage stop now? or will they simply ignore this fact and go on as usual? Stay tuned

[McCamy Taylor]

11. The group is trying to register Dems for the GE. I'll bet the GOP AGs try to make them stop.

And look, now Obama supporters are trying to suppress a voter registration group.

Are you happy? You have just helped out the GOP vote suppression effort. Get a life and get back on the issues.

[marions ghost]

14. If you've ever worked in elections

you'd know that this fits a classic pattern of sewing confusion before elections.
-------------
For background, GO TO:
http://www.southernstudies.org/facingsouth/
(This page has been updated since yesterday to reflect the NC AG's actions).

---------------
The Institute for Southern Studies --which brought attention to this questionable activity by WVWV --is a well-respected PROGRESSIVE organization based in North Carolina. Info from their website:

"Since our founding in 1970 by veterans of the civil rights movement, the has established a national reputation as an essential resource for grassroots activists, community leaders, scholars, policy makers and others working to bring lasting social and economic change to the region.

Throughout our history, the Institute has maintained a strong commitment to developing research and publication projects that directly support grassroots organizing, especially efforts for corporate and government accountability. It has also led the Institute to be involved in the launching of such organizations as the Brown Lung Association, Southerners for Economic justice, the Georgia Power Project, and the Gulf Tenants Leadership Development Project. The Institute has also examined the southern contribution to culture and social change, from gospel music and the blues to the civil rights movement and community organizing. Since 1973, the Institute's journal, Southern Exposure, has gained critical praise for its thorough investigations, unsentimental portraits of Southern life, and resources for change."

------------------
According to the Institute for Southern Studies, the WVWV group has negatively affected the primaries in these states:

Arizona
Colorado
Wisconsin
Michigan
Florida
Arkansas
Louisiana
Kentucky
Ohio
Virginia
North Carolina

How can you argue that this WVWV group is "helping"? Of course they would appreciate and count on your defense of "they're just trying to register Dem voters." If we EVER want fair elections in this country, this must be investigated. No matter WHO might be involved, this is NOT a "nothing-to-see-here" situation. This is about election integrity. This goes to the core of what we progressives are all about. Take off your blinders.

[cali]

16. I'm sorry. You need to inform yourself more fully

This group has raised suspicions because of similar tactics in over a dozen other states. No matter how invested you are in Clinton, accepting these tactics and trying to paint them as legitimate is not at all helpful.

You need to inform yourself and stop parroting the Clinton PR.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

21. The voter registration deadline to register by mail has already passed in NC.

Making any attempt to paint this as "registering voters" is further complicated considering that a.) this isn't this group's first brush with the law and b.) they blocked their contact info.

If they were honestly trying to register voters, they were doing a piss poor job of it.

[1776Forever]

12. Even though this man was on the board there are some important questions to be answered!

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/4/30/201822/287

Obama Fans: let's suppress the women's votes

by tarheel74, Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 08:18:22 PM EST

(snip)

For example, Maggie Williams is a former member of WVWV's leadership team, according to Sourcewatch.org; she also served as chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Clinton and to the Clinton Foundation in New York, and she was named the manager of Clinton's campaign in February. And Holly Schadler, WVWV's attorney, helped set up the Back to Business Committee in 1994 to defend Bill and Hillary Clinton from attacks by political enemies.

But one of the most striking connections between WVWV and the Clinton campaign -- and one particularly relevant to a story involving what appear to be voter suppression efforts right before an election -- was pointed out to us by a reader. He notes that the firm in charge of voter outreach for WVWV is MSHC Partners, whose president is Hal Malchow. Sourcewatch.org reports that Malchow was a member of WVWV's leadership team.

At the same time, MSHC also does direct mail and outreach for the Hillary Clinton campaign. In fact, the campaign owes MSHC $807,000, according to Politico.com.

............

I don't think this man may have known what was going on in ALL the areas that were being handled by operatives of the Clinton campaign. All in all it doesn't pass the smell test!!!!!

:nopity:

[ErinBerin84]

15. I posted this on another thread. I'm just copying and pasting.

Obama supporter here. I wanted to make an Op about this, but I've already done three in the past 24 hours.

Huffington Post has a small article/statement from the Obama supporter on the board of Womens Voices, Women vote. It is obvious that they wanted to put him out there to curb any speculation of ties to the Clinton camp (I have been saying that I don't want to assume that the Clinton campaign is connected to this). I still think that the potential campaign ties are really besides the point, because the calls seem illegal. Even if they thought they were acting within legal boundaries, it was grossly incompetent at best. As the replies to the post demostrate, the spokepeople for the group really have not been answering the questions at hand (I assume that they can't because of legal reasons at this point).


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-mcnary/womens-voices-women-vote_b_99548.html

[Freedom Train]

17. Ooops, too bad.

Looks like the Obots will now have to direct their faux outrage elsewhere.

[rodeodance]

19. The obots seem to be pushing this debunked lie.

[Lucinda]

18. ...

:kick:

[rodeodance]

20. REC

[Cameron27]

22. Thank you!

K&R

[americanstranger]

23. One out of how many? Eight? Nine?

Nice spin attempt, but stacking one contributor up against all present or former Team Clinton members working there amuses me no end.

Oh, and the Hillraiser who runs the joint gave $700K to her husband's company to actually make the illegal robo-calls.

Can you say 'conflict of interest?' Knew you could.

- as