In January, Republican Senator Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren promised to keep outside groups out of their high-stakes Senate fight. Their pact specifically blocked super PACs, nonprofits, and other third-party groups from funding television, radio, or Internet ads on the candidates’ behalf. If either Brown or Warren is the beneficiary of such ads, that candidate must pay a financial penalty to charity.
Now, Crossroads GPS — a group backed by Republican consultant Karl Rove — is running robocalls in Massachusetts that attack Warren, in hopes of helping Brown. Since the candidates’ vow says nothing about mailings or phone calls, these ominous telephone messages do not technically violate the “People’s Pledge” signed by Brown and Warren. But surely they violate its spirit.
Comments
It would be interesting to get some reliable data about how many robocalls get through to a listener who actually listens through to the end of the call, integrates the information, and uses the information in the way intended by the originator of the call. A reasonable person would guess that the majority of the calls are either not answered, go to voice mail and are deleted without being heard, or are immediately terminated by the receiver. It's highly likely that these robocalls are a symptom of high-priced campaign consultants justifying their fees, and selling the candidates and campaigns a bill of goods about what can help to win an election.
I hope you are right. Sounds as if you might be. Still, Karl's techniques are doing a lot of damage. Scott Brown can't talk about his votes for billionaires and big oil and he certainly can't talk about how he will give Republicans control of the Senate. So he continues personal attacks on Elizabeth Warren. We know he is using Karl Rove tactics of negative and twisted facts and lies One robocall criticizes Warren’s management of a watchdog panel that monitored the federal bank bailout. That is a typical Karl Rove technique--take a persons strength and twist it into a negative. Rove fingerprints are all over the huge effort by Brown to turn Elizabeth’s 1/32 Native American heritage into an attack on her character. It would be pathetically laughable if so many people didn’t swallow the lies but instead did a little research into the truth. Voters also should look at Scott’s voting record--solidly Republican, against job-creating bills and far from the bipartisanship he claims.
I got one of those robo calls and only listened to the first sentence before hanging up. Right off the bat, Warren is a liar according to the recording. No beating around the bush.
Scott Brown thought he'd be a shoo-in, based on early polls. Now it doesn't look so good. Unfortunately some people want to win so badly that they risk their integrity. I'm afraid Brown has become the Dr. Faustus in this race.
Why would anyone think that someone from OKLAHOMA would represent Massachusetts well in the US Senate? Would she really care about what happens here to our industries and fisherman, etc. She may be fine in many ways but not for keeping an eye on the needs of a small state like MA. I know a carpetbagger when I see one. She should have run for congress first at least.