Althouse: Whatever happened to those robocalls telling people who'd signed the Walker recall petitions they didn't have to vote in the recall election?

June 10, 2012

Whatever happened to those robocalls telling people who'd signed the Walker recall petitions they didn't have to vote in the recall election?

Everyone was talking about them on June 5th, the day of the recall election. The talk was of reports that some people said they got these calls. Now the election is over, and no one is talking about it anymore. Did anyone ever record one of these phone calls and put it up on YouTube? And where has all the outrage gone?

So I'll stir up outrage right now about the reports, dumped on the public on election day. Were the reports fake? If they weren't fake, where is the evidence? If they were real, who made these calls? Actual Walker supporters or Walker opponents?

Since the reports were made in a manner and at a time when it served the interests of Walker opponents, I always suspected Walker opponents of either faking the reports or generating the calls to cause the reports. I'm even more suspicious now that the subject has been dropped. If the calls were real and really made by Walker supporters, the opponents who claimed they got the calls or claimed they heard complaints about the calls would have an interest now in laying out the evidence. The silence is telling.

52 comments:

Tom Spaulding said...: If Walker had won by 1 or 2 points, those "calls" were what would have "made the difference" and outrage would ensue.

Since he won by 6+. it's bad optics to tacitly describe your constituents as "too stupid to know an election from a petition", so it's "what evs".

WV: "entass 2".....Umm...Treebeard, is that yours?; 6/10/12, 10:07 AM
SGT Ted said...: Of course it was bullshit.

My take on it, based on past experience, is that if the election was close enough, it would be used to challenge the "legitimacy" of the election and as a pretense to bring in the corrupt, politicized Holder DOJ to investigate under the voting rights act, because "voters were disenfranchised".; 6/10/12, 10:10 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "If Walker had won by 1 or 2 points, those "calls" were what would have "made the difference" and outrage would ensue."

That's a variation on: If it's not close, they can't cheat.

Were they in the middle of a cheating scheme that didn't work?

Or did Walker people, who expected to win, somehow decided to do something this stupid?; 6/10/12, 10:13 AM
bagoh20 said...: As I said that day, I think this would be a good election to do an in depth audit to determine the extent of voter fraud. It was hotly contested with a lot at stake for both sides, and I'd like us to find out the facts, and continue to do studies of elections. It takes away nobody's rights to look into it. I think the disenfranchisement that the left always frets is happening a lot, but from voter fraud not voter suppression.; 6/10/12, 10:15 AM
caseym54 said...: Walker's AG should get right on it, and depose all the Dems who were so loud about it on election day.; 6/10/12, 10:16 AM
edutcher said...: Who were the people that got them?

Registered Democrats?

Given the credulousness of the media, it's easy to set up a lot of these things.; 6/10/12, 10:20 AM
CWJ said...: Fake. I like both Bagoh20 and caseym54's comments, but now that Walker has taken the high road, it would be spun in the press as a divisive witch hunt. The focus would be on Walker's "hypocrisy" rather than on the investigation.; 6/10/12, 10:23 AM
Tom Spaulding said...: Or did Walker people, who expected to win, somehow decided to do something this stupid?

Is there any evidence to support a claim that Walker people would behave in this manner? I think he ran a textbook campaign. He is a decent man, by my observations. He proved his worth by showing Barrett respect ("The Mayor") yet receiving mockery and scorn in return, focusing on the success of his reforms while Barrett acted too familiar ("Scott") and attacked him while promising "peace" and "unity".

Occam's Razor.; 6/10/12, 10:23 AM
Wince said...: It's the same thing they pulled against Rove in South Carolina in 2000, where the only evidence seemed to be the recollection of a mother at a town hall whose 13 year-old son supposedly took the call.

But that didn't stop Meghan McCain from running with it:

Meghan McCain condemned Karl Rove in her new book, hitting out at the former Bush adviser for rumors about her adopted sister during the 2000 campaign.

McCain's younger sister Bridget was adopted from Bangladesh in 1991. Twelve years after her father's run for the White House, Meghan McCain hasn't forgotten about nasty rumors that Bridget was his illegitimate black child.

She described her reaction to the vitriol in "America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter to Freedom," writing that it left "an everlasting painful mark on my and my family's lives." She pulled no punches when it came to Karl Rove, whom she blamed for starting the rumors.

“Yes, sick, f—-ed up, a disgusting and embarrassing scar that will forever remain on presidential politics and South Carolina history. I was furious, upset, and heartbroken when it happened, and even now if I think about it, it makes me want to vomit,” she wrote. “Karl Rove is a pathetic excuse for a human being and has never publicly apologized for his cowardice and culpability for what was said about my little sister in South Carolina during the 2000 race.”; 6/10/12, 10:30 AM
alan markus said...: In fairness to both sides, what about the reports of buses full of voters enroute from Detroit & Chicago?; 6/10/12, 10:30 AM
Anonymous said...: As Emily Litella would say, "never mind."; 6/10/12, 10:32 AM
Brian Brown said...: Were the reports fake?

Yes.

The left lies, as a manner of course, regarding politics.; 6/10/12, 10:34 AM
Michael said...: This is a variant on the time tested voter supression we use here in the south. We simply put a small ad in local papers giving the wrong date for the election. Sometimes we say that this year the election is to be held at two in the morning. These cunning tricks nearly always work. Democrats are self described as the party of stupid.; 6/10/12, 10:36 AM
Original Mike said...: I agree with SGT Ted. IMO, these false flag operations are designed to lay the pretext to challenge the legitimicy of an election if the perptrators lose narrowly. The election was not close, so the tatic became irrelavant.; 6/10/12, 10:43 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Walker's AG should get right on it, and depose all the Dems who were so loud about it on election day."

It's not "Walker's AG." Van Hollen, the AG, is an elected official, who got into office before Walker, while Doyle was still governor.; 6/10/12, 10:45 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I agree with SGT Ted. IMO, these false flag operations are designed to lay the pretext to challenge the legitimicy of an election if the perptrators lose narrowly. The election was not close, so the tatic became irrelevant."

That is my point! But it's NOT irrelevant from a larger perspective. Now is the time to ferret out what really happened. If it was a scheme that would have been used to unsettle the results if the election had been close, then we should still want to uncover it. The fact that everyone stopped talking is a clue that it was fake, or, I think, they'd be using it now as part of the complaining about why they lost, along with the fact that Walker spent a lot of money and Obama didn't help.; 6/10/12, 10:48 AM
Tom Spaulding said...: In fairness to both sides, what about the reports of buses full of voters enroute from Detroit & Chicago?

In fairness to the topic at hand, how many votes were suppressed by the presence or non-presence of union buses?

Did it cause more undecideds (ha!) to vote for the union or for Walker?

"The Brutish Are Coming!" is a rallying cry for people TO vote, not a trick to make them think they already DID vote by signing a petition.

Slicin' apples and oranges with Occam's Razor.; 6/10/12, 10:48 AM
jimspice said...: And what ever happened to Vicki McKenna's sig showing up on a recall petition?; 6/10/12, 10:49 AM
Anonymous said...: StateSenator Lena Taylor asked GAB to investigate robocalls; 6/10/12, 10:54 AM
Tom Spaulding said...: I love the cognitive dissonance the Left is feeling yet again.

After constantly complaining that conservatives "vote against their own self-interests" (see "What's Wrong With Kansas?), here is an election where conservatives clearly could vote FOR their own self-interests: not wanting to use their income to pay for the vast majority of the benefits of PSU employees... as their own pension and health care costs skyrocket.

They voted to keep their own money and have the PSU pay more of their own way. You'd think the Left would be grateful we did it their way.

You'd be wrong.; 6/10/12, 10:58 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "StateSenator Lena Taylor asked GAB to investigate robocalls"

Dated June 5th.

See my point?

Who's talking about it now?; 6/10/12, 11:11 AM
alan markus said...: Lena Taylor's letter to GAB linked about doesn't cite any "evidence" that the calls occurred. The phone number mentioned (608-257-8029) is a number already attributed to Republican Party use as early as January (and those calls were not "robocalls").; 6/10/12, 11:14 AM
Chip S. said...: Is the GAB's Kevin Kennedy a Democrat or Republican?; 6/10/12, 11:17 AM
gk1 said...: This charge had BULLSHIT fumes wafting all over it when I saw it. Kind of like those mythical Florida Highway Patrols that suppressed the Black vote in 2000. Lets call if for what it was, agitprop for lefties. No real mystery there.; 6/10/12, 11:19 AM
Michael K said...: "Or did Walker people, who expected to win, somehow decided to do something this stupid?"

Only the Nixon people were this stupid. Winning 49 states they decided to burglarize the DNC headquarters. See Powerline today; 6/10/12, 11:23 AM
TosaGuy said...: The fact that Lena Taylor is behind this charge probably means it is completely bogus. She is so partisan that she calls for boycotts of businesses in her own district; 6/10/12, 11:24 AM
Michael K said...: The robocalls were made by Meg Whitman's illegal maid. Wherever she is, you will find the calls.

Investigating the calls would be a good idea but Republicans have a habit of saying, "Hit me again, please ?"; 6/10/12, 11:28 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/10/12, 11:30 AM
Anonymous said...: Ann, why is it necessary to talk about it now? Nothing can be done until the investigation is completed.; 6/10/12, 11:33 AM
Chip S. said...: @AllieOop: The question being asked is whether an investigation is actually underway. Unless such investigations are ultra-secret (unlike, say, a certain John Doe investigation), then about all that's needed is to answer two simple questions"

1. Is Kevin Kennedy a Republican?

2. Is the GAB investigating?

Yes, Yes => Republicans suspect Democrats of a fake accusation

Yes, No => Republicans suspect Republicans of making the calls

No, Yes => Democrats suspect Republicans of making the calls

No, No => Democrats suspect Democrats of fake accusation

Simple. No need to argue or conjecture.

Yes, "Either side wants to let this go" is a possibility, but in what way is that consistent with any actions by the Democrats in the past 18 months?; 6/10/12, 11:40 AM
alan markus said...: why is it necessary to talk about it now? Nothing can be done until the investigation is completed

That seems to be a point that Mayor Barrett couldn't understand.; 6/10/12, 11:42 AM
Chip S. said...: why is it necessary to talk about it now? Nothing can be done until the investigation is completed.

You sure didn't feel this way about the John Doe investigation, Oopsie. You posted irrelevant crap here about that nonstop in the last minutes of the election.

Why the change of heart?; 6/10/12, 11:45 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The media won't investigate thier own party. So that's out.
But yes - there should be an investigation.; 6/10/12, 11:53 AM
SGT Ted said...: ..an election where conservatives clearly could vote FOR their own self-interests

Well no, because Progressives always know what is in everyones best interest.

Those other smelly people don't need to be thinking any differently. That hard work has already been done by the Progressives looking out for their interests.; 6/10/12, 11:54 AM
alan markus said...: Wonder how many voters were registered using the address for Mama Delta's Lovehouse for this election? More than or lesss than 36?

Lena Taylor denies fraud allegation: Conservative group questions voter registrations at group home; 6/10/12, 11:55 AM
Original Mike said...: "Now is the time to ferret out what really happened. If it was a scheme that would have been used to unsettle the results if the election had been close, then we should still want to uncover it."

I couldn't agree more. But the likelyhood it will happen is small and it's frustrating.; 6/10/12, 12:19 PM
Curious George said...: I'll be t Thistle is still talking about.; 6/10/12, 1:05 PM
Marcus Carman said...: "In fairness to both sides, what about the reports of buses full of voters enroute from Detroit & Chicago?"

At least for this story there was a recorded phone call to a radio station from a supposed passenger on the buss from Detroit. No such evidence exists for the calls to petition signers.; 6/10/12, 1:49 PM
James said...: No one's talking about it but there were serious irregularities in the SD 21 recall. I suppose that since the Senate isn't scheduled to meet until January and there will be 16 other Senate elections in November the Republicans aren't making a big deal about it.; 6/10/12, 2:33 PM
jvermeer51 said...: The calls undoubtedly originated with the mother of Walker's love child.; 6/10/12, 2:58 PM
Matt Sablan said...: "Ann, why is it necessary to talk about it now? Nothing can be done until the investigation is completed."

-- This is a beautiful little double standard I want to talk about. When it comes to investigations into things that lean left -- say, ACORN, Planned Parenthood, Robocalls, Fast and the Furious, etc. -- we are told: "We can't talk about that. Nothing can be done until the investigation is completed." The topic is then buried for as long as it takes. It is beautiful; you look like you care, you get good government credit too!

But, any investigation of something on the right? We can talk about those. That's what happened to Stephens. That's what happened to Palin, McCain, Bachman and what is happening right now to Walker in relation to the John Doe investigation.

So, instead, let's treat this like some would have us treat the allegations against Walker. What if it is true that Barrett faked those calls to gin up outrage at the right? What if!; 6/10/12, 6:03 PM
Matt Sablan said...: I believe that is making the enemy live up to their own book of rules, or something like that.; 6/10/12, 6:05 PM
caseym54 said...: It's not "Walker's AG." Van Hollen, the AG, is an elected official, who got into office before Walker, while Doyle was still governor. Point taken, even if it seems a tad touchy. "The Republican AG" then.; 6/10/12, 7:45 PM
Comanche Voter said...: Just prepping the battle space if things were close. Why do you think the DOJ sent lawyers out there to "oversee"--er look for or maybe even create "irregularities"?

Holder's DOJ where it's a race between incompetence and corruption, and you wind up with both.; 6/10/12, 8:04 PM
kcom said...: Yeah, and whatever happened to the great Al Qaqaa expose that the New York Times and CBS threw out just days before the 2004 election? It was the greatest disaster of the Iraq war for three or four furious days right before the election and then as soon as Bush was re-elected, the story disappeared entirely from the mainstream media, like it never really mattered. (After wall to wall coverage right before the election the next story about it didn't hit the mainstream press for 3 solid weeks.)

The shill-for-Democrats press pulls that sort of stuff all the time.; 6/10/12, 9:11 PM
Carnifex said...: Here is how you handle the situation...You make a statement to the press disavowing the tactic, whether it's true or not doesn't matter. Then you tell your opposition ..."but if I had people dumb enough to fall for it, I wouldn't be braggin' about it there, Skippy" Because really, if you are dumb enough to fall for it, you don't need to be voting.

As far as fairness, when was life ever fair. You get fairness when you die. Everyone dies...that's fair.

Until we get real voter reform there's just gonna' be more and more of this, so why fash yourselves about it. Can you stop it? Can you put the people who do it in jail? So it's nasty. So is changing a diaper, and about as much use, they get filled up with you know what constantly too, just like politicians.

Want some real reforms?
1) congress MUST abide by the laws it passes
2) A congresscritters pay should be exactly the median income of his home district
3) If you don't pay taxes, you don't get to choose who does what with the money.
4) if you are related to a Kennedy in any form, you should spend at least 10 years in jail on general principles
5) if you enter congress as thousandaire, and leave a multimillionaire, you forfeit everything you own to the poorest church in your district(you can keep your house)
6) if you enter congress a thousandaire and your SPOUSE becomes a millionaire, you loose the house too.
7) you can't ban guns from your townhall meetings. It's every Americans right to carry a gun, and if you're such a bad congresscritter that you fear for your life, then you should fear for your life.
8) if you leave politics to become an "unbiased" reporter, or lobbiest, you are tarred and feathered, run out of town on a rail, and then pulled apart by wild horses, sewn back together, re-animated, pulled apart again, and then put on display at the Smithsonian under the heading of Homo Hypocritus. For ever. Even after the rapture, and God's Kingdom on Earth. And then we'll think of something really bad to do to you.(I'm Italian, we'll think of something)

Just some thoughts of how the country would be run if I were it's benevolent dictator.; 6/11/12, 1:05 AM
Anonymous said...: Simple test that would NOT take Walker's involvement but some 'True the Vote effort: Take a sample of 50 of the same-day registrations in a place like Madison, go by the listed addresses and see if the person actually lives there. And naturally, review the rolls for dead voters.; 6/11/12, 7:05 AM
Unknown said...: It' in the Saul Alinsky playbook to claim fraud right off the bat, no matter what. They're doing what all leftists do and will continue to do - cheat and claim victimhood at the same time.

PS - please find me a socialist who's anti-communist.; 6/11/12, 8:18 AM
Michael Haz said...: Weren't those robocalls made by Governor Walker's out-of-wedlock secret daughter?

Oh. Wait. Her existance was fabricated. Too.; 6/11/12, 8:56 AM
Milhouse said...: Just suppose, for the sake of argument, that this story were true. So what? Why would it be wrong for the Walker campaign to use such a tactic? Stupid people shouldn't be allowed to vote in the first place; they ought to be encouraged to stay home, so what is wrong with tricking them into doing so?; 6/11/12, 3:43 PM
Christopher R Taylor said...: I'm glad to see someone other than me at least question the validity of the McCain robocalls. I've looked and looked and haven't found a shred of evidence, let alone proof this even took place in South Carolina. Yet its taken as absolute fact even by Republicans.; 6/12/12, 9:08 AM
Kosty said...: It was simply "Battlespace Preparation" but could not be used because Walker won beyond the possible margin of fraud or abuse.; 6/12/12, 3:36 PM