MI-7th: Slimeball tactics

Somebody's not playing fair in the race for Michigan's 7th Congressional district seat. A series of automated phone calls have been going out to voters featuring a woman posing as Sharon Renier, the Democratic candidate. The call (which I haven't heard myself) "features an unknown woman blasting Renier's opponent, Tim Walberg, R-Tipton," according to the Jackson Citizen-Patriot

In a laughably incompetent and inexplicably short story in the Cit-Pat, which apparently has more important things to cover four days before a huge midterm election, the "vile" robo-calls are discussed, but not well-described. For instance, How many calls were there? When were they received? Did the reporter talk to a voter who received them? How about an election expert on the legal issues? How about a fricking clue, O editors of the Cit-Pat? This isn't even minor-league reporting.

Anyway, the Walberg campain has raised the alarm about these calls (which of course, brings attention to the story), which Renier has denounced. Renier has announced that she's filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

My strong suspicion is that the Walberg campaign is up to its ears in this dirty little trick. Methinks the wingnut doth protest too much.

In the first place, the Renier campaign doesn't have enough money to blow their mini-budget on fake robo-calls. If they were paying for the ads, one presumes they would have access to the actual candidate (that would be Renier) and wouldn't need to hire an imposter.

Second of all, the whole sordid affair is bound to hurt Renier, as offended voters turn on her. So when trying to determine who's behind this, ask first, "Who benefits?"

Third of all, this is a fairly typical GOP dagger operation. Blogs like Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo have described a pattern of GOP behavior this election season designed to disgust voters and depress turnout (which always works in their favor).

Fourth, the Walberg campaign itself has already engaged in this sort of "spoofing" in this campaign. I have a shiny mailing featuring Renier's picture, which talks in glowing terms about her liberal agenda and plans to raise taxes. Only by reading the fine print do you see that it came directly from wht Walberg campaign.

Let me reiterate this: THE POINT OF THE CALL IS TO HURT RENIER, NOT WALBERG!!

Folks, we can't let a scoundrel like Walberg get away with this and get into Congress. VOTE!