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February 28, 2012
Desperate Santorum Robocall Urges Democrats to Come Out & Vote Against Romney ~ DISGUSTING!
Santorum Robocall Urges Democrats to Come Out & Vote Against Romney
LANSING, MI — Rick Santorum’s campaign is locked in a tight battle with Mitt Romney ahead of Tuesday’s Michigan primary. On Monday his camp started openly courting a demographic that’s not often reached out to in GOP primaries: Democrats.
Michigan’s primary rules allow Dems to vote in the state’s GOP primaries.
Following some speculation that the robocall may have been a “false flag” effort designed to harm Santorum, a spokesman Hogan Gidley confirmed to TPM that they were indeed footing the bill, and reaching beyond party lines. “If we can get the Reagan Democrats in the primary, we can get them in the general,” he told TPM.
It’s a controversial tactic. Bill Ballenger, a longtime Michigan politico and the editor of Inside Michigan Politics, spoke with TPM about the call earlier in the day. He said the call piqued his interest because it sounded like it could have come from a union targeting Romney ahead of the Feb. 28 primary. The call focuses on Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout and calls on Democrats to vote for Santorum Tuesday because of it.
“It went on and on like this and I kept listening because I kind of smelled a rat,” Ballenger said. “And finally at the very end, in a tagline it says, ‘this call was paid for by the Santorum for president committee.’”
I asked Ballenger, who’s followed many elections in Michigan, if the Santorum call classifies as playing dirty.
“This is a dirty trick,” he said. “I mean, first of all you know how these robocalls are. You get one, generally speaking, you kind of after the first couple of sentences you know what they’re after. If you don’t hang up right away you get the message, right? Well, most people don’t listen all the way through [and] you have to listen to the bitter end of this one to get the clincher. Otherwise, you’d hang up and you’d be convinced this came out of UAW Solidarity House or the Obama reelection campaign.”
What’s more, Ballenger said, the messenger delivering an attack on Romney for opposing the auto bailout is a little disingenuous.
“You talk about chutzpah: here’s Santorum who’s just as opposed to the bailout as Romney is, but he’s putting out robocalls to Democrats urging them to crossover and vote in the Republican for Santorum,” Ballenger said. “The only thing intellectually in the whole message that it seems to be the Santorum committee could use to justify this tactic is the one line that, you know, ‘Romney was all too happy to support bailing out Wall Street, but not Michigan.’ Santorum is in the position all along of ‘a plague on both their houses. No bailouts for anybody.’”
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Wild Thing's comment......
Santorum truly is a disgusting person. Santorum is nothing but a hypocritical self-righteous moralist.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 28, 2012 02:50 AM
Comments
When I found out Sanatorium supported Specter over Toomey, I lost just about all respect for the guy. He only proved he was nothing but a party hack who placed party politics over what was right. Now, he rides his self-righteous high horse like a badge of honor.
Posted by: BobF at February 28, 2012 09:46 AM
I have become neutral on this primary. I think all four GOP contenders are very flawed. I am now just in the ABO mode. ANYBODY but obama. I would even settle for Looney Tunes Ron Paul.(Maybe his son Rand would have some influence on him?)
Posted by: TomR,armed in Texas at February 28, 2012 02:36 PM
Bob yes that was terrible that he did that. Santorum ticks me off more and more every time he opens his mouth.
Tom, I think a lot of people feel the same way. There is no one to get excited about. I agree, I will vote for the nominee, we have got to beat Obama.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 29, 2012 02:03 AM
At first I really liked Santorum, but this was ill-advised and ill-considered.
Posted by: Curmudgeon at February 29, 2012 12:14 PM
