As the Presidential candidates poke their heads out of their holes to check the political weather, the exploratory campaigns are looking to report early fund-raising goals met to intimidate the other hopefuls. Today I got a call from John McCain’s exploratory campaign; the reason, I imagine, is that I gave McCain a substantial donation during the 2000 primary (under the philosophy that the enemy of my enemy is my friend – turns out, not so much).
The young fellow on the phone had one of those sunny and enthusiastic voices (think the page on 30 Rock if you watch that show). At first, I was sure I was about to get a pitch for a vacation time-share. I can’t guarantee a verbatim transcript, but the end of the conversation really stuck in my mind.
Sunny-boy: Would you like to be among the first Arizonans to express your support for the candidacy of Senator John McCain for President?
Me: I wouldn’t support McCain even if he tortured me.
Sunny-boy: What? Senator McCain wouldn’t torture someone…
Me: Probably not, but he condones torture. So I won’t support him even if I was tortured.
Sunny-boy: Don’t you understand what they’re doing to our people?
Me: Don’t lecture me on war, Sunny-boy. I don’t imagine anyone gives a crap, but if someone does, tell them I won’t support John McCain because he’s soft on torturers.
Sunny-boy: And I thought we were calling Americans today.
::click::
I really couldn’t stop laughing at the time, but it is undeniably offensive and ironic that this little Neo-Con working for John McCain’s campaign thinks me un-American because I think torture is categorically wrong. My wife says it is unfair for me to impute the actions of a campaign worker to Senator McCain, but I disagree. A candidate is responsible for the supporters he attracts. Their views and values reflect on his own, and I wonder how McCain can to stand to look at himself in that mirror.
If I feel like it, I might just call McCain’s HQ and ask for satisfaction on this matter and see what happens. Might be revelatory.
UPDATE 1/3: I got a call from Strategic Campaigns, which is
doing phone contact work for Senator McCain’s exploratory committee.
Apparently, the Committee contacted the company and told them to
investigate the matter. They pulled a recording of the call and
disciplined the caller, who had, they claim, just put in his two week
notice. He’ll be leaving sooner than expected. All this despite the
fact that they knew perfectly well that I’m a Democrat (who contributed
to McCain’s 2000 primary bid – but nonetheless, I made it perfectly
clear in my letter that I’m no longer a fan of the Senator).
I gotta say I’m impressed by the professionalism and follow-through
of McCain’s staff and that of the political shop doing the work. The VP
who called me told me his firm works almost exclusively for GOP
campaigns. I gotta wonder if a Democratic campaign would have been
organized enough to respond to a pissed off Republican in such a
fashion, and if a Democratic shop would have been professional enough
to have a VP call and say, "Sorry". I hope so, but I’m really not at
all sure.
You have to acknowledge the fact that the GOP tends to treats
politics more like a customer service oriented business. Too often,
Democrats do not. I can’t tell you the number of times during the ’06
campaigns when I heard the same sad story from Democratic activists: "I
contacted the campaign and told them I wanted to volunteer and they
never got back to me." If our candidates can’t organize their campaigns
well enough to contact their allies and volunteers reliably, what
chance that they’d make such a gesture to across the aisle?
Of course, part of it is just a matter of assets; McCain is
certainly not short of campaign cash and can afford professional
organization. But, unfortunately, I don’t think money explains
everything. Part of it may be that McCain will be relying heavily on
Democratic cross-over voters to win if he takes the nomination, so he’d
prefer not to burn any bridges among Democrats. There may also be some
truth to the idea that the GOP just does retail politics better than we
do. They may not have as attractive candidates, may focus too much on
their most vociferous base, and may have retrograde and benighted
policy goals, but, in the immortal words of GWB, they’re workin’ hard,
but it’s hard work.
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hmmm, tangentally related and rambling… quite an improvement, Dwight.
Seriously; I would like to see Congress enforce The Federal Do Not Call Registery so that you and I do NOT get these calls in the first place! I have been engaged in the last three years with a call center in India that has called my phone number over 3,000 times selling a transfer to unsuspecting American Lenders for between $45.00 and $75.00 a transfer, when they stole my personal I.D. information from a 10 year old AOL account that was long since closed. Quest put a trap-trace feature on my phone last Feb. and asked me to file a Police Report to begin the long process of prosecution of The Act of Congress that has been ignored by The Repubican business friendly Congress and a FTC unwilling to enforce the Law passed by Congress establishing The Federal Do Not Call Registery.
I involved The F.B.I. and The Department of Homeland Security only to find out they are well aware of the Telemarketing Fraud problem coming from India bouncing calls through Canada then to The United States due to Canadas weak laws on prosecution of Terrorist and Criminal Acts from Canadian Call Centers. As many of you have seen the story hosted by Stone Philips about Mobs in India that have moved to Canada featuring a man from India who put a hit on his daughter to be killed! The phone companies traced – trapped his phone calls to India over 29 times and taped his convesation with the hit man in India. Yet as T.V. cameras rooled on the father who put the hit on his daughter The Canadian Mounted Police would not arrest or extradite the father to India for Prosecution of the murder of his daughter. The F.B.I. refrred me to http://www.phonebusters.com! To my astonishment this web-site is The Canadian Mounted Police website that details telemarketing fraud, secret shooppes scams and every kind of criminal act coming out of Canada; yet people in Tucson were NOT made aware of The Secret Shoppers scam and fell vitim to it even though posted on the Canadian Mounties web-site! I went ballistic at The Department of Homeland Security for NOT posting at least a LINK to there web-site so that since the local news media did not give a damn about REAL NEWS but continued along a path of reporting after the fact , that miled Tucson residents out of thousands of dollars. As you may recall to be a secret shopper you were asked to send in $2,000 dollars to a Canadian Call Center before you got your “KIT!”
The same is going on with the Indian Call Center who continues to call me today over 20 times! They set up a phoney Transfer to an unsuspecting American Loan Company than call you back and say for $3,000 dollars we will give you a better loan , just send the money to Canada! Also today I was alarmed that this same Call Center and same person is asking for birthdays and Social Security Numbers and when I followed the call through the loop as the Police and F.B.I. want me to do,even the American Lender was suspicious of giving Birthadys and SSI’s to a Indian Call Center that does NOT finalize the loan process.
Along the way over three years of gaining information about the acts of this Call Center different people have given me information that they had been involved in funding criminal acts and even involved funding acts of Terrorism, all of this has been included in the case and F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security has been informed. But I found extensive Stove Piping still going on and can work better behind the scenes with people at Quest and The Arizona Attorney Generals Office who had relatives experience the same thing but thought they were pulling there leg! So I have been able to get operating case numbers with The F.T.C. through the back door as if you call the F.T.C. today you are directed to yet another call center NOT the F.T.C.!!!
This case is the size of a phone book but I do not want it taken to a Court of Law until we havethis Call Center and person nailed cold, as with the 20th hijacker is wiggling out of his trial due to F.B.I. entrapment and screw-ups.
This layering has forced The Oro Valley police and The Quest Security Office to gain Court Orders to break through layering of Phone calls through different phone companies, who by law MAY NOT share information about phone calls with one another.
Hopfully now that Congress has shifted its support away from business back to the people , this case will be brought before a Congressional sub-committee and send a message to the Law Breakers who knowingly violate The Federal Act Of Congress known as The Federal Do Not Call Registery!
LOL!
Thanks for staying on topic, Dwight. Always a delight to read you lucid and incisive comments.
Let me tell you a personal story about my Cousin David Rehmann who was one of the first fighter pilots shot down in Viet Nam and paraded in the streets of Hanoi with his left arm casted high above his shoulder. He was in the Hanoi Hilton years longer than McCain. I recently sent McCain a letter asking him if he remembered David(As I knew he should have being with him for years) and a few months later my letter was returned and he mysteriously declined any comment. I was so taken back by this that I asked my Cousin what McCain felt GUILTY of by not acknowledging years after the fact at least the recognition of other prisoners of war being held at the Hanoi Hilton besides McCain! David was featured on the front cover of LIFE MAGAZINE in 1966 being paraded before hundreds of Communist Chinese on a main street in Hanoi.
As far as hiring a lawyer to represent anyone engaged in a WAR of any kind, after capture, directed by a Government either that was attacked or issued the attack, when lawyers in Pima County could not fight there way out of a paper bag for fear of some future case that may prejudice that lawyer against another lawyer;THE HELL WITH THE VICTIM: in other words Lawyers in Pima County re so PC they can’t see the forest for the trees;and are controlled by the Mexican Consulate who directs Isabelle Garcia like a puppet on a string; torture is not going to be a lawyers delight like the Abortion debate has been used only for political advantage;the HELL with the Victim!
Lawyers need to stay the Hell away from Generals fighting any WAR!
Don’t be so hard on the McCain staffers, as they must make such critical calls for the Sr Senator from AZ as he is far too busy on his knees in front of various members of the religious right and other wackos. I hope he borrowed Monica L.’s “Presidential Kneepads”, as spending as much time ‘sucking up’ as he is doing can be very hard on a man his ages knees!
If John McCain supports torture that will be the only issue on which he has taken only one side!
McCain – Hmmmmm! – is this the same McCain who Bush savaged in the primary in South Carolina by accusing him of having fathered a black child? Is this the same McCain who, in 2004, embraced George Bush and supported his candidacy? Is this the same McCain who endured time in a Viet Nam prison and later refused to stand up and be counted in the matter of torture?
PFUI!!!!! (I hope you don’t have a problem pronouncing that.)
Well, Michael, I have to agree with your wife, especially when folks like yourself hijack the phone call into turf not covered on their script. They are expecting supportive or at least somewhat compliant reception. You had the kid outgunned, and in my opinion, you can probably outgun any of the folks that will be calling you in this capacity.
You may know better than me, but from what I’ve seen, these are unpaid volunteers, and campaigns take almost whatever they can get. I suspect we have very similar opinions of sell out McCain, and I think the man has set a record for the most transparent pandering to the repulsive with the aim of gaining office.