Thursday, February 23, 2012

Dirty tricks

An odd thing about dirty tricks -- they are usually not necessary.

Some readers may be old enough to remember President Nixon. He was going to be reelected without any major issue. He didn't need Watergate and the Plumbers.

In a similar way, the attempt to mislead Liberal voters in the last election was (leaving aside the ethics) unnecessary. Despite a brilliant candidate in Oshawa we were not going to win in 2011. There was no need for the Conservatives to play games -- and yet they did.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must have missed something. Has it already been proven that the Conservatives were indeed behind it?

Anonymous said...

to anon 6:56, the news report includes:

Conservatives are conducting an internal probe. A party lawyer is interviewing campaign workers to find who was behind the deceptive “robocalls.”

And their spokesperson is already saying any local riding people involved (although this involved 18 or more ridings) "will not be involved in future election campaigns".

I think the point is that Elections Canada and the RCMP both know whose account was used (unlike the disposable phone used and paid for in cash), the account required real identification and a credit card or band transfer). The wording of news reports and statements by the CPC suggests that account was a CPC account (18 Conservative candidates are known to have used Racknine). However, even in that case, it may not be tied to party central. Although it also does not seem to be the work of an individual (with 18 ridings, two different woman's voices, each impersonating Elections Canada and committing a crime).

Rotterdam said...

Interesting, I caught a little of Pat Martin in CBC, he also mentioned Nixon.
The left will never mention Kennedy in 1960. That was a close election, Daley in Illinois, and of course Texas stole it for Kennedy.

Pro Obama Black Panther thugs undertook voter suppression in 2008. Interesting how Eric Holder dropped the charges. The left never seemed too outraged, wonder why?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Black_Panther_Party_voter_intimidation_case

Anonymous said...

This was not a sophisticated operation.In fact it was a clumsy inneffective plan. The comparisons to Watergate are just plain stupid.

Both sides during the Quebec referendum were accused of breaking the law.

There is nothing new here going on.

Pmr said...

Maybe they should just hold by-elections in the 18 ridings and then those who were 'misdirected' would get an opportunity to vote - it won't happen, but it would be interesting to see the outcome!!