MSNBC’s Chris Hayes had Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times on his show last night to discuss the circle of scam that is conservative politics. BaseConnect, formerly called BMW Direct, pretends to be a mail order fundraising business for long-shot Republican candidates and veterans, but keeps almost all of the money it raises from senior citizens.
Conservative scams are almost risk free. Not only is this behavior completely legal, the marks generally want to be scammed. I found a fresh example of his in my inbox just yesterday morning. Mark Neumann of the Tea Party Victory Fund thinks he’s figured out
the most obvious, easiest way to repeal ObamaCare: force Senate Demcrats (sic) in red states to crack! Read these names and think along with me here:
· Mary Landrieu of Lousiana,
· Mark Pryor of Louisana,
· Kay Hagan of North Carolina,
· Joe Manchin of West Virginia.What do they all have in common?
They are all so-called “moderate” Democrats in states where President Obama is DEEPLY unpopular. They all know they they are fighting for their political lives because of their support for ObamaCare. They all got pressured into voting for this unpopular law by the President and Harry Reid, and now they’re paying the price. They’re mad about it. They’re looking for a way out, and they can’t find one.
You see, Obama’s going to be gone in two years. He never has to run again. But these Democrats do! While Obama is off on a two week vacation in Hawaii, these Democrats are going to be at home, taking it on the chin from their constituents who are fit to be tied over losing their health care plan due to ObamaCare. And that’s why we have a unique opportunity here. We are going to absolutely make these Democrats’ lives hell until they shout “Uncle!” and declare their support for repealing ObamaCare.
We are going to do “Press 1” calls into their state–calling angry voters in their state, and telling the voters to just “Press 1 on your phone” to be connected to your Senator’s office and tell them how angry you are about ObamaCare, and that if they don’t vote for repeal, you’re never voting for them again. We can flood these Democrat’s offices with literally thousands of these phone calls every single day. Imagine being in an office every day with the phone constantly ringing off the hook with angry supporters yelling at you over this bill. Trust me, it really takes a toll.
We won’t stop there either. We’ll run cable TV and radio ads in the states as well, telling people to call their offices, send letters, flood them with emails.
By the time we’re done, either these Democrats are going to be so shaken and upset that they’ll be demanding repeal themselves. And if not, if they are still so thick headed that they hang with Obama and keep supporting ObamaCare, we will have made the voters in their state so angry with them, that it will be IMPOSSIBLE for them to get re-elected.
It’s a win-win. There is no way we lose. We are just going to absolutely clobber these guys for the next several months. We’re going to make them feel the heat if they won’t see the light.
To those of us who live in the real world, where Senate staffers don’t enjoy having their time wasted and the ACA passed the Senate in 2010, this kind of activity seems ridiculous and frankly quite stupid. But to the kind of conservatives who attend town halls and tell their Congresscritters to “get rid of Obama” in any way possible, the idea of annoying Democratic staffers has appeal. More to the point, it costs virtually nothing to set people up with a call forward these days, so Neumann can call every donated dollar pure profit; and incredibly, it won’t be against the law if Neumann then charges callers for the favor, too.
Incredible, pure and simple!