Kerry robo-calling - odd controversy, lot of acrimony going on

[Snow]

over at the daily kos around this issue:
http://www.dailykos.com/

and somebody mentions the possibility that Rove (as a generic term for Evil Republicans) might've pulled these stunts. What wasn't clear to me was whether anyone knew whether the whole business actually happened or not. I think it's reasonable to think that Rove probably didn't do the robo-calling, but I could see Rove planting a story about how Dean/Trippi is all upset over the Kerry camp doing all this nasty stuff, and the nasty stuff in reality never happened; maybe even the Dean camp never even got mad over this. Near as I can tell, all the posters over at Daily Kos have taken the story at face value. Anyone here have any way of finding something factual out about the matter? Because I find the technique quite disturbing & would like to know the truth of the matter (an elusive quality, I'll grant you, but I keep hoping....)

[killbotfactory]

1. If Rove really thinks Dean is the easiest to beat...

Why would he robo-call against him?

I'd bet money Kerry was behind it.

[pnziii]

2. Exactly my point

If Dean was such an easy person to beat why would the republicans keep attacking him. Why not tell us the white house was afraid of him and more people would have rallied and nominated him and delivered exactly what Bush wanted.

Think about it.

[KC21304]

4. I think the suggestion is that possibly it never happened.

It would be easy to start a story that Trippi was upset, etc. Did Trippi say it happened ? Let's hear from the people that it actually happened to.

[sangh0]

13. If Dean was so hard to beat

how come he lost his double digit lead in about two weeks?

[ibegurpard]

15. Maybe because someone was robocalling and pissing off

potential Dean supporters? Ya think?

[DemSigns]

3. Pukes always say one thing when

they mean another like "Clear Skies Initiative". They are afraid of Dean and his energy to truly revolutionize the Democratic Party. Rove is behind the attacks.

[CWebster]

5. OR, or maybe Kerry's operatives actually did it

just like they got caught doing.

[ibegurpard]

6. Nah

Kerry would NEVER do something like that, would he?

[KC21304]

7. You mean like calling someone at 3 in the morning and saying

they are a Dean supporter ? Sure, that happened. Urban legend # 39506

[Lexingtonian]

8. it's in the Republican playbook

They're driving all the wedges they can between Kerry supporters and Dean supporters. I'd regard them as the first suspects.

The Kerry people have been doing very little that has been counterproductive recently (other than winning, of course)- what's their incentive?

But over on Kos (hi, arcos!) it's dominantly True Believers, and they behave differently.

[GreenArrow]

9. could be Kerry...could be GOP...could be

Edwards; he's made some surprisngly big gains. Who knows, without any additional confirmation.

[Snow]

10. That was basically my question -

does anyone have any additional confirmation that would point one way or another. If there's just a story floating around out there without confirmation from Dean people or denials or something from Kerry people, then I tend to get very suspicious of Rove.

[drfemoe]

16. Dean supporters in IA and NH experienced the calls

first-hand or heard about them from people on their call lists.

One of the other campaigns took phone lists under false pretenses.

First hand accounts won't be enough to convince many. News coverage will not be believed. Like everything else in life, you have to take the best available information and use your own judgment to reach your own conclusions.

[stickdog]

11. It could have been Kerry. It could have been Repukes.

What difference does it make?

[bain_sidhe]

12. oops, found it

On edit, I found the article... off to read it

at the link you posted, and I kinda missed this story earlier. I saw the term but didn't delve into what happened. Anybody care to fill me in? Or provide a link with information about it?

[bain_sidhe]

14. So, if I'm reading this right

He hangs up. "They're robocalling our ones," he moans. "He has just gotten a report from the field that Dean "ones" are getting bombarded with computer-generated phone calls telling them to make sure to caucus for Dean-then giving them the wrong address."

Is it possible the "poor performance" of Dean - you know, the one that everybody (well, Kerry and Edwards and their supporters, anyway) said PROVED that the voters of Iowa looked and Dean and rejected him, and PROVED that his "people-powered" campaign couldn't deliver actual voters, and therefore that the whole "bounce" - and "doubts about Dean" thing that reduced his support in NH was due to NOT rejection, NOT a lack of actual turn out, but was due to the people who DID turn out "turning out" at the wrong location?

If so, this is HUGE.

[Uzybone]

18. If you believe this

then you might believe Iraq has WMD.

[ibegurpard]

19. If you CAN'T believe this

then you haven't been around politics much.

[bain_sidhe]

20. smoochies to you, too

:*

[absyntheNsugar]

17. Honestly, I think its the Repukes

Think about it...this is straight out of the Art of War.

Then this story fuels infighting between Kerry and Dean...Create confusuion amonsgst Democrats, fan the (already existant) flames of candidate bashing, create a bunch of ABD, NBD, NBK, ABK etc....

This is Win-win for the Repubs (unless they get caught).