After the phony robocalls started yesterday, I decided to write to the Mary Clancy identified on the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) as the Treasurer of the sponsoring organization. (The group, the ironically named "Honest Leadership for Virginia PAC," turned out to be a front for the Republican Governor?s Association.) My e-mail was, I thought, a very calm, if judgmental, request that her PAC cease and desist such unprincipled and unethical activities immediately. After that, I wrote to every newspaper reporter on the list Lowell provided, requesting that they write about this latest dirty trick, and providing the reporters with relevant, public information on the "Honest Leadership for Virginia" PAC. Specifically, I provided the PAC's phone number and email address, as well as a description of their activities and the (large) amount of money they had donated, 100 percent going to Republican candidates. This morning I called WTOP with the same information. My tag line consistently was that these Republican dirty tricks were undermining the electoral process, destroying our political system, and were one reason I had left the Republican Party after 64 years of devoted service.
This afternoon, I received a call from an attorney who identified himself as being in the same office as a Sean (Shawn?) Clancy. The attorney informed me that I was to remove the Clancy name, address, and phone number from ?my blog? at once; rowdy people were going by their house, it was a residential phone number, there were children in the house, they had had to establish security forces there, and the FBI had been notified., etc., etc. Frankly, I was a little surprised when he said children were in the house, and that the phone number was a residence (why are the Republicans, who have no lack of funds to hire commercial space, hiding "Honest Leadership for Virginia" in a private home anyway? Is it laundering money, like Tom Delay?s PAC? But I didn?t inquire.)
The attorney continued on his ego trip, trying to bully me. When I asked why he had called me, as I am pretty far down the totem pole of the RaisingKaine organizaation, he said I was the only one he could find; that e-mail I sent to Mary Clancy, I suppose. My response was restrained and courteous (in my view), but I have to tell you this is one more case of the Republicans being all too eager to dish it out, but utterly unwilling to take it. You see, the new Republican elite doesn?t want us peasants to get uppity. The bottom line is that THEY ARE THE ONES who decided to put this PAC in a private residence. Also, this was PUBLIC information. End of story.
Perhaps most curious about all this is why the Republican Governors Association is busy funneling their money into Virginia like this in the first place. Seems to me that we Virginians are perfectly able to think for ourselves. Seems to me that we only want to have an honest election to decide our own future in Virginia, and that we do not need an organization representing governors of other states meddling in our affairs - especially in such an unethical manner. Seems to me that we should tell ?em all to go to hell by putting Kaine, Byrne, and Deeds over the top to victory Big Time on Tuesday!