Who do you suppose is at the bottom of this?
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
It strikes me as too clumsy to have been authorized by any official campaign office. I am betting on a zealous (and ignorant) amateur.
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
I wonder how they obtained the mailing list?
--j_k
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
How incredibly sad someone thinks they have to stoop to such a nasty tactic.
Maybe Romney should take it as a compliment - whoever masterminded this obviously considers him a threat.
Posted by Paul Goldner (Member # 1910) on :
Thats pretty dispicable. I hope whoever did it gets hit with a really large stick.
And this is win win for me, cause I hope romney gets hit by the electorate with a really big stick.
Which highlights why this is such a problem.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Off the top of my head, there's a possible civil action for violation of the Lanham act (false designation of goods), depending on whether this counts as "commerce." There's also possibly a state cause of action for unfair trade practices.
There's likely some kind of state ban on false campaign materials, and possibly a federal one.
If I got creative, I could come up with a way to make this meet the mail fraud definition - and mail fraud is a RICO predicate. Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
quote:Originally posted by James Tiberius Kirk: I wonder how they obtained the mailing list?
--j_k
Isn't it pretty easy to get a listing of "all Republicans" or "all Democrats" in a given demographic from their regional election offices? I mean, I figured since I get so many political mailings, it must be given out to the party somewhere....
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
"Who do you suppose is at the bottom of this?"
"Warren Tompkins, a political consultant who ran George Bush's 2000 campaign in South Carolina and now is Romney's top consultant in the state." We are talking about a Rove operative after all.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
Wouldn't this fall under free speech? Nobody has mentioned that any libelous statements about Romney were in the letter.
If you have to get creative to try and find a way to prosecute someone for something, I think that might be an indication that they may not deserve legal punishment.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Free speech doesn't protect fraud, or allow you to make statements that purport to be in someone else's name.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:Wouldn't this fall under free speech? Nobody has mentioned that any libelous statements about Romney were in the letter.
Free speech does not allow someone to impersonate another, any more than it allows someone to stamp "Rolex" on a cheap digital watch and try to sell it.
The only criminal sanction I mentioned was to mail fraud, and I did not advocate using it. The other sanctions - all civil - are not stretches. This falls squarely under the anticipated uses of such laws.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Can't say I am shocked something like this would happen, especially in the bible belt.
This doesn't mean I think Christians in the bible belt are all malicious Mormon haters, but that there is enough disagreement with Mormonism and enough hate that this development is not a shocking one.
I hope the group responsible is identified and duly punished.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
The Orson Pratt thing is not "a controversial passage from the Book of Mormon".
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