Redstate

By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Republicans — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

This is peculiar:

Checking her home message machine late last month, Rep. Anne Northup was surprised to discover a call urging her to call -- herself.

The 3rd District Republican was both the recipient and the target of an unusual anonymous telephone campaign alleging she supported "privatizing Social Security."

Hundreds of Kentuckians have called Northup and two other House members at the urging of the telephone campaign, the lawmakers said.

It apparently was part of a broader effort that included another 19 GOP House members, including Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana's 8th District, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

"It was so filled with misinformation," Northup said of the message. "The claims in it were so outlandish that I honestly feel that people do more damage to their position than they do help it."

No group has claimed responsibility for the calls, which also went to Kentuckians in the districts of Reps. Ron Lewis and Hal Rogers.

[. . .]

The messages from the mystery phone campaign were nearly identical to those left in Northup's district late last month, one of which was recorded by The Courier-Journal.

The lawmaker who was cited in the recording depended on who was being called. The call stated that the lawmaker supported "privatizing Social Security," a move that "would cost taxpayers $2 trillion ... (and) would also decrease future benefits to retirees by 47 percent."

As part of reforming Social Security, Bush has suggested allowing Americans to have individual investment accounts, in which a portion of their payroll taxes could go into stocks and bonds. Retirees who participate in the voluntary accounts would have those earnings offset by a smaller payment from Social Security.

Some critics have attacked the proposal as a step toward "privatizing" Social Security.

[. . .]

The message criticizing Northup included a toll-free number people could call.

That number was registered to the American Federation of Teachers, but that group said it was not behind the campaign. The federation disconnected the number late last month after the number was linked to the anonymous campaign.

"Somebody apparently appropriated our number for their own purposes," said federation spokeswoman Janet Bass.

Pamela Causey, spokeswoman for the Washington-based National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, also said her organization wasn't behind the phone campaign. The group doesn't make calls to the public, she said, but rather focuses on mobilizing its 4 million members.

"When we contact them, they know it's us," Causey said.

Carl Forti, a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman, called the phone campaign "scare tactics."

"The only point in doing this is to generate phone calls to get the seniors ginned up, and (Bush's plan) isn't going to affect seniors," he said.

Greg Speed, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said his party had nothing to do with the phone campaign. "We don't know anything about it," he said.

So who is behind all of this? No one knows, but it should be kind of hard to take scare tactics seriously when those responsible for them don't even have the courage to own up to using the tactics.