Naughty Calls... Not From The Democrats

Are you getting annoying phone calls with "information regarding the campaign" of the local Democratic candidate? Perhaps 3 or 4 a day? Perhaps at dinnertime? Are you tired of hanging up repeatedly after the first second where you realize it is another call from the Democratic candidate? Have you decided that if you get One... More... Goddamn... Call... then you are not going to vote for that person?

Well, then the Republican National Congressional Committee, who has been making those phone calls is quite happy.

(If you didn't keep on hanging up after the first few seconds, where all you hear is "This is information regarding Mr. So-and-So, the Democratic Candidate for Congress!", you would actually find that out for yourself it is Republicans who are calling you. But who, if anybody, actually listens that long, right?)

TPM sums it up nicely:

What we're seeing is an apparent coordinated effort from the NRCC -- the House GOP committee -- to place calls that appear to be from the local Democratic candidate and then automatically call the same number back as many as seven or eight times each time the caller hang-ups. If the caller listens to the whole message it goes on to bash the Democratic candidate. But if the caller hangs up prematurely, the computer calls right back. Hang-ups are the achilles heal of robo-calls. So this seems to be an attempt to cover for that weakness by making those who hang up think the Democratic candidate is basically harassing them with phone calls. The GOP wins either way.

Remember: These calls are illegal. If you get one, feel free to complain. Call your newspaper and complain to the editor. Give them the time of the call and the content of the call. They love stories like this.