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Wednesday, June 20, 2007 

The Truth About "Caging"

The Democrats are at it again. Recently, you may have seen Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln stirring up the pot and calling for an investigation into so-called caging activities in Florida in 2004. Those of us at the Truth Blog feel we must set the record straight on this whole issue.

Let us be clear - this is nothing more than an attempt to smear a good Arkansan for political gain in the midst of an historical Presidential election cycle. Nothing more.

To insinuate that Tim Griffin tried to keep black voters from the polls is wrong and our Senators should be ashamed of themselves.

Democrats have a history of making such claims and have even instructed their followers to make up claims even when they don't exist. Case in point:

In 2004, an internal memo from John Kerry's campaign instructed democrats that "if no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a 'pre-emptive strike' (particularly well-suited to states in which these techniques have been tried in the past.)."

Here is an article from 2004:

The New York Post
October 15, 2004 Friday

DEMOCRAT PRIMER: PLAY A PHONY RACE CARD BY CHARGING VOTE 'INTIMIDATION'

VINCENT MORRIS
Post Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Republicans ripped into John Kerry yesterday over a stunning new internal manual that advises Democrats to launch "pre-emptive" strikes charging the GOP with voter intimidation - even if none exists.

The "Election Day Manual" - written for Kerry's Colorado campaign workers - includes a menu of options Democrats can follow next month to claim Republican intimidation, ranging from issuing press releases to organizing minority leaders to denounce the practice.

It was unclear last night whether the manual had been penned by the Kerry campaign or the Democratic National Committee, although questions about it were fielded by the DNC.

Democratic leaders dismissed the charge, insisting the manual was aimed at providing guidance for "preventing and combating" voter intimidation from happening in the first place.

"All of the states received some language on combating and preventing voter intimidation," said DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera.

In part, the manual reads: "If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a 'pre-emptive strike' (particularly well-suited to states in which these techniques have been tried in the past.)."

The manual goes on to provide ways in which Kerry workers can spotlight intimidation, including organizing ministers or other civic leaders to protest it, writing press releases and reminding people about past examples of GOP voter intimidation.

Cabrera said he wasn't sure whether the same guidance turns up in strategy manuals given to Kerry workers in other states, nor was he sure who wrote the section at issue.

Tad Devine, a top Kerry aide, defended the manual on CNN late yesterday. "What happened in 2000 will never happen again. We're going to make sure that people vote. We're going to make sure people of color are not turned away from voting places," Devine said.

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ted Halaby told the Post the document was revealing. "I'm shocked that the Democratic National Committee would stoop to such low gutter politics," he said.

On behalf of Bush, the Republican National Committee called on Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Lewis to respond to the memo and he called it "outrageous."

"It's truly outrageous and callous to suggest to operatives that if you don't see intimidation, to sort of make it up,' Lewis said.

"I understand why Sen. Kerry has to do this. He has not as of this moment connected in a very strong way with African-American voters."
----
Colorado Election Day Manual
2. If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a "pre-emptive strike" (particularly well-suited to states in which these techniques have been tried in the past).

We know that the democrats tried to paint republicans as racists who would block black voters from the polls and filed numerous lawsuits. And now they want us to believe that Griffin was some mastermind to intimidate black voters? Ridiculous.

The democrats main reference on this issue is a shady reporter named Gregory Palast, who "broke" his story in 2004 with the BBC. At the time, the MSM accurately discounted his claims as political and outrageous.

Yet now they claim a list of 1800 registered voters titled "caging" is their "smoking gun" that voter intimidation was underway. However, the media never mentions the real definition of caging.

Caging is a technique used by direct mail firms to purge their lists of addresses where the mail bounces back or in undeliverable. According to a direct mail firm caging is "the process of receiving, processing, and reporting the mailing results." That's right, the so-called "caging" list was most likely a list from a mailing sent to newly registered voters urging them to vote.

In fact, Mindy Fletcher Tucker, the spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Florida sent a letter to the BBC refuting its claims in 2004 stating the list "was a listing of returned mail that came from a mailing that the Republican National Committee sent to new registrants in Duval County in Florida, encouraging newly registered Republicans, Democrats and Independents to vote Republican. Voter registration has been a heavy concentration of both parties this year and both national and state Republican parties have been reaching out to new registrants for the upcoming election. The Duval County list was created to collect the returned mail information from the Republican National Committee mailing and was intended and has been used for no purpose other than that."

Its clear that Senator Mark Pryor has had a beef with Tim Griffin ever since he was named U.S. Attorney in Arkansas. Tim Griffin is a good Arkansan and believes in the right to vote. In fact, Griffin's family has a history of defending the rights of African Americans. In fact, in 1972 his father, then the pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Charlotte. N.C., stood up to threats from the Ku Klux Klan over his policy of allowing black children to play in the church gymnasium.

Tim himself has a record of fighting for the rights of black Arkansans. During his brief term as prosecutor his office indicted a person who allegedly used threatening, racist language to try to keep a black person from living in the person’s neighborhood.

We know that democrats will not let facts get in the way of a good political opportunity, but we thought the media would check the facts before reporting on such slimy and obviously political accusations. We urge our readers to contact our Senators and urge them to look at all the facts before jumping on the political band wagon.

Isn't time we had representatives in Arkansas who cared more about Arkansas then political rhetoric?

Its funny we never hear anything about the democrats paying black preachers to "deliver votes" during an election, yet we take this fool Palast's word even though the evidence just doesn't add up. What a joke.

The reason the Dems are pushing so hard on this is because of a larger reason. If they can scare Republicans from challenging illegal voters they can register and have more illegal voters in 2008. This is much bigger yet no one is reporting on the number of illegal votes that are cast each year by Democrats, or the buying of votes, or even the voting of dead people. They think if they can muddy the waters enough Republicans will be scared to challenge any votes in 08. Disgusting. You should report on all the Democrat shenanigans from 04, there are plenty...

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