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September 11, 2003 GOP TEACHES TELEMARKETERS A FEW TRICKS
Yet, here was an aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the president's wing man in the House, calling Walth this week to tell him he'd been so honored. What's more, DeLay and the National Republican Congressional Committee wanted Walth to call back immediately so they could launch the celebration and generate a news release.
Actual business leaders might be thrilled to get such a call, but Walth was a tad suspicious. So, he asked me to sit in as we called the number DeLay left and were promptly connected to the Business Advisory Council and a cheerful guy named Lamont.
That national leadership award, Lamont explained, was "an official citation signed by Congressman DeLay (and) presented to selected business leaders. We also want to ask you to serve as a distinguished honorary chairman on our business council."
"A chairman? Really?" Walth said. "Do I get a gavel or something?"
No, Lamont said, "but you will be invited to meetings with members of Congress and other key leaders in Washington, and you will be invited to next year's black-tie President's Dinner. It's very exclusive."
In a taped message, DeLay fleshed out this amazing offer. "You will also be invited to strategy meetings in Washington with the top leaders in the party. This is a high-level committee for business leaders like yourself, and I am personally asking you to play a leadership role."
What do you need from me, Walth asked when Lamont came back on.
Well, Lamont said, there's no charge, and there are no mandatory meetings. However, the council does run newspaper ads in The Wall Street Journal listing the names on the Business Advisory Council.
And? "And we're asking each chairman to help pay for the ad with a one-time gift of $300 or $500."
Unless you write that check, Lamont added, you can be an honorary chairman, but you can't be in the ad.
As Walth continued to ask questions, he discovered Lamont wasn't working at the NRCC office in Washington, but at Infocision, a telemarketing firm in Mansfield, Ohio. "The leading telecommunications company in the United States," Lamont said, with quite a few "non-charitable" clients.
And much as Walth might hate to hear it, he wouldn't be the only chairman from Oregon. "We are recruiting from your area," Lamont said. "At our last meeting, we had 750 people. They are, like, from all 50, 51, 52 states."
All 52 states? You can't say the Republicans aren't thorough.
"Money is so important to both political parties they are regularly devising new schemes in order to raise it," said Steven Weiss from the Center for Responsive Politics. "DeLay, in particular, has devised ways of fund raising that leave the targets unaware of how close to the line the Republicans are going."
Way back in April 2001, Scott Harshbarger, the president of Common Cause, wrote a letter to President Bush, complaining DeLay was using the business council and promises of access in a "cynical fund-raising scheme."
Last May, ABC News detailed the pitch -- which "some targeted callers say is dishonest and deceptive" -- and noted the NRCC was forced to rescind an invitation to "Virginia's Republican of the Year" when it discovered he was serving 26 years for a half-dozen sex crimes.
Yet DeLay's telemarketers just keep calling naive businessmen -- and, apparently unwittingly, a few journalists --around the country, trying to convince them they've won something while hitting them up for $500 checks to see their names in newspaper ads. As for that exclusive black-tie dinner, the NRCC's Carl Forti said it was held June 19 at the Washington Convention Center . . . with 7,500 national leaders in the crowd.
Honorary chairmen. Perfect fools.
Copyright (c) 2003 Oregonian Publishing Co.
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