Phone Banks in Force

Well, it appears as though Republican phone banks are out in force trying to assign the blame for failures in New Orleans to the local government, Governor Blanco and Mayer Nagen (both Democrats).

Why am I pretty sure it's a phone bank and not really legitimate calls?

Because one of my local talk shows that I listen to in the morning on my way in to work isn't available anywhere but here, and yet they received a call from someone who identified themselves as (I'm making up the name, because I didn't catch it, but the state is correct) "Ed in Virginia".

The substance of his call was "I want to know why the Mayor and the Governor dropped the ball so badly!". I remember thinking to myself "Odd, why would someone from VA be calling the show?"

I was then listening to a nationally syndicated left-wing radio show, hosted by a man named Thom Hartmann. He hosts a local show (not available on the internet or anywhere outside of Portland OR) in the morning and his nationally syndicated show in the afternoon. He mentioned during the national show having been surprise to receive during his morning show a call from someone in Virginia asking pretty much exactly the same question.

So tell me this, why are people from Virginia calling radio programs that they can't be listening to, can't be regular fans of, asking such a loaded question?

This can't be another Rovian tactic, can it? Rove, the man who helped defeat TX Governor Ann Richards by having a phone bank call voters and ask "If you knew that Gov. Richards was gay, would it affect your vote?". Gov. Richards is not gay, but that one poll convinced enough homophobes that she WAS to turn the tide of the election.

Tell me this: If the FACTS really support that the federal government did everything right and local government was entirely responsible for the failure, why resort to this level of tactic? If the truth is on your side, why can't you simply rely on thinking people everywhere getting the message out?

Liam.