AP reporter Larry Margasak followed the money that paid for Republican dirty phone tricks during the 2002 federal elections. He discovered that an early prime investor in GOP Marketplace, Allen Raymond’s telemarketing services company, was GOP insider Haley Barbour. According to Wikipedia, Barbour held the same position in Ronald Reagan’s White House that Ken Mehlman had when his White House office got those hundreds of phone call from busy phone jammers:
…Barbour was President Ronald Reagan’s Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs for two years…Barbour later served as chairman of then-Governor George W. Bush’s presidential campaign advisory committee in 2000…
In 1991, Barbour helped found Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, with Lanny Griffith and Ed Rogers, two lawyers who formerly worked in the George H. W. Bush administration. In 1998, Fortune Magazine named Barbour Griffith & Rogers the second-most-powerful lobbying firm in America. In 2001, after the inauguration of George W. Bush, Fortune named it the most powerful.
Margasak’s article also details the other known 2002 GOP Marketplace dirty phone trick, attack calls made during the Super Bowl.
In related and recent news, Republicans got caught attacking Democrats with anonymous robocalls in Illinois. They defended their action (after denying it) by claiming that a loophole allowed them to do it.
Last week, a few Democratic House members said their constituents were getting
prerecorded phone calls at home, in which a voice would allege that the
legislator was cutting state pensions and veterans’ funds. The recording would
implore the listener to tell the legislator to oppose the budget practices of
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat.The calls didn’t identify who they were from. After initial denials, Republican
House officials last week acknowledged they were behind the phone campaign.
They said the program, which cost “less than $10,000” in party funds, was
designed to put pressure on Democrats to stop backing what Republicans see as
dangerous budget maneuvers by the Blagojevich administration.
The exploitiation of loopholes like this is just what you’d expect from a party hierarchy where lobbyists are accepted and welcome partners in national politics.