Political Crap

This is truly a perfect example of political crap!

The Republican party is running a sort of bait-and-switch scam where they call small business owners, and tell them they’ve won a National Leadership Award, and they want to help you work on the press release. When you call back, they play a message from Representative Tom Coles, and then ask for $500 so your name can be added to the list. They also tell you that your $500 donation will get your name in the Wall Street Journal and an invite to dinner with the President of the United States.

I got called by this group, and I posted my story on one of my other blogs, Comic Strip Politics. Here’s a basic synopsis:

I was working in my home office, and my wife came down with a message. Jessica Brown from Congressman Tom Cole’s office had called, and apparently, he wanted to give me a National Leadership Award. All I had to do was return the call at 1-877-213-0603 and they would work on my press release.

My wife though maybe it had something to do with the many websites I operate online, but I immediately smelled a rat. I figured it was a Nigerian Scam of some sort, using a random name and a phony award to get people to fork over their money. After some fruitless searching, I searched for the phone number they had left at which to call them back, 1-877-213-0603. That’s when the whole plot began to unfold.

It seems that I’m not the only one being called by Congressman Tom Cole’s office and being offered a National Leadership award. Anyone who is a “small businessman” is being called and offered this award. The message is always the same, telling them that they have won a National Leadership Award and they need to call back so they can get started on their press release.

When you call back, you are told that they are the National Republican Congressional Comittee, and they patch you through to a recorded message from Tom Coles about how the NRCC needs you to donate $500 to they can fight the Democrats and help small businessman such as yourselves.

Another blogger actually recorded the call, so you can see for yourself exactly how it all went down. This has got to be one of the sleaziest fundraising methods I’ve ever heard of. If a private company tried this or a charity, they would be condemned by everyone, and hypocritical Congressmen would be the first to throw the stones.

If you read this site on a regular basis, you know that I’m have no affiliation with a political party. I am certainly not a Democrat, and this is not is not some kind of Republican bashing post to make Democrats look good. To be honest, I think the Democrats are capable of just as sleazy things. Nearly all politicians are, and that’s why politics is such crap!

Anyway, so that’s my story. Leave a comment if you’d like and tell me what you think about all this.