Tony Goolsby, dirty tricks

The Nightly Build...

---

Feigned Outrage over Fake Push-Polling

Tim Rogers, in Frontburner, alleges dirty tricks in the race for Texas House District 102, currently held by Tony Goolsby. He doesn't come right out and say it, but he implies that it's Goolsby's opponent, Carol Kent, who is running phony push-polling phone calls against Goolsby.

Personally, I find it more likely that someone in the Goolsby campaign itself, or perhaps sufficiently detached from it for plausible deniability, has been making the offensive phone calls to justify accusing Goolsby's opponent of dirty tricks. Check the reader comments to the Frontburner blog item. For example, this comment by one "Kent Can't":

"I also received a call from the company Carol Kent hired to conduct this dirty scam. I got the telemarketer to admit he was in a call center in Delhi, India. Then he told me he had no idea who Carol Kent was, but she apparently paid his company money. At least that’s what I thought he said...could hardly understand the fellow."

Does this pass the smell test? Have you ever gotten a call from a Indian telemarketer, or any telemarketer for that matter, who is willing to answer questions about his job and about who in America is paying his company for his time? The comment reads to me like someone is making up stuff to smear Carol Kent, perhaps as part of a concerted dirty tricks campaign.

Here's how it would work. First, make some offensive calls to staunch Goolsby supporters. Wait for them to tell someone in the press about it. When an obliging writer like Tim Rogers of Frontburner complies, then pile on the reader comments convicting Carol Kent of something the Goolsby campaign itself manufactured. Finally, start running your own ads criticizing Carol Kent for running a dirty tricks campaign. There. A perfect dirty trick where the victim herself gets blamed for the dirty trick you engineered. Right from the playbook perfected by Karl Rove himself, who, perhaps not coincidentally, was in Dallas August 13 to raise money for, wait for it...Tony Goolsby.

Do I have any proof of this? No. You are right to be skeptical of any such accusation against Tony Goolsby. Just as you should be skeptical of the unfounded accusations now being leveled against Carol Kent. But if you do want to start your own investigation, start by asking yourself this question. Who stands to gain from running a blatantly offensive push-polling scheme against Tony Goolsby that's bound to come to light and get all sorts of negative publicity? The supposed target, Goolsby himself, right? Certainly not Carol Kent. Follow the self-interest.

By the way, if you think Goolsby hasn't been accused before of playing dirty, check out the libel lawsuit filed against him by his opponent in the 2006 race. According to Lone Star Project:

"A 2006 cynical smear campaign and voter suppression scheme orchestrated by Republican State House Representative Tony Goolsby (HD102, Dallas), along with Dallas County Republican Party Chair Kenn George and a Dallas GOP consultant, may have backfired. Monday [Oct 15, 2007], former challenger Harriet Miller, with support from Lone Star Project, filed a lawsuit in the 192nd State District Court showing that their attack 'constitutes slander' and was committed with 'actual malice.' "

Someone has some explaining to do, to the judge at least and maybe to the voters. And it's not Carol Kent.