Group Making Robocalls With Fake Harry Reid Caller ID

By GottaLaff

Dirty tricks, and more dirty tricks. Rushpublics are equating themselves with vile behavior on a regular basis, and find their party swirling down the toidy drain. Here's one reason why:

Congressional staffers have been plagued over the past two days with telephone calls that appear to be coming from Senate Majority Harry Reid's office but are actually from an anonymous organization highly critical of Democrats.

Several aides on the Hill reported receiving calls on Monday and Tuesday that their Caller ID erroneously said were being made from Reid's headquarters. Upon picking up the phone, they were greeted by an automated message of approximately 45 seconds in length. [...]

[T]he caller said there was "too much spending going on in D.C. but that Republicans weren't to blame."

Using a certain technology, callers can make an incorrect caller identification appear on the recipient's phone. Both chambers of Congress attempted to outlaw the practice in 2007. But those pieces of legislation have yet to become law.

[...] Senator Reid weighs into the issue, casting blame for the calls on "Republican defenders of the status quo."

"While it is still uncertain who is placing these calls or where they are originating from, creating a false caller ID is dishonest and misleading. They represent yet another attempt by Republican defenders of the status quo to distract from the real issues," said Reid's Rodell Mollineau. "Whether it's disrupting town halls, spreading outrageous lies about health reform or even denying President Obama's American citizenship, these Republicans have shown that their only goal is to stop America from moving forward."

Just as trolls do on blogs like ours, Rushpublics either feign innocence ("who me?") or go to hostile extremes, most recently even resorting to threats and violence. If only they understood that bullying and deceptive behavior like this does more to diminish what's left of their collective reputation than it does to help their cause.

Civil discourse-- honest, open, respectful communication-- is so much more effective (and, ahem, safer) than brandishing a gun (in the case I linked to the gun belonged to a Ron Pauler).

Can we get back to real democracy now?