A Troll Through The Muck
For more than a month, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has tried to distance himself from a secretive political group, financed by several of his campaign donors, that has been bombarding voters with "robo-calls" attacking his Republican campaign rivals. The automated calls—up to one million have been made in South Carolina alone—allege that John McCain wants to conduct research on "unborn babies" and that Mitt Romney set up "sanctuary cities for illegal aliens." "I wish they would stop," Huckabee said to reporters when asked about the calls last week.
While publicly decrying the attacks, however, Huckabee has done nothing else to stop them. In fact, Patrick Davis, executive director of Common Sense Issues, the group behind the calls, told NEWSWEEK that he's had no contact at all with the Huckabee campaign. Davis said his group is "helping to define the issues" and that it may launch a new wave of robo-calls during the run-up to contests in Florida and key Super Tuesday states. Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart says federal election laws bar the campaign from telling Davis directly to stop. "It's a violation to coordinate with them," she said. Not so, said Kenneth Gross, a top federal election lawyer who is unaffiliated with any campaign. "Telling somebody not to do something does not constitute coordination," he said. "I don't see why they couldn't send a missive that says, 'We don't want these calls to continue'.''
Common Sense Issues' campaign isn't the only attack under scrutiny. An Oregon pollster who organized a pro-McCain phone survey has been subpoenaed by the New Hampshire attorney general's office, which wants to know who ordered the survey. According to a script obtained by an Oregon TV station, the pollsters asked voters whether their views would be affected if they knew Romney "got the Mormon Church" to help him avoid the Vietnam War; by contrast, the poll noted that McCain's son, a Marine, is serving in Iraq. (Operators are instructed to pronounce it "eye-rack.") The pollster, Bob Moore, told NEWSWEEK that he plans to fight the subpoena and keep his client secret. He insists his phone poll was a legitimate exercise in "message testing."
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
Mark Hosenball joined Newsweek as an investigative correspondent in November 1993, covering a range of issues for the National Affairs department. Most recently, he has written and reported numerous stories on terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks on America. He has also covered campaign finance, the Monica Lewinsky controversy, the death of Princess Diana, Whitewater, the crashes of EgyptAir flight 990 and TWA flight 800, as well as related air safety issues.
Hosenball came to Newsweek from "Dateline NBC," where he worked as an investigative producer. He also worked extensively as a print journalist, writing for a number of British and American publications, including the London Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard, Time Out, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic. In addition, he has done commentaries for American Public Radio.
Hosenball has been honored with a number of prestigious awards. Most recently, along with a team of Newsweek correspondents, he was awarded the Overseas Press Club's most prestigious honor, the 2002 Ed Cunningham Memorial Award for best magazine reporting from abroad for Newsweek's coverage of the war on terror. His reporting and that of his colleagues earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002 for its coverage of September 11 and its aftermath. And a story he co-authored was highlighted in a citation Newsweek received by the White House Correspondents' Association when it awarded the magazine the 2002 Edgar A. Poe Award for "excellence on a story of national or regional importance. "Newsweek's September 11 coverage started long before the attacks. An article in the magazine's February 19, 2001 issue warned with chilling accuracy: 'The threat posed by (Osama) bin Laden is growing -- and coming ever closer to home."
Hosenball was a contributor to the CANAL + TV documentary, "L'Argent de la Drogue" (Drug Money), which was awarded the "Sept D'Or," the French equivalent of an Emmy. He also contributed to NBC News' coverage of the BCCI scandal, which earned a 1991 Peabody Award.
He attended the University of Pennsylvania and Trinity College in Dublin. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife and son.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
Comments