Redstate

We can engage in all kinds of hypothetical assk scratching. But we don't have enough information to know if the people behind the phone calls were supporters of Huckabee, Giuliani, Thompson, McCain, Romney, Obama, Clinton, Edwards.

And let's not leave out Vladmir Putin or Nicolas Sarkozy either.

Doesn't Hemmingway have some hard news to report on? Or has he been demoted to NRO's gossip section?

I'm sorry, but I don't know who did it. Anything I might add would be idle speculation.

If someone drew some connections and asked me to prove the nature and kind of work my firm was doing with a client - especially beyond the early denial. Seriously, how much more can you say besides having "nothing to do with" the calls?

Mark's a friend, but this story is weak, weak, weak. We all know enough about politics that in a party, a movement, whatever - associations are easy to come by - and they hardly mean guilt by any stretch.

1) Mark has ZERO evidence linking TargetPoint to these calls
2) TargetPoint has absolutely denied they had anything to do with the calls
3) As I indicated on Hugh’s show… I asked my source about Gage’s denial. His response: “Yeah, we knew it wasn’t them already.”

No time for a real retraction folks? What is going on here?

How about an apology to Gage & Co?

Romney drops out of the race and endorses Fred!!!!!

“.....women and minorities hardest hit”

I can't believe that Mark actually cites Justin Hart's A Good Schedenfreude Spoiled article in defense of his Romney Push-Polled Himself article. Justin says he began preparing a post titled "Gage Firm: We Did It. Don't Blame Romney" based on a tip that Mark's Monday-morning article would show that Gage conducted the anti-Romney push-polls. That is, Justin prepared his post BEFORE he read Mark's article. Whereas, AFTER he read Mark's story, Justin explains the great feeling of relief he experienced. The blood rushed back into his face, he says, because Mark's article was nothing, "the evidence was scant, the connection pithy."

Mark Hemingway's article was irresponsible. He mused upon an ink blot and what he saw there tells us much more about Mark than it does about Romney, Western Watts, or Target Consulting.

Talk about wanting to savage your own party.

You still obviously think this was done by the GOP side by stating "Whether it is a friend of Mitt or Huck or Fred or John, we don't know." (conveniently leaving out Rudy, eh?) What is your EVIDENCE of such?

Don't you think that the Democratic/liberal 527 that is most likely behind this is just laughing themselves silly over all this "eating our own young" journalism that is occurring?

Jeff Fuller
http://iowansforromney.blogspot.com/
See my disclaimer of Romney Support at my blogsite line above (essentially I'm an unpaid grassroots supporter/blogger).

The Directors state: "and we think we were clear that we don't hold Mitt Romney responsible for any of this"

Well, yes and no.

An absolute "yes" technically on never accusing Romney himself of "making the call" (pun intended) on this issue.

But an emphatic "no" on these grounds: y'all and anyone with any political experience know darn well that if Gage had done this as Romney's Chief Strategist that it would have been absolutely crippling to his campaign showing a "lack of institutional control" and bringing into question Romney's judgment in selecting such unwise advisers.

To quote your original piece:

The web of connections Hemingway cites certainly supports the idea that a friends or associates of Romney, trying to help a candidate they support, did something incredibly stupid and highly unethical.
Target Point President Alex Gage, the consultant named in the piece, just happens to be serving as Romney's Chief Strategist

You then ramped up the accusations with:

And as for Alex Gage and the Romney associates who are apparently behind these efforts: in a campaign where the faith of your candidate has been respected by the overwhelming majority of voters and activists, you've managed to create out of thin air the kind of bigoted attack that cheapens the process and expects the worst of the American people. Nice strategy, folks. We hope you're happy.

Those kinds of accusations without evidence are un-excusable and embarrassing.

To the Directors I say:

In a campaign where the state of our party is tenuously in flux and where the candidates and their campaigns have been respected by the overwhelming majority of conservative journalists and bloggers, you've managed to create out of thin air the kind of self-sabotage and bias that displays the worst of journalism and conservatism. Nice strategy, folks. I hope you're happy.

Jeff Fuller
http://iowansforromney.blogspot.com/
See my disclaimer of Romney Support at my blogsite line above (essentially I'm an unpaid grassroots supporter/blogger).