Ridge, Pollsters Met During Bush Campaign

[rainbow4321]

http://www.baytownsun.com/wire.lasso?report=/dynamic/stories/R/RIDGE_GOP_POLLSTERS?SITE=TXBAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met privately with Republican pollsters twice in a 10-day span last spring as he embarked on more than a dozen trips to presidential battleground states.

Ridge's get-togethers with Republican strategists Frank Luntz and Bill McInturff during a period the secretary was saying his agency was playing no role in Bush's re-election campaign were revealed in daily appointment calendars obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security," Ridge told reporters during the election season.

His aides resisted releasing the calendars for over a year, finally providing them to the AP three days after Ridge left office this month.

Homeland Security officials said the meeting with Luntz at department headquarters was aimed at improving public communication of the department's message, particularly on TV. Ridge declined an interview with the AP about the calendars, referring questions to former aides

[chicagojoe]

1. More lies and spin.

[radfringe]

2. he was getting his "script"

and practicing the LI(n)ES

[saigon68]

3. Ridge only slighly higher on the chain of evolution

Than his boss THE CHIMPANZEE

[Fridays Child]

4. So, Luntz is just one more name in a long list of paid WH mouthpieces?

Quel surpise. :eyes:

[thebigidea]

5. hey, those awful hairpieces cost a surprising amount of money

[Judi Lynn]

8. Yeah, but they produce such startling effects!

(Luntz had fallen under the influence of Bill Bennett, apparently. He knoshed while Bennett gambled?)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wednesday, April 23, 1997: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Major Opinion Research Assocation Finds Pollster Frank
Luntz Violated Ethics Code

The Executive Council of the American Association for Public Opinion
Research (AAPOR) announced Wednesday that a 14 month investigation found
pollster Frank Luntz violated the Association's Code
of Professional Ethics and Practices.

AAPOR found Luntz, who heads the Luntz Research Companies in Arlington,
Virginia, repeatedly refused to make public essential facts about his research
on public attitudes about the Republicans' "Contract with America."
In particular, the AAPOR inquiry focused on Luntz's reporting, prior to
the November elections in 1994, that his research showed at least 60 percent
of the public favored each of the elements in the GOP "Contract."
When later asked to provide some basic facts about this research, Luntz
refused.
(snip)

AAPOR is an organization of over 1,400 research professionals from government
agencies, colleges and universities, non-profit organizations, and commercial
polling firms. It is the primary professional association representing public
opinion researchers, and has a strong interest in protecting and strengthening
the credibility of survey research. The organization was founded in 1947
by such pioneers of polling as George Gallup, Hadley Cantril, and Paul Lazarsfeld.
Luntz is not a member of the organization.
(snip/)

http://www.aapor.org/default.asp?ID=14&page=news_and_issues/press_releases_and_official_statements

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

[thebigidea]

9. ... and the Rattiest Neocon 'toup Award 2005 goes to...

... John Bolton, come on down!



gotta love the two-tone.

[SoCalDem]

13. Pillsbury Doughboy, gone bad

:)

[ElectroPrincess]

6. Luntz and Contract With America!?!

I was unaware that Luntz was involved with the drafting of the 1994's Contract With America sponsored by none other than Newt Gingrich. YUCK!

How can CNN or any of the other networks give veracity to Republican Pollsters not to mention Frank Luntz? Partisan polling should not be national news. These people are pure evil.

[Cooley Hurd]

7. Wasn't it MSNBC that was employing Captain Toupee up until...

...mid 2004? And they screamed and cried that Frank was non-partisan?

[SoCalDem]

14. don't forget "formerdemocraticpollsterPatCadell"

Even though he defected to the darkside years ago, he was always introduced as "formerdemocraticpollster", while Luntz was NEVER portrayed as republican.. It's just another "nuance", and a lame attempt to appear "fairandbalanced":(

[UL_Approved]

10. W A T E R G A T E

This is EXACTLY what happened with the Watergate scandal...

It is the next round of clandestine politics in this country. This IS what brought down Nixon, and after the Gannon scandal, the whole show is coming apart.

[stevebreeze]

11. "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security,"

clearly a poll tested sound bite

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. and Bush didn't do "Security" before 9/11

this is a big story.

[Supersedeas]

18. i guess 'improving the message' during a campaign is NOT politics-sniff

[No Exit]

15. Could it BE any more obvious that the "terror" alerts

and the bin laden tapes are TIMED to seize the headlines at exactly the times when this administration has an embarrassing story it wants to bury?

WHY THE HELL ARE PEOPLE SO STUPID???!

WHAT MORE WILL IT TAKE???

Where's that graphic?... I used to see it a lot b/f the election... shows a parody of the "terror" warning color chart, and has a caption:
"Uh-oh! Bush's polls are tanking! Time to start scaring the shit out of everyone again!"

[Mountainman]

16. This most likely were the idea of scaring the voters with terror warnings

came from.

How do you win against a machine like that? First the people are preconditioned by right wing talk shows to fear and hate Islamics then the pollsters determine if they are primed enough, and when they are, the government scares the hell out of them with terror warnings and the public go running to the repubs for security.

I tell you over and over again we have to overcome the preconditioning the wingnut media does if we are ever to have a level playing field.

If the people would learn not to trust this administration then they could not have this effect on people.

Hey Dr Dean you listening?

[TomClash]

17. There was a legitimate reason

for Ridge meeting with pollsters. Al Qaeda planned an attack on Frank Lutz using the entire Iraqi WMD arsenal.

:crazy:

[wishlist]

19. Bush has lost traction- his poll numbers are low now=Terror Alerts!!

The terror alerts are definitely politically coordinated PR tactics. Just look how this week when Bushco is trying to get quick blanket approval for more $$$ for Iraq and media has been talking about his low poll numbers and difficulty selling SS plan and the Gannon scandal emerges, we suddenly out of nowhere yesterday get several terror warnings from Bushco that dominate the news.