W.V.W.V.

I can't get over the fact that the abbreviation Women's Voices Women Vote uses--W.V.W.V.--looks like an emoticon. And it makes me think of one of those professional wrestling operations. Like the WWF or WCW. Written like this--WVWV--it looks like an EKG. But I'm off topic.

I know I won't drop the topic--I'm holding on to it like Tim Russert holds on to Jeremiah Wright--but this business with WVWV in North Carolina is still bothering me. I don’t get what’s going on here unless it is dirty tricks and vote suppression. The letter Women’s Voices Women Vote sent to the North Carolina State Board of Elections clearly said the campaign involved outreach to “unmarried women” who “W.V.W.V. believes to be unregistered.” See the letter here: http://www.ncvoter.net/downloads/WomanVoicesWomenVoteLetter.pdf. So why did they hire an African American voice actor to record a message and then send those calls ONLY to African American households anonymously (after the registration deadline)? This could achieve two things for the Clinton campaign: 1. It might create confusion among African Americans who, after getting the call and the packet, assume that they aren’t registered to vote, and it is too late to do anything about it. 2. It might result in the registration of some previously unregistered African Americans, who would be able to vote in the general election (when it might help Hillary if she is the nominee), but not in the primary (when it would help Obama).

Everything about this story fails the smell test. In answers to questions posed to W.V.W.V. by Adam B from Daily Kos, the group said: “While our focus is on unmarried women, we have worked to target other under-represented groups through our project, the Voter Participation Center.” And: “we have also worked to motivate African Americans, Hispanics and young people.” Oh really? Then why doesn’t their Voter Participation Center website say anything about these aims? It says it targets: “unmarried Americans.” Does that mean gays? It used to mean that. In the past, whenever a prominent gay entertainer or designer died, the New York Times used to describe him in his obit as “a confirmed bachelor” or simply as "unmarried." I don’t think that’s what W.V.W.V. means here. They go on to clarify that the focus really is still on women: “Increasing voter registration and turnout of unmarried people in elections is critical to ensuring that the issues and concerns of unmarried women are heard in our democracy.” I don’t get how this is different from what W.V.W.V. does. But that’s OK. I mean Sony Pictures also owns Columbia and TriStar and a controlling share of MGM and they all make movies. But the group’s explanations, ad hoc and after the fact and silent on one key question--that they promised to stop making confusing anonymous robo-calls three months ago--don’t add up and feel phony. Then they ran out and got counsel, anticipating, I guess, that a shit storm was about to hit them. That storm hasn’t come (because the mainstream media is still obsessed about Jeremiah Wright). And, my lawyer friends are thinking: Of course they got counsel, that’s the smart thing to do. But I look at it and think: They know they have been bad, and they want to start covering their asses. It's like my two year old, who hides behind the couch cushions when he accidently hits his sister with a bouncy ball after he has been told to stop playing with the bouncy ball near her.

And, all in all, while I don't think African American voters will be discouraged from going to the polls in any numbers sufficient to make a difference, I find this whole episode dispiriting. In an earlier post I pointed out that the old Hillary--the champion of liberal causes--would have celebrated Obama's win in Mississisppi as a remarkable overcoming of that state's long and ugly racial history. The new Hillary didn't even mention it, and, now, she acts like the Mississippi race--which landed between Ohio and Texas and her recent win in Pennsylvania--never even happened. Here, too, the old Hillary would have been upset if she found an organization engaged in electoral fraud and suppressing the black vote. The new Hillary may have been complicit in building the organization that recently did exactly that in North Carolina.

(Update 5/8: A smart and attuned observer seems to share my conclusions (or paranoia) about W.V.W.V.'s questionable dealings in North Carolina. Michael Dawson says:

That Clinton supporters would stoop this low, that they would use the very same tactics that Karl Rove and his gang of thugs used in Florida to steal the 2000 presidential election from the American people, is shameful and puts them in the same category as Republicans who, in states such as Georgia, are trying to bring back Jim Crow-era methods of black disenfranchisement, such as a new version of the poll tax.

That's stronger than I would phrase it, but the anger and outrage is on target.)