| WASHINGTON
- June 29 - The following is a
statement by Common Cause President Scott Harshbarger on Tom
Delay's "predatory" telemarketing tactics:
The sinister fundraising campaign conducted by the National
Republican Congressional Committee and Majority Whip Tom DeLay
sounds like a classic boiler room telemarketing scam.
Doctors are being told over the phone that they have been
selected to be 'honorary co-chairman' of something called the
'Physician's Advisory Board.' This board is represented to be some
kind of prestigious public policy panel -- where issues of the day
like HMOs and health care financing will be deliberated. Only
later in the pitch are the doctors told that it's just that -- a
pitch for money, and a partisan one at that. Tom DeLay isn't
interested in their advice. He just wants their money.
It's like being told you 'may already have won' a million
dollars and then -- after buying some magazines you don't really
want -- you find out you didn't even get the cubic zirconia or the
set of steak knives.
These practices are predatory, deceptive, and downright sleazy.
They are blurring the lines between official business and political
fundraising in a way that puts real pressure on the donor: It's
like an offer you can't refuse.
I hope Representative Tom Davis, the NRCC chairman, reins in Mr.
DeLay and puts a stop to this dodgy practice.
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