Turns out, we weren't the only ones who found yesterday's comments from Congressman Ben Quayle's campaign a little...weird.
In fact, the president of Citizens United -- which is supporting Quayle's primary opponent, David Schweikert -- says Quayle's campaign is doing stuff you'd expect from President Obama's campaign.
"It is always a telltale sign that an establishment campaign is floundering when they attack polls and use over-the-top language like 'liar' in a statement," Citizens United prez David Bossie's statement says. "You would expect these kinds of desperate tactics from the Obama campaign -- but not from a Republican in a GOP primary. Ben Quayle is on his last legs in a losing campaign."
If Quayle's not genuinely offended by that, we'd be surprised.
Yesterday, Schweikert had released a couple poll results -- one commissioned by his campaign, and another commissioned by Citizens United -- which both showed him with a double-digit lead over Quayle.
It's impossible to tell if there's any credibility to these polls, but Quayle's camp got pissed.
"Everyone watching this race needs to understand that Dave Schweikert and his supporters lie for convenience, they lie for advantage, and they lie as a habit," Quayle campaign spokesman Jay Heiler said. "It's unfortunate, but the problem has manifested itself throughout this campaign and it's been done again here. Dave Schweikert is trailing in this race, and the more pressure his campaign is under, the more they will continue to lie."
Quayle's campaign did have a point, although it's not mentioned in that statement right there.
The polls should be viewed with skepticism.
The poll commissioned by the Citizens United Political Victory Fund was done by Wenzel Strategies, which does polling for the conspiracy-theory website WorldNetDaily.
Among Wenzel's findings for the tinfoil-hat committee:
- "Even among the very liberal, 42 percent said [Rush Limbaugh] was helpful to America." [1]
- "Even among the most liberal Americans - his most ardent supporters - more than 20 percent said they think [President Obama] is not eligible [for the office of president], yet there is no outrage or protests in the streets. [2]
- "Among the 'very liberal,' nearly 53 percent said [Fox News host Bill] O'Reilly's work is good to excellent, while for the "liberal," that figure was 31.7 percent. [3]
Wenzel Strategies president Fritz Wenzel defended his polling company's work, saying, "We simply measure public opinion at a given period of time, but this latest survey in Arizona shows Quayle is clearly losing the race to hold onto a seat in Congress."
Since it was a Republican primary poll, we're guessing none of the apparently many Rush Limbaugh- and Bill O'Reilly-loving birther liberals were included.
Also, as a point of interest, if you ever get put on hold at the Citizens United Office, there's no elevator music -- it's Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech.
