MSM Runs With Fraudulent "Republican Fraud" Story

Desperate to find some shenanigans on the GOP side for once, ABCNews & AP get suckered by an obvious Democratic plant

The ABCNews piece:

Oct 22, 2004 — In several battleground states across the country, a consulting firm funded by the Republican National Committee has been accused of deceiving would-be voters and destroying Democratic voter registration cards.

Arizona-based Sproul & Associates is under investigation in Oregon and Nevada over claims that canvassers hired by the company were instructed to register only Republicans and to get rid of registration forms completed by Democrats.

...

Substitute teacher Adam Banse wanted a summer job with flexible hours, so he signed up to knock on doors in suburban Minneapolis and register people to vote.

He quit after two hours. "They said if you bring back a bunch of Democratic cards, you'll be fired," Banse contends. "At that point, I said, `Whoa. Something's wrong here.'"

He actually said that. He said "Whoa." And then he said "Wyld Stallyns rule," and played some air-guitar with Napoleon.

Nathan Sproul, a former head of Arizona's Republican Party and the state's Christian Coalition branch, denies any wrongdoing and accuses Democrats of making things up.

"This is all about making accusations," Sproul said Thursday. "They allege fraud where none exists and get the media to cover it."

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Heather Layman responded that her party accepts all voters, and she accused the Democratic Party of operating under this mandate: "If no sign of voter fraud exists, make it up, manipulate the media into covering baseless charges and spread fear."

So, is Adam Banse an "unimpeachable source" akin to Bill Burkett? You won't find your jaw dropping into your lap when you read he's not. From an interview he gave, now pulled, as it undermines his tale of Republican skulduggery:

Marc: So how's disenfranchising the masses going for ya?

Banse: Difference between me and them -- I registered 8 voters -- all Republicans or people undecided. I then used the information I gleaned from my time with them and went to the Kerry-Edwards campaign headquarters where I sat down with Ted Irgens, the campaign organizer in Minnesota and told him everything I knew. I met with the group one more time after that and again called Ted and told him what I knew.

Marc: Did the rotten Republicans at least pay well?

Ahem. The rotten Republicans weren't the ones moling around.

Marc: You want to tell the story yourself....

Banse: I was told to not get Kerry supporters to register -- they said we'd be fired if we did, but they also said they were obligated by law to turn them in. It's a felony in Minnesota to alter or throw away voter registrations. This state has a history of incredibly ethical elections. We'll see about this year....

Ah. So the registrations weren't being destroyed after all. They "rotten Republicans" explained that they were required by law to turn them in; they just didn't want their workers making herculean efforts to register Democrats.

Which is their right.

...

Marc: Describe orientation.

Banse: They handed out a packet entitled, in big, bold letters, "THE LAW." It basically told us what we could and could not do. He then gave us a script that we had to write down -- it was not already printed out for us.

Marc: He read it? Read it to you?

Banse: Yeah. It went something like this:

Everyone is supposed to wear a Bush-Cheney sticker -- to attract Bush-Cheney supporters and repel Kerry ones. We were told to introduce ourselves by first name to passerbys at malls in front of stores, wherever we could get away with it. He even told us that we could stand out in front of stores, but that it wasn't necessarily legal. He told us that if they told us to leave we had to leave, but to stand there as long as we could get away with it. He also told us how to sneak into apartment buildings and that it wasn't legal, but a good way to pick up registrations and you didn't hear it from him.

Anyway, we're supposed to introduce ourselves and then ask people if they plan on voting in the election if yes, then are they supporting Bush, if no -- walk away from them! Don't make eye contact or discuss politics. If they say they're undecided, try signing them up, if they're Bush-Cheney supporters, sign 'em up. If they're Kerry supporters, and they insist sign them up, but try to get them to send the card in on their own -- that way you're not held responsible for it and you won't get in trouble (Ben said he wanted a 9-1 Bush-Kerry ration, minimum). If they said they're Nader supporters, sign 'em up because Ben said (and I'm not making this up) a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. That's about it. He told us not to get in political discussions with any Kerry supporters because we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves.

Again, no suggestions that this douchebag break the law. They just didn't want him registering Democrats on the GOP's dime.

Democrats have this weird notion that they're entitled to take other people's money without doing anything to earn it. That's kinda what makes them Democrats.

...Marc: Describe your first day on the job.

Banse: It was unsupervised. I told him I'd be going to some car dealerships in Coon Rapids, Minnesota (about 40 minutes from Ben's office) to sign some people up. Knowing that the UAW supports Bush (how sick is that -- a union supporting Bush? nice union leadership) I thought it'd be easy pickings. It was. About half said they were undecided.

Oh wait, I forgot to tell you. ... Ben said they had a "voter fraud" person calling to confirm each person's identity (they told us that they were doing it to make sure we weren't forging cards), when these people were called they were asked who they support. I signed up my brother, sister and brother-in-law and they all lied and said, "Bush."

Marc: Nice touch.

So, the guy's an admitted liar. But we should believe everything else he says.

...

Banse: I went to everyone I could find (except the customers) and asked people if they were registered voters, if they weren't I'd sign 'em up. IF they happened to be Democrats I'd already arranged it with the party to drop those forms off with them.

More moling. More drawing pay under fraudulent pretenses.

Marc: So you only put in one day?

Banse: Yeah. I wasn't willing to sell my soul, for crying out loud. I haven't even cashed the check and am not sure I will.

"Selling his soul"? Okay.

Somehow I have a feeling that Mr. Banse will be cashing that enormous $60 check.

No shit.

Thanks to AnthonyP. The cached interview -- now apparently pulled because it so utterly undermines this guy's original story and credibility -- can be found
here.

I have a feeling that Josh Marshall just saw another "story of his life" go down the drain.

More! Temple of Jennifer notes that even this forged story got trumped-up by the Times-- looks like they added 150 tons to the falsely missing explosives, because they couldn't figure out the difference between imperial tons and metric tonnes.