The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Recording: Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign Ties

Posted on | June 21, 2012 | 43 Comments

The head of a boycott effort aimed at radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh boasted in a conference call of his ties to Organizing for American (OFA), President Obama’s re-election campaign.

“Randy, I can pick up the phone and call the director of OFA, can you?” Matt Edelstein said during the phone call, berating a Texas activist. “I can pick up the phone and call the … battleground state director of OFA. Can you? Can they? Okay, so I don’t care what somebody at OFA — some flunky level in Texas told you about OFA. I have extremely good relations with OFA.”

A recording of the conference call was obtained by Brooks Bayne, who reports that “Randy Hahn” is a Texas Democrat who joined Edelstein’s “Stop Rush” campaign as an “infiltrator.” The recording shows that Edelstein also said he has “extremely good relations with Van Jones,” a radical environmentalist who resigned as Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar” in September 2009 after he was exposed as having signed a petition that claimed the 9/11 terror attacks were “deliberately allowed” by the Bush administration.

The New York Times reported in March that the “Stop Rush” boycott effort was started by Angelo Carusone, who in 2009 organized a similar campaign against advertisers on Glenn Beck’s Fox News program. Beck played a key role in exposing Van Jones’s radical past.

Several Twitter users have identified Edelstein as using the @Shoq (“Shoq Value”) Twitter account, which attacked Professor William Jacobson in March, after Jacobson’s writings about the “Stop Rush” effort were cited by Limbaugh. Jacobson says the anti-Limbaugh boycott was coordinated with the controversial liberal group Media Matters for America (MMFA). Carusone is MMFA’s Director of Online Strategy.

During the conference call with other “Stop Rush” activists, Edelstein says “it’s making me crazy [that] Michelle Malkin is launching a new counterattack” against his group’s boycott effort. Edelstein also expressed concern about Dana Loesch and James O’Keefe, defended MSNBC contributor Krystal Ball, and worried that someone had discovered “one of my plant names that I use on the web to confuse the Right.”

Coincidentally, there may be a connection between the “Stop Rush” boycott and Brett Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser. In March, blogger Patrick Read showed Rauhauser’s history of interaction with Twitter accounts linked to Carusone and Edelstein.

 


Category: Barack Obama, Rush Limbaugh, Talk Radio, The Kimberlin Files

Comments

43 Responses to “Recording: Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign Ties”

  1. Garym
    June 21st, 2012 @ 9:19 am

    Does this surprise anyone? Good job Stacy.

  2. Darth Odie
    June 21st, 2012 @ 9:23 am

    Yeah but who is the “Czar” over all this?  Mmmm? 

  3. Mark J Dietl
    June 21st, 2012 @ 9:34 am

    Has there been anything  more futile? Rush is as big as ever and if any station is stupid enough to drop him, he will be picked up by the station’s competition across town.

  4. Bob Belvedere
    June 21st, 2012 @ 10:23 am

    Am I the only one enjoying unending Schadenfreude these days? 

  5. » #StopRush was infiltrated, audio recordings and others evidence released - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
    June 21st, 2012 @ 11:12 am

    […] Stacy McCain points out that one of the things about which Shoq complained on the recordings is that conservatives on Twitter were “counterattacking”: During the conference call with other “Stop Rush” activists, Edelstein says “it’s making me crazy [that] Michelle Malkin is launching a new counterattack” against his group’s boycott effort. Edelstein also expressed concern about Dana Loesch and James O’Keefe, defended MSNBC contributor Krystal Ball, and worried that someone had discovered “one of my plant names that I use on the web to confuse the Right.” […]

  6. More On Crazy Neal Rauhauser
    June 21st, 2012 @ 11:36 am

    […] Bayne has a great post from yesterday, which Stacy picked up on, in which he reveals the way in which another leftist super spy, Matt Edelstein, aka @shoq, blew […]

  7. Bill Schmalfeldt
    June 21st, 2012 @ 11:52 am

    Um, isn’t it, like, illegal to record a call without that person’s permission and then, uh, redistribute that call without permission?

  8. McGehee
    June 21st, 2012 @ 11:58 am

     Kimberlinite alert.

  9. SDN
    June 21st, 2012 @ 12:20 pm

     Depends on the state.

  10. R.S. McCain Connects the Dots: Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign Ties. « The Rhetorican
    June 21st, 2012 @ 12:31 pm

    […] R.S. McCain Connects the Dots: Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign Ties.R.S. McCain Connects the Dots: Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign Ties . […]

  11. K-Bob
    June 21st, 2012 @ 12:43 pm

    His Plant Name is “Oozing Sap That Smells Like Swamp”

  12. K-Bob
    June 21st, 2012 @ 12:43 pm

     Probably.

  13. blaster
    June 21st, 2012 @ 12:52 pm

    Ding ding ding. That’s the stuff right there.

    Tie these brownshirts to the people who run the brownshirts.

    Nobody really gives a crap about a pipsqueak like Kimberlin. It is the ties to the campaign that wil prove to be the real story.

    On much more tenuous ground was Jared Loughner tied to Sarah Palin and she was blamed for those shootings. (By the same people?)

    Stacy who do you want to play you in the movie? I am thinking Gary Sinise.

  14. Neal Ruffbowser
    June 21st, 2012 @ 12:54 pm

    Bill Schmalfeldt comments over at BU, and he is on Team Kimberlin. All that being said, Bill, Matt Edelstein illegally recorded the phone call. Yes, your buddy Neal Rauhauser’s contact Matt Edelstein recorded it. And Matt was the one who redistributed it without permission…lol…

  15. ThomasD
    June 21st, 2012 @ 12:57 pm

     Better call a Whaaambulance for Schmaltzy…

  16. Bob Belvedere
    June 21st, 2012 @ 1:30 pm

    Looking at his Disqus Activity, I’d agree.

  17. McGehee
    June 21st, 2012 @ 1:38 pm

    I looked at his Twitter stream.

  18. Cheesecakecrush
    June 21st, 2012 @ 1:54 pm

    I would imagine Aaron Walker cares. And Seth Allen. Not to mention all the spouses Team Kimberlin contacted with veiled threats to their safety.

  19. Bob Belvedere
    June 21st, 2012 @ 2:18 pm

    The Army Of Davids rides again!

  20. Wombat_socho
    June 21st, 2012 @ 2:48 pm

     I’m adding his name to my blacklist. *whack*

  21. Wombat_socho
    June 21st, 2012 @ 2:48 pm

     I got something better. *hefts banhammer*

  22. Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » …and the MSM is missing the Kimberlin & Co boat too » Datechguy's Blog
    June 21st, 2012 @ 3:00 pm

    […] You even have a possible connection to the Stop Rush Limbaugh Movement where its head Mr. Eddlestein worries: “that someone had discovered “one of my plant names that I use on the web to confuse the […]

  23. crosspatch
    June 21st, 2012 @ 3:09 pm

     What I am finding so fun about all of this is, if I am interpreting previous postings and comments by various folks correctly, that there’s nothing they can do about this.  Having already collected all of this info, there really isn’t a lot of damage control they can do.   All the deleting and scrubbing in the world isn’t going to do them a bit of good at this point.  I like the “L-shaped ambush” analogy.  They can’t “unwalk” out of it.  I’m loving it.

  24. robertstacymccain
    June 21st, 2012 @ 3:33 pm

    The fact that they thought they were getting away with it is why they can’t get away with it.

  25. Adjoran
    June 21st, 2012 @ 3:37 pm

     Um, like, it depends on the state law.  In Virginia, for example, only one party to a conversation need be aware of the recording for it to be legal.  In other words, you can record your calls without telling the other parties, but you can’t tap a line or bug a conference room if you are not a party to it.

    But thanks for your concern, Troll.

  26. Adjoran
    June 21st, 2012 @ 3:39 pm

     Well, that and the fact that they only about a tenth as smart as they think they are.

  27. crosspatch
    June 21st, 2012 @ 5:07 pm

    There is also something that is very important here in a broader political scope.  That is the exposure of the degree to which Democrats go in social media deception campaigns and manipulate the narriative and set the tone of conversation through their “hundreds” of accounts. 

    People, particularly younger people, are often herd followers and the younger ones in particular are often looking around at their peers to see how they are “supposed” to be in order to fit in and gain the acceptance of the people they would like to associate with.  Younger people are also very sensitive to any social shunning.  Once people get older, they care less about what other people think and are comfortable with their own opinions.

    What these people have done is to create a mass deception in social media to create an illusion of greater support for various positions and people and to also set the tone of the conversation.  This works both for the desired candidates and sets the tone on how they are supposed to react to the other side.

    What really needs to be exposed, particularly to the younger voters is the extent to which they have been manipulated, deceived, and lied to.  That many of these social circles are simply smoke and mirrors and many of their twitter friends are simply sock puppets set up by political organizations needs to be sounded loud and clear.  They need to know that their naivety and idealism has been taken advantage of.

  28. Adobe_Walls
    June 21st, 2012 @ 7:03 pm

    Excellent point, got a plan?

  29. crosspatch
    June 21st, 2012 @ 7:40 pm

     Well, ultimately it requires a change in ownership of the major broadcast media.  Biased media is nothing new.  Benjamin Franking was biased.  He even created fake stories, fake letters to the editor, spiked stories and letters counter to his desired agenda, etc.  Franklin wasn’t concerned with making his living from his news products, he was doing it for the purpose if influencing opinion.

    The problem we have in the US is that people on the political right seem to have more of an interest in making a profitable business and not so much in operating something at a loss simply to further a political agenda.  The left has no problem doing that.  So we have seen most of the Republican papers close with most metros becoming a one-paper town with the Democrat paper as the only remaining gain in town.  And the same goes with the television and radio stations for the most part.  The publisher has ultimate control of the content and the content will always favor the publisher’s agenda.

    90% of Americans get their news at the top of the hour in the 5 minute news broadcast while listening to the traffic station on their way to and from work.  If it isn’t in that broadcast, it isn’t on their radar.  Even on a conservative talk radio station, the top of the hour news is likely coming from one of the big “alphabet” networks or wire services.  He that owns CBS, NBC, and ABC own the agenda.

    What we need is some rich conservative to purchase some media outlets and tolerate a loss as an investment in furthering their agenda which might help their other business interests become more successful.    Kind of like the opposite of what Warren Buffett just announced he was doing a couple of weeks ago when it was revealed that he had recently purchased 63 newspapers, mostly in the deep red Southeastern US, and was considering purchasing even more. 

    It’s an information war and while we are making headway on the Internet, we are fighting a losing battle in the print and broadcast media.

  30. DaveO
    June 21st, 2012 @ 7:46 pm

    When caught in a close ambush (L-shaped or other), the proper tactic is to violently assault through. Emphasis on the violent assault.

    Team Kimberlin and their employers can’t just be taking this sitting down.

  31. Wombat_socho
    June 21st, 2012 @ 7:56 pm

     Print media are dying, thanks to the ignorant spawn of the J-schools who can’t write and the MBAs who want the money now. Broadcast media…well, that’s going to take a little longer.

  32. The #BrettKimberlin Report D+27: Whine, Women, And Wrong « The Camp Of The Saints
    June 21st, 2012 @ 8:03 pm

    […] Brooks Bayne published a report that Stacy McCain describes in his report as follows: The head of a boycott effort aimed at radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh boasted in a […]

  33. crosspatch
    June 21st, 2012 @ 8:08 pm

     Yes, we need fewer journalists and more reporters but again, the publisher and the publisher’s editors control the content, not the journalist.  A journalist that writes the wrong thing or with the wrong spin will never see newsprint.  The editor will filter it out and eventually can the journalist.

    I was married to a journalist for ten years.  They really DO believe in furthering a world view they believe is “making the world a better place”.  There is no attempt or even pretending they are “impartial” and where that ever became an expectation of the American public is something of a mystery to me because that has never been the case.    But in the past we had more diversity in what was available.  The left tolerates absolutely no diversity of opinion.

  34. crosspatch
    June 21st, 2012 @ 9:24 pm

     
    The part that I find interesting, though, is they have no idea what’s coming next.  It is like walking into an ambush, taking small arms fire, then the heavy machine guns open up, then the mortars come in, then suddenly you start taking artillery fire, and maybe all of a sudden you are staring down the barrels of a troop of tanks.    And every time you fire a missile in their direction, it does a 180 and blows up in your own position.

    Now this is all painting a picture of speculation but imagine your opponent has been watching you for the better part of a year as you are walking up and down that path.  They’ve been collecting intelligence, familiarizing themselves with your doctrine, tactics, and training.  They know your support structure and how you are likely to react.  Your opponent picks the time and the place to spring the trap, they have the initiative, you are reacting to events.

    But in this case the “weapon” the opponent is using is simply the light of day.  Exposing underhanded tactics, deception, intimidation, sock puppetry.     It makes everyone associated with them look rather despicable.  But more, it makes everyone who was influenced by those sock puppets feel used and manipulated.  The people they thought were the “good guys” are exposed as having manipulated them.  That is going to be the toughest part of all of this.  When the minions who have answered the call of the puppet master realize their perception of events has been managed and they have been manipulated and they turn away in disgust, not only does their effort fail but those people are less likely to fall for that again in the future.

    And the more they resist by using the underhanded tactics the worse it becomes because people aren’t being cowed by them anymore.  Their weapons have become ineffective and every use of them backfires and makes their own situation even worse.  

  35. Before It's News
    June 21st, 2012 @ 9:46 pm

    […] The Other McCain […]

  36. Before It's News
    June 21st, 2012 @ 9:47 pm

    […] unknown, but that hasn’t stopped him from digging into Brett Kimberlin, Neal Raushauser, and others. I think he’s come up with enough material for Ladd to make a movie. Tweet vaso […]

  37. robertstacymccain
    June 22nd, 2012 @ 9:34 am

    Your tactical analysis is excellent, Patch. For the past month, scarcely a day has gone by without some new revelation about the Kimberlin/Rauhauser axis. In the past few days, Brooks Bayne, Patrick Read and others opened up on them from directions I had scarcely expected, and it now appears the the concentric firepower is coming in an overwhelming barrage, square on the target. 

  38. crosspatch
    June 22nd, 2012 @ 2:00 pm

     They key in all such operations is discipline; overcoming the urge to spring the trap too soon.  There is a balance point where the value of hitting the target exceeds the value of any additional information that might be gained but that is a judgement call because you never know what the next day will turn up. 

    But from reading the various stuff posted so far, this Shoq person seems to be an important node.  If you map it out like a network, the Shoq bone is connected to the MSNBC bone, the Obama campaign bone, the anti-Rush bone, hundreds of twitter accounts bond, and the K&R bone. 

    So there appears to me to be two stories here: the K&R harassment/dirty tricks story, and the “vast left wing conspiracy” story of coordination of those dirty tricks along with direction of various social activities.

  39. E-Mails Expose MSNBC Host’s Involvement in #StopRush Boycott : The Other McCain
    June 22nd, 2012 @ 3:00 pm

    […] recorded excerpts of a conference call in which the leader Shoq berated the suspected interloper by boasting of his connections to Organizing for America (OFA), President Obama’s re-election campaign: “Randy, I can pick up the phone and call the […]

  40. Imani Gandy, #StopRush and Neal Rauhauser: Confirmation and Credibility : The Other McCain
    June 23rd, 2012 @ 4:43 pm

    […] keeps moving forward every day. This brings us now to a follow-up on two recent stories:June 21: Recording: Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign TiesJune 22: E-Mails Expose MSNBC Host’s Involvement in #StopRush BoycottNeal Rauhauser turns up in […]

  41. Of miscreant Leftists and their nefarious deeds « The Daley Gator
    June 23rd, 2012 @ 8:34 pm

    […] Well the OFA, or Organizing For America, which is the re-election campaign for President Obama. Stacy offers up more background “Randy, I can pick up the phone and call the director of OFA, can you?” Matt Edelstein said […]

  42. Ladd Ehlinger Doubles Down on Questions About Ali Akbar and National Bloggers Club | The Lonely Conservative
    June 24th, 2012 @ 12:27 am

    […] unknown, but that hasn’t stopped him from digging into Brett Kimberlin, Neal Raushauser, and others. I think he’s come up with enough material for Ladd to make a movie.Update: Linked by No One […]

  43. A Drawer Full of Sockpuppets: Another Neal Rauhauser ‘Persona’ Exposed : The Other McCain
    July 2nd, 2012 @ 2:40 pm

    […] 20: ‘Persona Management’ for Wackjobs: Rauhauser’s Methods of DeceptionJune 21: Recording: Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign TiesJune 21: ‘Iowa Boy,’ ‘Stranded Wind’ and the Sadistic Personality of Neal RauhauserJune 22: […]