Once upon a time, Karl Rove was working in Texas politics, for Bob Clement against Mark White, in the Texas Governor's race. A bug was found in Rove's office. The implication was that White's campaign placed, but as the story played out over time, increasingly people came to believe that Rove had bugged his own office.
Please keep that in mind. And remember, that when Romney went to give his speech on religion, it was at the presidential library of George H. W. Bush.
So, how does all this add up to my title? Well . . . .
There has been push polling apparently going on NH. And since push polling is illegal in NH, the AG decided to get involved. And the AG announced that the calls had been traced to a company called Moore Information, in Portland, Oregon (h/t TPM election central). Now this is where it may seem convoluted.
Moore is a Republican firm. In fact, much of the work it did was through the Republican Governors' Association, when that group was chaired by . . . guess who? Yes, W. Mitt Romney.
And the company Moore hired to make calls also had connections to Romney, as is pointed out in this post by JMM
And there is more. How did the story about the push polling break? Why of course calls were received by two Romney supporters. Look at this exclusive by Greg Sargent at TPM Election Central, which begins:
Deepening the mystery surrounding the anti-Mormon polling calls, the Romney campaign is confirming that it referred reporters to two recipients of the calls without disclosing that the two were also on the Romney campaign payroll, TPM Election Central has learned.
The fact that they were on the payroll was not originally disclosed when the story broke.
As Sargent also notes
The revelation could add grist to the theory -- now spreading on conservative blogs and even getting coverage by news organizations -- that the Romney campaign itself is behind the calls. Some have speculated that the calls -- which attack Romney and refer to his Mormon faith while saying positive things about McCain -- are an effort by the campaign to test negative messages about itself while getting McCain blamed for the calls.
Of course, one might expect that such calls would be blamed on one of Romney's rivals.
And it could just be coincidence that the firm (a) had done a lot of work for Romney, and (b) the people reporting the calls just happened to be on the campaign payroll. It could be coincidence, right? And it was also just coincidence that the site to which Romney went to give his speech was a Bush library. Oh, and where is Karl Rove now, anyhow?
And might there be a deal - we quietly support you Mitt in return for which you put Jeb on the ballot as VP? There have been some such rumors.
It all may be nothing. But I remember the self-bugging by Rove, and I start to wonder about the accumulation of details.
And besides, it gave me something about which to write other than who is going to finish where tonight, and it doesn't involve bashing or promoting any Democratic candidates.
Peace.