A few minutes ago, I received a phoney-baloney telephone solicitation for the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee. I have no idea if it was a scam to get me to contribute money by credit card to some false address, or a move made solely to discredit Sen. Arlen Specter by some desperate adherent of Democratic challenger Joe Sestack or Republican challengers Pat Toomey or Peg Luksik, but, whatever it is, it stinks to high heaven and should be thoroughly investigated.
I was busy with other things when the self-proclaimed Democratic Senate Campaign Committee caller contacted me, and I promptly told him I no money to contribute. He said I didn't have to contribute today, and he would be glad to send a pledge card to make a contribution at a later time. So far, so good.
But then the caller--who said his name was "Richard", and when I pressed for more said it was "Richard Carboni"--gave me the reason why the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee was seeking contributions: it needed more members because of the ill health of Senators Arlen Specter and Ted Kennedy. Arlen Specter's health was "just like" Ted Kennedy's, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had to be ready if Arlen Specter died or became too ill to serve.
I could not believe what I was hearing. Campaign committees do not discuss the potential deaths or disabilities of the candidates they are backing.
Red flags marched before my eyes. I pressed "Carboni" for the telephone number of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, and he gave me 202-224-2441, which turns out to be the office of Senator Tom Carper. I hung up quickly from my conversation with "Carboni."
I dialed star69 to see if I could get the number from which the call was made, but it turns out that the number is private.
A quick google search showed no record of any "Richard Carboni" being active in politics; there may well be no such person active in politics.
The facts are that Arlen Specter, at 79, may well live out his entire term if elected in 2010; he has joked that he would like to break Strom Thurmond's record of serving in the Senate until age 100. Specter has taken extraordinary efforts to stay fit, and has aggressively monitored his health to have whatever medical operations have been needed at any given time.
I know something about long-lived politicians: to the best of my knowledge, my late father, Philadelphia City Councilman at Large David Cohen,was the first Democrat in this country to represent over 1,000,000 Americans at the age of 90. West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd was the second.
The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee should take whatever steps are necessary to stop whoever--a person or a group--is behind these fraudulent phone calls. This kind of fraud demeans the political process. I would like to believe that 35 years after Watergate our political system had outgrown the "dirty tricks" that Watergate made famous, but it is clear that some are with us to this day.