Obama For America Providing Some Tea Party Fun

Election year pranks are not uncommon (as is voter fraud), and this year the Obama for America organization has conveniently provided some Tea Party activists with a way to contact loyal Democrats for phone bank fun:

If you happen to receive a call from someone who says they're phoning on behalf of Organizing for America (OFA)—the successor group to Barack Obama's campaign machine—don't be surprised if he or she implores you to vote for tea party favorites like Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, or Rand Paul, or merely lambasts health care reform. The caller won't actually be a member of Obama's 13-million strong legion of campaign supporters, but rather a tea party prankster who has access to your personal information, thanks to OFA's privacy-challenged get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaign.

Ahead of the midterms, OFA, which was folded into the Democratic National Committee following Obama's election, has created an online "virtual" phone bank ostensibly for use by Democratic volunteers. As of Monday, the web page provided the names of Democrats who voted in 2008 but who aren't always regular voters, plus their phone numbers, ages, locations, and party affiliations. OFA also includes a script to use to encourage those voters to vote (and for the right candidates) on Election Day: "Will you help the president by committing to vote in your local elections in 2010, including the midterm elections on November 2nd?"

Anyone can access the information without so much as logging in. And as it turns out, some conservative activists are doing just that. Entrepreneurial tea partiers have seized on the Democrats' GOTV tool to lobby for their own candidates, and sometimes just to annoy Democratic voters while posing as members of Obama's campaign machine.

Last week, news of the open phone bank circulated on a tea party Google group and quickly got activists scheming about how to make the best use of it. One Florida activist, Robin Stublen, says he's called at least 40 Obama supporters using the OFA list. "Whenever I want a couple of giggles, I call the Democrats. Why not? If they're really that stupid, you gotta have fun," he says with a hearty laugh. "You can be rude—hell, you're calling Democrats!"

In his calls to Obama supporters, Stublen has asked Nevadans to vote for Angle, the tea party candidate running against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He's berated people for not giving enough money to the Democratic Party. He even called one household and pretended to be taking a poll about their love of Sarah Palin. ("They hung up on me," he admits.) He had been hoping to wake some people up by calling at 2 a.m., but sadly for him, the site shuts down after 9 p.m.

Read the rest of it here. I enjoy a creative prank, and this is creative.