FUNDRAISING, REPUBLICAN STYLE….A reader in Washington recently bought a house from a very conservative elderly man, and apparently the efficient folks at the National Republican Senatorial Committee have now started sending him their fundraising appeals. He sent me a copy of their latest mailing, and I thought I’d share it with you.

Basically, it’s a fake survey, with the lucky recipient informed that he’s been singled out to represent “all Republicans living in your voting district.” Here’s the pitch:



So far, it’s a fairly standard hard sell direct mail piece, complete with appeals to keep “Union Bosses and other liberal special interests” from destroying our great nation ? at which point the recipient is repeatedly hit up to return the survey “along with your generous donation.” But the best part is at the bottom:



So that’s it. That’s their pitch to elderly Republican voters. You MUST return this survey, and by the way, you also need to send us $11 to “cover the cost of tabulating and redistributing” the results. You can see the full mailing here.

I wonder who came up with this scam? How many elderly Republicans end up sending the NRSC $11 because they’re convinced they’ve been specially chosen to represent their district and figure eleven bucks must be a legitimate fee of some kind? Hundreds? Thousands? Does everyone feeble-minded enough to include the $11 payment go into a special chump file for future use?

Do Democrats do stuff like this too? Am I naive to find this kind of thing revolting?