Emails Suggest Axelrod 'Leaned on' Gallup after Unfavorable Poll

DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY

The Obama administration didn't like that a Gallup poll showed Obama behind Romney. Axelrod tried intimidation tactics. Gallup didn't back down. Then the Obama administration went after Gallup by reviving an old lawsuit against them and the White House joined the lawsuit.

DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY

Emails Suggest Axelrod Leaned on Gallup after Unfavorable Poll

Employees at the venerable Gallup polling firm suggested they felt threatened by Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod when he questioned the methodology of a mid-April poll showing Mitt Romney leading the president – according to internal emails published Thursday. ...

According to the email chain titled “Axelrod vs. Gallup,” the White House in addition asked that a Gallup staffer “come over and explain our methodology,” which was apparently perceived as a subtle threat. A Gallup official said in an email he thought Axelrod’s pressure “sounds a little like a Godfather situation. ..

However, when Gallup declined to change its polling methodology, the Obama administration’s Justice Department revived a 2009 whistle-blower lawsuit against the firm by joining the suit, a senior Gallup official alleges.

The Daily Caller - Justice Dept Gallup Lawsuit Came After Axelrod Criticized Pollsters

Internal emails between senior officials at The Gallup Organization, obtained by The Daily Caller, show senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod attempting to subtly intimidate the respected polling firm when its numbers were unfavorable to the president.

After Gallup declined to change its polling methodology, Obama’s Department of Justice hit it with an unrelated lawsuit that appears damning on its face.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Chicago, baseball bat politics as usual! God forbid someone tries to tell the truth! Seems that in the United States, telling the truth or seeking the truth has somewhat become a terrorist tactic to take over the government!

Originally posted by seeker1963
Chicago, baseball bat politics as usual!

You are right. It's the Chicago goon squad teamed up with the Obama department of (in)justice. We probably should have expected this kind of thing .. considering that it's 'business as usual' for the Chicago political crowd.

I'm on the fence on this one. If the poles started showing favorable for Obama using the same methodologies, they would be shooting themselves in the foot by messing with Gallup for this reason.

Here's the original complaint.

2009 Complaint

I do think it's odd that there was such a lapse in the case moving forward until recently.

I think probably the DOJ is acting on it's own without influence from the O-admin.

Tough to say.

Although...

Lindley was a field organizer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, for then-Sen. Obama’s 2008 run for president before joining Gallup, a fact omitted from the DOJ’s legal filings and from most press accounts.

Source

“Imagine Axel[rod] with Brando’s voice: ‘I’d like you to come over and explain your methodology…You got a nice poll there … would be a shame if anything happened to it… .’”

LOL

If gallup really does de-fraud the government and public then they deserve to get served. The lawsuit isn't anything new.

reply to post by RealSpoke

The lawsuit isn't anything new.

That's the strange part.

Gallup, the source continued, did not hear from the Justice Department again for approximately one-and-a-half years.

“We did not have a substantive discussion about what they had subpoenaed until Fall of 2011,” the Gallup official told TheDC. “And the meeting came at our request, a request that had been outstanding from the time we were served [with the subpoenas]."

There may be something to this.

Axelrod Tweet

reply to post by Zarniwoop


Still doesn't change the fact that they might have de-frauded the government.

It's like getting pulled over for speeding, pissing off the cop, then complaining that you got a ticket. You still broke the law from speeding, so stop complaining about a ticket.

reply to post by RealSpoke


Yeah. They might have. It's only 10 million dollars of alleged over-charging. If they were really serious about joining the whistle-blower suit, the DOJ would have been more expeditious.

Why wait so long to join a lawsuit that is primarily a wrongful termination suit?

Why not look for more fraud beyond what the whistle-blower alleged and file a separate, larger suit?

Something about this doesn't make sense.

Originally posted by Zarniwoop
I think probably the DOJ is acting on it's own without influence from the O-admin.

Do you honestly believe that anybody in this Administration breaks wind without checking with the White House first?

If you can't argue the FACTS, attack the messenger. SHADY!!!

reply to post by JIMC5499

Do you honestly believe that anybody in this Administration breaks wind without checking with the White House first?

Biden appears to do so quite often.

Originally posted by Zarniwoop
Biden appears to do so quite often.

OK. You got me there. How about my re-phrasing it. Do you honestly believe that anybody COMPETENT in this administration breaks wind with out checking with the White House first?

Better?

reply to post by FlyersFan


Just to be clear...since I had to read all the links to get to facts here...

BY: Emails Suggest Axelrod 'Leaned on' Gallup after Unfavorable Poll

You mean emails between GALLUP yokels...NOT any by Axelrod.

Axelrod publicly TWEETED that Gallups Methodology sucked...AND cited research analysis by a professor showing the same.

THEN...some unamed Gallup employee said he felt intimidiated...and some other guy says that Axelrod asked him to explain the methodology...

What a bunch of cry babies...explain you methodology!! Kinda important if you want a poll to be taken seriously!...and while you are at it...explain why you over-charged the Gov. 10 Million (Taxpayer dollars)...

US— A former director of the Gallup Organisation has filed a lawsuit against the firm, alleging that it defrauded the US government and sacked him when he threatened to report the matter to the Justice Department.


Michael Lindley, who served as director of client services at Gallup between 2008 and 2009, alleges that the firm submitted “exaggerated cost estimates” for research projects carried out on behalf of a number of government agencies while directing him to enter lower, more accurate figures into the firm’s internal management system.

www.research-live.com...

reply to post by Indigo5

What a bunch of cry babies...explain you methodology!! Kinda important if you want a poll to be taken seriously!

They do... at the bottom of the web page that shows poll results. I think the problem here is that Axelrod didn't like their methodologies and associated results, and they refused to change them.

...and while you are at it...explain why you over-charged the Gov. 10 Million (Taxpayer dollars)...

Alleged. This is a disgruntled former employee with a wrongful termination suit that the DOJ decided to piggy-back onto very late in the game. We have very few details at this point.

The guy is claiming that Gallup fluffed up their estimates for work to be done, not that they over-billed for completed work. There is a big difference there. These were fixed-price contracts. If the government didn't like the bids, they shouldn't have signed the contracts. Gallup is apparently being accused of making a profit.

Now, would the WH risk such bad PR by making a petty move like this? Very doubtful.

Although, I still think someone at the DOJ has a beef with Gallup, for whatever reason.

reply to post by FlyersFan


I think the Obama administration is upset that their Ministry of Truth (MSM) isn't all on the same page.

These tactics are more KGB-ish than anything else.

Originally posted by Zarniwoop
I think probably the DOJ is acting on it's own without influence from the O-admin.

Really? You think it's just coincidence that the (in)justice dept .. Obama's buddy Eric Holder ...
revives a lawsuit against Gallup right after Axelrod puts pressure on Gallup and they don't fold?

Looks pretty obvious to me that this is dirty Chicago style goon politics at work.
Obviously we can't prove it. But it sure does look like it!

Originally posted by Zarniwoop
Why wait so long to join a lawsuit that is primarily a wrongful termination suit?

Exactly. It was gathering dust and had gone away but suddenly it reappeared AND the White House joined in ... all this after Axelrod's Godfather-like attitude toward Gallup didn't work. Wouldn't surprise me if someone at Gallup found a horses head in his bed ....

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by Zarniwoop
Why wait so long to join a lawsuit that is primarily a wrongful termination suit?

Exactly.

Wrongful termination?

Gallup was a government contractor...they infalted the billing to the government by 10 Million dollars...this employee complained to management several times and was told to shut-up. When he told his bosses that he wanted the practice to stop or he would discuss it with the Justice Department...he was fired.

Tax payer dollars stolen...employee fired for speaking up about it...EXACTLY who the whistleblower law was designed to protect.

reply to post by Indigo5

Wrongful termination?

Yes.

COUNT IV: Wrongful Termination in Violation of Public Policy

...

d. That, by reason of Defendant’s wrongful discharge of Plaintiff in violation of public
policy, judgment be entered in favor of Plaintiff Lindley and against Defendant;
e. That Plaintiff Lindley be awarded double his back-pay losses under the Employee
Protection Provision of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3730(h), plus front pay, interest, costs,
and attorneys’ fees, and special damages for emotional distress and harm to his reputation;
f. That Plaintiff Lindley be re-instated to his former position at Gallup, with all
applicable raises;
g. That Plaintiff Lindley be awarded compensatory damages, in an amount to be
proven at trial, based on Defendant’s wrongful discharge of Plaintiff in violation of public
policy;

Tax payer dollars stolen...employee fired for speaking up about it...EXACTLY who the whistleblower law was designed to protect.

You seem to have made up your mind based solely on the plaintiff's accusations prior to a jury trial and any defense from Gallup.

The Plaintiffs don't always tell the truth and laws don't always do what they were designed to do.

I'm not rooting for either side... just analyzing the details that are available.