Dirty Pool by the RNC.

From TPMmuckraker.com.

"What 83 year-old William Sidwell of Queen City, Missouri found in his mailbox last week scared him. It was a letter from the Republican National Committee, but it seemed to bear grave news: "Our records show that you registered as a member of our Party in Schuyler County, MO," the letter said. "But a recent audit of your Party affiliation turned up some irregularities."

Audit? Irregularities? Was he in trouble? Were they threatening him? Sidwell went immediately to his ask his son, Dennis, a licensed public accountant, for advice. You can see the letter, and the accompanying "Voter Registration Verification and Audit Form," right here. Particularly puzzling to the both of them, Dennis told me, is that his father is a life-long Democrat."

Do the clicky, look at this fundraising letter from the RNC and come back. Go ahead, I'll wait. If you need a moment to recover from the profound shock and disappointment you must be feeling, I completely understand. I sat here with my jaw agape for a few moments myself after reading both the article and the letter sent out by the RNC.

One of the things that jumped right out at me was the Dues Payment.

"And despite several requests, you have never made a dues payment to the Republican National Committee (not even a partial payment)."

I'm going to make some assumptions based on the information that we have from TPMmuckraker. First, these seems to be a letter targeted at elderly registered Democrats. Second, the language of the letter is severe enough that Mr. Sidwell and other's like him would be led to believe that they were in some kind of trouble, or owed money to the person writing the letter. If Mr. Sidwell had not thought to ask his son he likely would have contacted the RNC through one of the avenues listed at the bottom of the first page of the letter to find out how much he owed. Keep in mind this man is in his eighties and the RNC seems to be counting on some age related confusion to garner a few extra bucks.

Now I could be wrong. The RNC could have sent this letter of intimidation out to every registered democrat they could find hoping to capitalize on the overall gut reaction before thoughtful reaction that the majority of Americans are prone to. The bottom line is that this letter is a predatory solicitation from people who neither support nor belong to their cause.

I can promise you that if the DNC had sent out this letter the Republicans would be screaming to the high heavens about how dirty and underhanded the Democratic fundraising efforts are. Just take a look at what John Gibson and Angry Rich over at Fox News Channel had to say about John Edwards "A man who whored his wife's cancer as a fundraising gimmick." I wonder what these paragons of ethical fundraising would have to say about this predatory letter being utilized by their very own GOP?

What the hell is wrong with these people? How is a letter built upon a foundation of carefully hedged fallacies and certain outright lies supposed to reflect well upon the Republican Party? How is this representative of the party of family values?

It isn't. It's just more of the same ugly, un-Christlike, hypocritical behavior.

They should be ashamed, and if you're a member of the GOP, you should be ashamed for them and calling or writing them to protest these disgraceful, deceitful and underhanded tactics. If you're party is that desperate for funds, perhaps it is time to pack it in before an angry populace runs you out of town.

As always, thank you for reading.

Lisa Litchfield