Republicans can't be honest and get voters to donate to them.

If you are a Republican and are having difficulty getting donations, what do you do? There are a lot of answers, but one that is characteristic of the Republican Party is that you lie to elderly people and try to frighten them into sending the Republicans money. Here is a report from Paul Keil at TPMMuckraker:

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.

[Go read the TPMMuckraker article to see an image of the letter.]

The letter, it turns out, is just a misleading pitch for a contribution to the RNC -- one of the "irregularities" cited in the letter is that "I cannot find a record of you taking a single action in support of the Republican Party -- not locally, not nationally!" A contribution, the letter suggests, would help set the record straight.

If this were a letter that frightened an elderly person into donating money to a religious organization it would legally be fraud. Legal or not, it is totally unethical.

Unethical as it is, it is also representative of the way the Republican Party of today operates.