The Politico reports that a “newly-formed group claiming to support Mike Huckabee hit the phones of Iowa Republicans tonight with an automated push-poll attacking Huckabee’s GOP opponents and praising the former Arkansas governor.”

The group is so active and effective that the Politico wondered in how far its operating independently from Huckabee’s campaign.

For each target, the pattern was the same – a recorded message using voice recognition technology asked the recipient if they would participate in the caucuses, considered themselves pro-life and thought marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Then the dirt came, right after those called were asked which candidate they were backing.

For all three, the calls were phrased in the same manner: “If you knew that…”

But different candidates were targeted with different attacks…At the end, the automated voice directed the recipient of the call to www.trusthuckabee.com

The Governor’s campaign says that it didn’t even know that the group existed until the Politico asked questions about them. It sounds a bit strange, to be frank, that Huckabee and his aides didn’t know about the group: they seem to be very active and quite successful. Having said that, one doesn’t get the impression that Huckabee’s campaign is behind the calls. It seems to be a genuine grassroots organization.

Having said that, it seems to me that the group will cause Huckabee quite a headache. Voters in Iowa don’t like this kind of negative campaigning. It could very well inspire at least some voters to vote for someone else. On the other hand, people always say that they don’t like negative campaigns. They don’t like ‘attack ads.’ Yet, negative ads work. Voters may say they don’t like it, but they let negative ads influence them nonetheless.

Another question that needs to be asked: is the group lying about the records of Thompson, McCain, Romney and Giuliani? It seems to me they’re not. Just look at this:

For Thompson it was his past lobbying for an abortion rights group, his support of McCain-Feingold and that McCain-Feingold had also been known as “McCain-Feingold-Thompson.”

For Giuliani, it was that he’s “pro-abortion,” supports civil unions and that “his police chief and business partner has been indicted” on various charges.

And for McCain, it was about his support for campaign finance reform and opposition to a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

But it’s all true, isn’t it? It may be ‘negative,’ but it’s true. If voters care deeply about these issues, shouldn’t they know what the different candidates think about them?