Jim Roth was the target of an anti-gay automated phone call set up by Oklahoma GOP stooge Tim Pope.

I see we have a Karl Rove wannabe sleazing out in Oklahoma. Nothing like a little round of anonymous phone calls to voters, intimating that the openly gay Oklahoma County Commissioner Jim Roth is “advancing the homo agenda.”

Nice touch, Tim Pope. (The Dallas Voice):

The recorded message accused Roth of “advancing the homosexual agenda in Oklahoma County” and mentioned a speech he was to give. The recorded female voice did not say who paid for the call or leave a return number. The number that showed up on caller ID was from a Michigan area code. The calls were made last weekend.

“I think it’s an outrage that they send those type of smearing, trashy phone calls to people on a Sunday afternoon and don’t have the courage to remove the white hood and show their face,â€? Roth said. “I’m concerned that it has the potential of violating a number of laws.”

Tim Pope, a Mustang resident and board member of the Oklahoma Republican Assembly, said he paid for the calls. Pope said he was not required to put a disclaimer claiming responsibility on the call because he was promoting an event at which Roth was scheduled to speak.

“It’s not a political call for a political candidate, so there is no requirement that there be a disclaimer,” Pope said.

“We just wanted to help him get a bigger crowd. It didn’t attack anybody.” The event mentioned in the call was a Monday evening program sponsored by GayOKC.com, called “The State of Our Community 2006.”

Pope’s bio at the Vanguard:

Tim Pope is TheVanguard.Org‘s Grassroots Director and President of the Oklahoma Republican Assembly. A seven-term member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, he served six years as Republican Whip, and won awards for legislative excellence from the Oklahoma Rifle Association, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Oklahoma Taxpayers Union. He has worked across Oklahoma and the nation teaching conservatives the nuts and bolts of how to win.

Nuts and bolts=sleazeball tactics, which are the hallmarks of the Rovian style (which sadly, works). Take note Dems, when you have small-time GOP operatives willing to do this sort of BS time and again, what do you all plan to do to counter this? Yawn…

I will give Pope credit for one thing — the bigot actually fessed up to it. Ken Mehlman and his clowns try to dodge responsibility for sleaze, like the mailings sent out to voters in 2004 saying Kerry would “ban the bible.”