[Entry edited and updated from original. Skip down to the comments for the latest updates.]

You may not have heard of Nathan Estruth, but I think we need to learn more about him and his activities.

http://www.nathanestruth.com/business.aspx

According to his own website, he is General Manager of the corporate new business division at Cincinnati-based Procter and Gamble. He is the President of Common Sense Ohio (parent of Common Sense [insert state name here, including Missouri, Maryland, South Dakota, Tennessee and likely others with close races]). They are funding very deceptive and anti-Dem push polling in numerous states (not to mention websites, see http://www.commonsensetennessee.org/).

[Since this time, they have moved on to Common Sense Issues and are supporting Mike Huckabee for President and running anti-Mitt Romney ads, despite being organized under the tax code as a 501(c)(4) group. 501(c)(4)s are prohibited from advocating the election of a candidate to federal office. The benefit to a 501(c)(4) over a 527 is that 501(c)(4)s do not have to disclose their donors.]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201672_pf.html

A little background:

On November 2, 2004, Cincinnati residents voted for repealing the city's 1993 charter amendment outlawing what it termed "minority or protected status, quota preference or other preferential treatment" for homosexuals. Joining diverse civic entities such as the Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Charlie Luken and Catholic Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble has publicly supported repealing the amendment (also known as Article XII) on grounds that it's discriminatory, projects a negative image of the city and is ultimately bad for local business.

Two conservative Christian groups, the American Family Association and Focus on the Family, have organized a boycott of the company via the Website www.pgboycott.com, claiming that Procter & Gamble is promoting "a movement whose ultimate goal is gay marriage." Procter & Gamble, which maintains it is interested in nothing more radical than equal rights for all, says it expects the boycott to have "little effect" on sales.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_procter_gamble_boycott.htm

Is there a connection between these two items? Are the Common Sense groups an underhanded attempt by Procter and Gamble execs to make up to the evangelical community for their support for repealing anti-gay Article XII?

The boycott was later called off, but the reasoning for calling it off, P&G ending sponsorships of Queer Eye and Will & Grace's last season, seems less than compelling.

http://media.afa.net/newdesign/ReleaseDetail.asp?id=3160

P&G cleans up its act under pro-family pressure; AFA suspends boycott

(Tupelo, MS) - American Family Association (AFA) applauded their supporters and others from groups such as Focus on the Family today for a successful boycott of Procter & Gamble and announced AFA’s suspension of the boycott due to P&G apparently backing off its support for the homosexual agenda. AFA called the boycott in November 2004 and nearly 400,000 signed the pledge to boycott the corporation.

“Judging by all we found in our research, it appears that our concerns have been addressed,” said Donald Wildmon, chairman of American Family Association. “Insofar as we can tell by our monitoring, P&G has stopped their sponsorship of TV programs promoting the homosexual lifestyle, such as ‘Will and Grace,’ and they have stopped their sponsorship of homosexual Internet sites.”

According to AFA, P&G was the leading sponsor of programming that normalized homosexuality, giving over $8.2 million in only six months to shows such as “Will and Grace” and $2 million to “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” The company sponsored gay pride parades and gay workshops advocating acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle which they forced their employees to attend.

Regardless of the motives, these groups are behind millions and millions of sleazy push polls which, as any reputable pollster can tell you, are among the dirtiest of all possible campaign tactics. These ugly, cynical tactics debase our political process and turn people off, causing them not to participate in the civic life of our great country. They are intended to confuse and deceive and convince our fellow citizens to give up hope and not to vote at all. Some of their claims seem to stretch the truth so far that it is hard to see how they could not be intended to bear false witness to millions of Americans.

At their core, these tactics are hurting America itself.

Apparently for Nathan Estruth, the means justify the ends.