WP: 2002 N.H. Scandal Shadows GOP Anew

[Pirate Smile]

2002 N.H. Scandal Shadows GOP Anew

By Thomas B. Edsall and David A Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 14, 2006; Page A06

A three-year-old political scandal in New Hampshire -- where Republican operatives conspired to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002 -- has suddenly become a national headache for GOP leaders, who are being pressed to explain why one author of the scheme was repeatedly calling the White House.

A Democratic activist group, combing through evidence from a trial last year in which the former New England regional director of the Republican National Committee was convicted, uncovered 22 calls from New Hampshire officials to the White House political office on Nov. 5-6, 2002. During the same time, according to prosecutors, state GOP officials started -- and then frantically sought to stop -- a plan to have a telemarketer bombard the phone banks of Democrats and a local firefighters association that was offering voters rides to the polls.

Ken Mehlman, former director of the White House political office and current chairman of the Republican National Committee is fighting Democratic efforts to force him to testify under oath in a civil suit about the New Hampshire scandal. Mehlman said the calls from James Tobin -- a consultant who in 2002 led the RNC's New England effort -- were for the White House to get the latest information about a close race, which would be unexceptional on election night. He said none of the calls to him or his staff involved the phone-jamming operation.
While under no legal obligation to do so, the RNC has paid more than $2.5 million in legal fees incurred by Tobin, who in 2004 was the New England director for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

-snip-
"You have somebody who's committing a felony, and he's calling during the planning, the execution and when it's falling apart," Twomey said, adding that he will request records listing what outgoing calls were made from the White House during the same time. Twomey told New Hampshire reporters that the RNC's coverage of the legal fees "raises questions of who they were protecting, how high does this go and who was in on this."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/13/AR2006041301673.html

[fearnobush]

1. Just the tip of an election stealing ice burg.

I'm sure. Republicans will have to rename their fascist party after we the people fill every jail cell in America with GOP operatives.

[Judi Lynn]

2. What really can get you wild is the fact that Bush's Justice Department

postponed indicting this jerk, who was _Bush's New England campaign chairman, until AFTER THE 2004 election, although the crime took place during the 2002 election.

From an earlier article:

News - December 2, 2004

Ex-Bush chairman indicted on charges related to jamming
By MARK HAYWARD
Union Leader Staff

~snip~
In 2002, he was Northeast political director for the Republican Senatorial Committee, the party operation working to elect Republicans to the Senate. Among the races affected by the phone jamming was the U.S. Senate contest between outgoing Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Congressman John E. Sununu.

It was considered a cliffhanger, though Sununu won by about 20,000 votes.

Democrats praised the indictment, but said it was overdue.

"I think it's unfortunate the Justice Department delayed, for whatever reasons that it did, until after the election," state Democratic Chairman Kathy Sullivan said. Sullivan said she hopes the delay was not for political reasons.

"I will not be satisfied until we know the full extent of who paid for this and who knew about it beforehand and who helped to cover it up afterward," she said.

Sullivan said the new Republican chairman should not stonewall Democrats' efforts to get to the bottom of the matter. Republicans refuse to provide discovery in a civil suit the Democrats have filed against Republicans in the matter, she said.
(snip/...)

http://webarchive.unionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=47785

[Jose Diablo]

7. Interesting to note the Justice department's delayed indictment

Until after 2004 election. Let me see, Ashcroft was heading the DoJ at that time. Let the Eagles Soar Ashcroft just before being appointed to the DoJ ran for a Senate seat in 2000 against Mel Carnahan, who was challenging incumbent Ashcroft.

Now Mel Carnahan had the unfortunate 'luck' of perishing in a plane crash 3 weeks before the election. Even so, the voters rejected Ashcroft and voted for Mel Carnahan. His wife, Jean was seated in the Senate in 2001. Bu$h then appointed Ashcroft to that DoJ slot.

Isn't it strange, how so many of these Republican's opponents have untimely plane crashes.

Now we hear the Republicans were running a illegal phone scam and the DoJ (Ashcroft) squelched the indictments until after the 2004 election.

I guess it's just another one of those coincidences, eh? Wait a minute. Could it be? Rather than an accident, obstruction of justice, a felony. Could Ashcroft, at that time the highest prosecutor in the land, himself be a criminal? And if so, could Mel Carnahan be a victim of murder, not just a accident victim?

Or is this all just a silly conspiracy theory, on the same level as the CT about those anthrax attacks right after 9/11 were done by Republican operatives, to force through the first Patriot Act by targeting Dem politicians in DC? Or maybe that silly CT that the WTC were dropped with cutting charges after the planes hit the towers, to gain political advantage and start wars in the middle east, to get the oil?

All these coincidences, or maybe this is the new political methods used by the Republican party, in the 21st century. A new, refined, Republican party made strong with new methods that reinforce the new ideology of accept no failure, no matter what the law says. It's a new sort of religion, the only sin is to fail. See how it all works?

Edit to add: I think Jose is losing it folks. Sitting here at the screen on a Saturday morning, posting in a blog, and thinking how wonderful it would be to go back in time to that event in the 2000 election, in Florida, to that place where the ballots were being recounted and that Republican operative John Bolton came barging into the room shouting, "My name is John Bolton and I'm here to stop this recount".

Jose is thinking how wonderful it would be to be there at that point in time and say, "My name is Jose Diablo, and I'm here to get your Mustache." Then take out a skinning knife and take his upper lip and mustachio. Jose from time to time has some very vivid images. That mustache would look good, hanging in my den, inside a picture frame on the wall over the fireplace. Don't you think?

[ShockediSay]

3. What kind of "democracy"

is created by organized crooks and liars?

[SpiralHawk]

4. What kind? It's called republiconism - synonymous with corruption

It's a culture of corruption

[0007]

8. What kind of "democracy" is it when one party runs rampant

and the other party is barley heard when a crime is committed?

[Justice]

5. Why doesn't Mehlman want to testify?

He said none of the calls to him or his staff involved the phone-jamming operation.

Why can't he say that under oath? Should be easy to do.

[bklyncowgirl]

6. It should be easy to clear this up, Testify under oath, Ken

Oh right, I forgot. It's OK if you're a Republican so why bother to testify.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. Why were they calling the WH to get the latest information

about a close race?

Even if the WH wasn't involved in jamming the phones, it is a clear violation of the Hatch Act to be conducting campaign activities from the WH.

They should have been calling the GOP for that info. But of course, this gang doesn't pay attention to the law unless it applies to someone else.

[Vinca]

10. Mehlman always comes off as "holier than thou."

But if the calls were going to his phone, there's no way he didn't know about the scheme. As a New Hampshire resident, this really pisses me off since the Democrat might very well have won the Senate if the Republicans weren't working to steal the election.

[Fluffdaddy]

11. This sucks

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/opinion/17mon4.html?ex=1302926400&en=95d7f18eb564ed89&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


"The Internet is a great breeding ground for political conspiracies, and there is a new one lighting up computer monitors across the country. Bloggers are fascinated by what they see as eerie parallels between Watergate and a phone-jamming scandal in New Hampshire. It has low-level Republican operatives involved in dirty campaign tricks. It has checks from donors with murky backgrounds. It has telephone calls to the White House. What is unclear is whether it is the work of a few rogue actors, or something larger."

[Robb]

12. $2.5 million in legal fees from RNC

...betcha that's not on their promotional mailer! :rofl:

[Fluffdaddy]

13. The RNC/GOP is just low down dirty. They don't know the meaning

of the words Fair-play

[Supersedeas]

19. or but the Network Media will surely get to the bottom of it.

[madmark]

20. has melman been asked why are they are paying for this?

by the way that is a huge sum for legal fees.

[Judi Lynn]

14. NYTimes:Small-Time Crime With Hints of Big-Time Connections Lights Up the

Small-Time Crime With Hints of Big-Time Connections Lights Up the Net
By ADAM COHEN
Published: April 17, 2006

The Internet is a great breeding ground for political conspiracies, and there is a new one lighting up computer monitors across the country. Bloggers are fascinated by what they see as eerie parallels between Watergate and a phone-jamming scandal in New Hampshire. It has low-level Republican operatives involved in dirty campaign tricks. It has checks from donors with murky backgrounds. It has telephone calls to the White House. What is unclear is whether it is the work of a few rogue actors, or something larger.

In 2002, there was a hard-fought Senate race between Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, the Democrat, and John Sununu, the Republican. On Election Day, Democratic workers arrived at five get-out-the-vote offices to find their phone lines jammed. It turned out that the jamming was being done by an Idaho telemarketing firm that was being paid by a Virginia consulting group. The fee for the jamming, reportedly $15,600, was paid by New Hampshire Republicans.

The executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party and the president of the Virginia consulting group pleaded guilty for their part in the scheme. James Tobin, who was the New England political director for the Republican National Committee, went to trial and was convicted of telephone harassment last December.

Now, Jack Abramoff and his Indian tribe clients have joined the cast of characters, and some records of phone calls to the White House have turned up, though the significance of both of these revelations is hotly disputed. The evidence that the phone-jamming scandal goes higher than Mr. Tobin remains scant. But the watchdogs are right about this: the news media, prosecutors and the general public should demand more information about what happened.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/opinion/17mon4.html?ex=1145419200&en=4b8b68a63131650a&ei=5087%0A

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The large papers will try to down play the importance of this, obviously, as they chose not to bother themselves with it WHEN it should have been a VERY large story.

[NorthernSun]

15. Newspapers guilty

Since the big newspapers are part of the Bush crime family, they can't help slamming the truth tellers (internet) evan when they are forced to run a negative Bush story.

[BigDDem]

16. Ken's boyfriend

does not want him to testify.

[OKIsItJustMe]

17. Unexceptional

Ken Mehlman, former director of the White House political office and current chairman of the Republican National Committee is fighting Democratic efforts to force him to testify under oath in a civil suit about the New Hampshire scandal. Mehlman said the calls from James Tobin -- a consultant who in 2002 led the RNC's New England effort -- were for the White House to get the latest information about a close race, which would be unexceptional on election night. He said none of the calls to him or his staff involved the phone-jamming operation.

Okay, so were any other offices making a similar number of calls to the White House during the same period?

[David Zephyr]

18. So how do they get him to testify?

If they do, it could bring down the White House and Karl Rove more than the Plame affair.