Senate Vote Inquiry Widens as Democrats Probe White House Link

[Judi Lynn]

Senate Vote Inquiry Widens as Democrats Probe White House Link

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- To Republicans, the New Hampshire phone-jamming incident is an isolated case of political dirty tricks that took place more than three years ago.

To Democrats, it's a scandal with echoes of Watergate that may reach all the way to the White House.

Republican leaders are facing questions stemming from a criminal case involving efforts to suppress voter turnout in a U.S. Senate election in the state in 2002. Republican John Sununu won that race over Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, helping Republicans retake control of the Senate.

The facts, on the surface at least, are suspicious: dozens of phone calls to the White House by a man later convicted in the case; the national Republican Party agreeing to pay more than $2.5 million in legal bills; phones jammed on Election Day, not only of Democrats but of a firefighters' group, in the first U.S. congressional elections since the Sept. 11 attacks. Democrats say that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff may even be involved.
(snip/...)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aQGLEwqlIdHo&refer=us

[snappyturtle]

1. Is it too early to get ......

out the :popcorn: ??????????

[blm]

2. If MacAuliffe trumpeted this in 2002-3, it would've had legs BEFORE 2004

We have to keep their corruption front and center in every way to get it through to the public, because the corporate media will do its best to keep the volume as low as possible regarding any Bush and GOP corruption.

[endarkenment]

5. They were too busy formulating program and policy statements.

Our Democratic leadership still does not fully comprehend that they are in a street fight.

[blm]

7. That wasn't their job at the time - their job is to help Dems WIN by

raising money and caring for the Dem infrastructure by strengthening it state by state.

In 2003 and 4 it was the Dem candidates and the eventual nominee who had the job of crafting policy plans to present - DNC had the job of providing spokepeople to the news shows who were able to convey those positions knowledgeably as a buttress to the campaign people.

[endarkenment]

10. While over on the other side of the aisle

The RNC and the Republican attack machine were busy formulating messages that framed Democratic candidates as weak on defense, as elitists cheese eaters, as immoral, as flip-floppers. They did this alongside their coordinated and well funded efforts to build and strengthen their infrastructure. The point is that the Republicans are fighting a coordinated political battle using strategies and tactics that are quite different than the ones we are using, and their strategy and tactics have been demonstrably superior to ours, but we keep not adapting. The "spokepeople to the news shows who were able to convey those positions knowledgeably" that we provide are routinely not up to the task, haven't bothered to figure out how they are going to be attacked, frequently manage to regurgitate Republican talking points, and routinely treat utter bullshit spewed by the opposition as reasonable opinions that should be fairly evaluated.

[blm]

15. My observation is that the Dems used too many of the same pundits who

rose through their ranks fully schooled in defending Clinton scandals on tv, but knew little about any other Democratic lawmaker, their records and their qualities.

The RNC could lie more effectively on TV than a DNC spokeperson can tell the truth - they were THAT unprepared.

[endarkenment]

16. Well exactly right.

"The RNC could lie more effectively on TV than a DNC spokeperson can tell the truth"

And my point is that this is partially because our spokespeople are sent out to discuss policy and programs while theirs are sent out to frame the debate, to create false images, to repeat code words and phrases, in a coordinated effort to confuse and befuddle the voting population. We are not even fighting the same war, let alone presenting an effective defense, and we certainly are not fighting back effectively.

[NBachers]

25. You hit that nail on the head

Boy, you said it! I'm sick of twee little unprepared liberal weaklings coming out and trying to expound on camera, and then lapping up the shit thrown at them by belligerant neocon brownshirt hoodlums. Smash a fucking whiskey bottle and gore their faces into bloody pulp! When are they going to realize we've got to bash these Nazis in the head with a crowbar? I get so embarrassed when I see the lame little sissies that try to represent Democrats in the media.

[Doctor_J]

3. The list of impeachable offenses since Rove became Resident

has now reached about 4 pages. I wish someone would have sex with Smirk.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. Yes. If we could catch him having relations then we could

impeach him.

Without that there isn't much we seem to be able to do.

[endarkenment]

4. Jeanne Shaheen was the Republican's worst nightmare.

A centrist Democrat, a woman, a popular governor in a state that was moving from solid Republican to tossup, and about to take away what had been an safe seat. Her career ended with that election.

[Wilms]

8. Meet the new spokesman. Same as the old spokesperson...

"White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said the administration doesn't comment on ongoing investigations."

[UpInArms]

14. reminds me of

[Rose Siding]

9. The RNC has spent almost 6 million defending this case-

http://www.senatemajority.com/node/232

Since the New Hampshire phone jamming scandal surfaced in 2003, the Republican National Committee and the New Hampshire Republican State Committee have spent nearly $6 million on the firms involved in the case.

Williams & Connolly (James Tobin Criminal Defense) $2,824,584
Covington & Burling (RNC Civil Defense) $2,997,155
Devine Millimet & Branch (NH Republican Party Civil Defense) $85,535
...
The bills from Williams & Connolly for Tobin's defense aren't the only legal bills the Republicans are paying for the phone jamming incident ... The RNC, NRSC, and New Hampshire Republican State Committee are also paying lawyers to defend against a civil suit brought by the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

[KittyWampus]

12. Thanks once again for valuable information, RoseSiding

didn't realise the RNC was also footing bill for a civil suit.

That's a lot of money to spend on just a few rouge pranksters.

[marmar]

11. Gawd I hope Conyers becomes Judicial Committee chair this fall...

So we can watch all the investigations on CSPAN!!!

:popcorn:

[smartvoter]

13. These stories help us with the case for all types of fraud. nt

[ClintonTyree]

17. "It calls into question who the person was...........

on the end of that telephone line". :eyes: Three guesses, first two don't count. KKKARL! Who else? The Bush master of political dirty tricks and all around pond scum, one step below plant life. :grr: I can't wait for that bald, lily-white, porcine piece of crap to be indicted, tried, convicted and be sent up the river. That will be a day to celebrate :party: I quit drinking 5 years ago (maybe a glass of wine once or twice a year) but I will "tie one on" that day in celebration of America's preeminent sack of shit going to jail. :toast: :party: :toast:

[BuyingThyme]

18. When do we start calling a "disgraced lobbyist" a Republican mobster?

[worldgonekrazy]

19. Its all circumstantial

It certainly does seem like something very much on par with the Watergate burglary, but a smoking gun needs to emerge that irrefutably ties this phone jamming thing to high level officials in the White House. The circumstantial evidence certainly indicates this to be the case, but until cold, hard proof emerges the White House and the RNC can obfuscate this enough to deflect real harm.

[Imagevision]

20. Recommended and Kicked thru November!!

[Supersedeas]

21. Pubbies probably have post-election investigation plans in the mix

[Independent_Liberal]

22. Kick!

[FiveGoodMen]

23. Let's just pause and admire a rare and beautiful combination of words

"Inquiry Widens as Democrats Probe"

I hear music.

[Judi Lynn]

24. The "Now I've Heard Everything" department:

Sun. April 16, 2006
Thundering silence from Washington

~snip~
In a civil lawsuit being heard in Superior Court in Manchester, state Democrats want to compel testimony from White House officials and those at the Republican National Committee who received numerous phone calls from Tobin during a three-day period around Election Day.

While Democrats want answers and to play some political hardball at the same time, it seems state and national Republicans would rather have the matter disappear or strangle it with stonewalling rhetoric.

In an Orwellian twist on reality, a lawyer representing the state GOP played the victim card during a recent court appearance. The lawyer, Jon Shirley, said it was the GOP that had been damaged most by the scandal because Democrats had used it in 2004 and were using it again in 2006 "to cast us in a negative light."

While there’s plenty of political mudslinging left before the case is closed, what is disconcerting for the future is how the election system was so easily abused.
(snip/...)

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/04162006/editoria/98141.htm

(this loaded slowly for me)

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

You may remember this crime was committed in 2002, and as hard as Democrats tried to get something done about it, _Bush's Justice Department REFUSED TO MOVE on it until AFTER THE 2004 ELECTION.