G.O.P. Anger in Swing State Eased Attorney’s Exit (Iglesias NM) NYTimes

[Demeter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/washington/18attorneys.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
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March 18, 2007

G.O.P. Anger in Swing State Eased Attorney’s Exit

By CHRISTOPHER DREW and ERIC LIPTON

ALBUQUERQUE, March 17 — The first whiff of something suspicious came when a 15-year-old boy received a voter registration card in the mail. Soon a second one arrived. Then his 13-year-old neighbor got one, too.

Neither boy had applied for the cards, and it looked as if their signatures and birthdates had been forged. It was August 2004, and the local authorities quickly traced the problems to a canvasser for a liberal group that had signed up tens of thousands of voters for the presidential election in this swing state.

State Republican leaders demanded a criminal investigation. And with the television cameras rolling, the United States attorney, David C. Iglesias, a boyish-looking Republican, promised a thorough one. “It appears that mischief is afoot,” Mr. Iglesias said, “and questions are lurking in the shadows.”

The inquiry he began, however, never resulted in charges, so frustrating Republican officials here that they began an extraordinary campaign to get rid of him that reached all the way to President Bush.....

GOOD FILL-IN-THE-GAPS ARTICLE!

Christopher Drew reported from Albuquerque, and Eric Lipton from Washington.

[dweller]

1. in accordance w/ the 4 paragraph rule, here

are 4 more i found interesting, there are many more:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mr. Iglesias defended his handling of the vote-fraud and other investigations, saying his critics did not have access to the findings that guided his decisions. He says the attacks occurred because state Republican leaders felt betrayed, figuring “We helped the guy get the position, he owes us some kind of fealty.”

Mr. Iglesias said he had believed that his bosses shared his view that United States attorneys should stay above the fray. “I thought I was insulated from politics,” he said in an interview. “But now I find out that main Justice was up to its eyeballs in partisan political maneuvering.”

Since his ouster, Mr. Iglesias has received support from other federal prosecutors, who say the department failed to honor its obligation to ensure that decisions about prosecutions are free of political taint.

“People who understand the history and the mission of the United States attorney and Justice Department — they are uniformly appalled, horrified,” said Atlee W. Wampler III, chairman of a national organization of former United States attorneys and a prosecutor who served in the Carter and Reagan administrations. “That the tradition of the Justice Department could have been so warped by that kind of action — any American should be disturbed.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

yeah, filling in the gaps.
dp

[aquart]

2. GOP Interference in Swing State Pushed Attorney's Purging.

Lotta ways to write a headline.

[w4rma]

3. Wow. Rove/Gonzales fired the attorney that "A Few Good Men" was based on. (nt)

[SpiralHawk]

4. Iglasias was indeed the model for the Tom Cruise character in this film.

Because Iglasias was brave and honorable in service to the USA, of course the republicons have to trash him. As they demonstrate over and over, republicons HATE anyone who served honorably in the US armed services, because so many of the republicon heroes are embassing and honorless CHICKENHAWKS.

They republicons should hang their heads in abject shame for all the brave and honorable US Veterans they have completely trashed with their words and deeds.

Why do republicons HATE our men and women in uniform?

[dweller]

5. actually, i wonder how many times

a lawyer has laid claim to that role?

i know in my area there was a law firm with a tv ad ( name escapes me know) that claimed to be the model. (it could have been Iglasias?) but i'm in NC. I just remember the jingle 'if you're hurt, call ... & ...

:shrug:

dp

[calimary]

10. It's my understanding that people hate what they fear most. And usually

it involves something already within themselves that they hate much more (and usually for longer). Look at newt gingrich, persecuting Clinton for the very thing he was guilty of, himself. Look at ANY of 'em. ANY of the holier-than-thous who, just mysteriously, can't stomach gays. The chickenhawk who wants to go scorched-earth on someone like Max Cleland.

I think, specifically to your question, it's because a LOT of these republi-CON assholes never served. Many of them, perhaps even most of them (I don't know the statistics), likely have this deep-seated resentment of our military people because the very existence of these fighting men and women give the chickenhawks a big, fat, complex. THEY never served, but these people did. So QUICK! Let's figure out how to chop 'em down or otherwise show 'em - because their very existence as soldiers makes US (who never bothered to serve or weaseled five deferments or other excuses for ourselves so we wouldn't have to go out there and see combat and get our hands dirty and lift a bunch of heavy stuff and maybe get shot at, or get something shot off) look bad by comparison. Gotta belittle someone else so you look bigger, or at least that's the underlying thought here, I suspect. Chop down the other guy to render him less than you. Then, by default, you become bigger than he. Or so they subconsciously assume.

The very existence of our military - who DO go out there and serve and get their hands dirty and lift a bunch of heavy stuff and cope in difficult and indeed life-threatening situations and get shot (at) - makes these guys, who didn't, look like pussies. Especially when they go out there with their arrogance and swagger and smug I'm-more-patriotic-than-you strut, but don't have the military background or hard-won experience to back it up. They're rough and tough and more-patriotic-than-you ... HOW? WHEN? In what theater of war? Which battlefield was that, specifically, wherein they went out and put their asses on the line for their country for real? Oh. I see. They - um - er - didn't. They stayed home and watched it on the news, I guess. How'd they manage all that militaristic, let's-go-get-'em, blow-'em-to-bits bravado, anyway? Video games? They never missed a John Wayne movie?

So they think they're hot shit. Until one of these people in uniform (and maybe with one leg missing) arrives in the picture and he or she is the real thing. The weasels, who are mere pretenders, are forced to shrivel in the shadows of any of these real things. It makes them look bad. It makes 'em look like wimps, sissies, cowards, hypocrites - which WE all know they were already. But maybe others these assholes are pandering to and strutting for didn't know that. Until now. When they, too, can see the comparisons and judge for themselves. With at least some of them, that makes an impression, and it isn't a good one.

I think that's why these disgraceful schmucks hate our military.

And maybe also it's because these weasels have their egos (and maybe even their own complexes about their dick size) all tied up in some big, glorious, shock 'n' awe thing that'll restore or confirm their macho. A vicarious win. Our military kicks some ass - so we get the bragging rights. We can strut around like we kicked some ass, too. We bask in their reflected glory. And unfortunately, the scum at the top has designed this war and planned so poorly (hmmm - maybe no combat or military experience among "the deciders" leads to that) and set things up so that our military CAN'T succeed. And when they fail to reach whatever illusory "goals" we've set (that change from week to week and that nobody seems to be able to agree about and at least half of our forces over in Iraq don't even understand clearly), well, then, some folks back here can't cope with, or deal with, that kind of failure. We're AMERICANS. We're supposed to WIN. ALL THE TIME. What the fuck is the matter? What's wrong with this picture? Why ain't we winnin'? We're not winning because there are certified NINCOMPOOPS at the top, jonesing for war, lying about why we need one, and then assuming they can send everybody out to fight one on the cheap (so none of the rest of us has to sacrifice anything).

No wonder these people aren't so put off by the idea of endless war. Hey, nothing to it, this war stuff. It's EASY! Look! No sweat! Hasn't hurt me in the least! I ain't feelin' nuthin'. I ain't had to give up nuthin'. No biggie. So, no big deal, let's have a war! Bring 'em on! War's cool! Just like they show in them-thar video games. Bang-bang! Yer dead. Now let's go have a beer.

Disgraceful, isn't it? Sigh...

[Sabien]

9. BushCo. to America...

"You see Danny, I can deal with the bullets, and the bombs, and the blood. I don't want money, and I don't want medals. What I do want is for you to stand there in that faggoty white uniform and with your Harvard mouth extend me some fucking courtesy. You gotta ask me nicely."

Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I think I'm entitled.
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth.
Col. Jessep: You can't handle the truth.

"Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You?...I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom...You have the luxury of not knowing what I know...You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something...I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."

[grytpype]

6. "They did not take direction well enough from the Republican Party, so they were let go."

That is how to explain this people.

The Republican Party said "indict some Democrats for voter fraud."

Iglesias investigates and he finds there's not voter fraud.

The Republican Party says "fire that guy. He's got to go."

and the funny part is THEY ADMIT IT!!!!

That is their story exactly! They just don't see anything wrong with it!

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. wasn't Fitzgerald's name re-dacted from memos? n/t

[grytpype]

8. I think there was clearly a conspiracy to interfere with a criminal matter.

[jamesinca]

11. Well it was not the Democratic party

It was according to the article a "canvasser for a liberal group". That could be anybody, and if they did this then signed thier name to the form as a person who helped fill it out, then they are pretty stupid. Or it could be the Republic party trying to start a scandal and blame it on the Democrats because they were having their own problems in NV, OR and southern California.

[tanyev]

12. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the GOP got some people into a liberal

voter registration drive to purposely screw it up. Don Segretti, Nixon's dirty tricks man, called it ratfucking. He was a mentor to Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.

Ratfucking
Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their book All The President's Men.

Former Committee to Re-elect the President staffer Donald Segretti told the authors, during their investigation of activities leading to the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972, of a program of orchestrated political sabotage by supporters of Richard Nixon against Nixon's political opponents. These included, but were not limited to, cancelling meeting-hall reservations just prior to rallies, releasing false press releases or "leaked documents" in the name of political opponents, spying on rival campaigns, stuffing ballot boxes, ordering vast quantities of food for delivery in the name of rival campaigns, conducting deceptive or offensive get out the vote phone canvasses, push polls, and similar activities.
http://www.answers.com/topic/ratfucking