Has This Been Brought Up? The Firing Of US Attorneys Is Connected to Voter Fraud

[babsbunny]

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/

Vote fraud, "voter registration fraud," and the purge
Odd, isn't it, how the current scandal over purged U.S. Attorneys has merged with the election fraud controversy?

The best blog coverage comes, of course, from Brad Friedman and Josh Marshall. Senator Pete Domenici and Representative Heather Wilson. both Republicans of New Mexico, appear to have had a hand in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Now we learn that this thing goes up to state Republican party director Allen Weh, and from there to -- you guessed it! -- Karl Rove:

[PDJane]

1. I believe so..........

and it really isn't a surprise, now is it?

[partylessinOhio]

2. All to prop this freak up:

We need a cleansweep.

[Warpy]

3. Domenici and Wilson are both pond scum

who put on a show about "saving" NM's military bases every couple of years so the local retired military--and there are a lot of them--will continue to vote them into office.

I hope this thing continues to grow legs. Even the right wing fishwrap in this town has been covering it. Iglesias was a popular prosecutor with both parties. With any luck, these two right wing jerks have finally screwed the pooch and we'll get rid of them at last.

[BridgeTheGap]

4. Hey, come on now!

You're giving pond scum a bad name!

[LSparkle]

5. I think I heard about this on Hartmann ... or maybe Randi?

The idea that the guy who helped organize/enable the purges in 2004 in Ohio (and/or maybe elsewhere?) was a friend of KKKarl and needed to be put in a position where he couldn't be called to testify and didn't need to be approved by the Senate (thus, US Attorney appointed per some largely overlooked statute that exempts approval process).

As Craig Crawford has written, now that Roverat is involved, this thing can't HELP but blow up into a scandal-a-go-go!

[kestrel91316]

6. I think you mean ELECTION fraud, right? After all, the voters were

the victims, not the perpetrators.

[babsbunny]

7. Yep, I always get it mixed up

Thanks!:hi:

[satya]

8. In this case, they were talking about "voter fraud" -- the WA state GOP alleged

that votes were cast by dead people. Turned out to be true, in at least one case -- one man mailed in his late wife's absentee ballot. The votes seemed to favor GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, because when his case was heard by his hand-picked, GOP-friendly judge, votes were deducted from his tally.

The election fraud in this case (touch screen votes that mysteriously resulted in a last-minute statistically suspect surge of support for Mr. Rossi, making him the apparent winner before the hand count) was of no concern to the GOP.

[intheflow]

9. Kicking for mid-day visibility.

:kick:

[starroute]

10. This "voter fraud" angle is enormously important

Here's something I posted on another thread last night -- but I'm reposting because it more properly belongs in this one:


The real issue in 2000 and 2004, as we all know, was election fraud, carried out principally through a combination of voter disenfranchisement and tinkering with the electronic voting machines.

But a small number of Republican operatives were working very hard to make the issue seem to be about "voter fraud" instead. Right after both the 2000 and the 2004 elections, there was an intense effort by Republicans, drawing on a handful of anecdotal reports about fraudulently or inaccurately registered voters, to prove that "voter fraud" was a serious problem -- and one that primarily involved Democratic voters.

(As an example of how the right-wing echo machine works, see http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/election2k/pee-u.htm for a WorldNetDaily article from 2000 claiming voter fraud in Missouri, http://www.house.gov/akin/updates/20020312.html for a 2002 article by Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri on his and Kit Bond's efforts to bring the "voter fraud" issue front and center, and http://www.politixgroup.com/comm81.htm for an article by a former intern to Bond and Akin also carrying the Missouri claims along.)

None of the accusations got very far, but they were sufficient to muddy the waters -- and also to shove through voter identification laws that now provide a legal excuse to disenfranchise poor and minority voters all the more.

I had thought it was only people like Akin and Bond who were pushing the "voter fraud" issue. That may have been true after 2000, but this Post article makes it clear that in 2004, the White House itself was involved. And that means this business is far deeper and dirtier than even the Post is acknowledging. In 2004/05, the Bush gang was already lining things up to steal the 2006 and 2008 elections as well -- and that is what this is really about.

[starroute]

11. Digging further into my notes...

I also find that there were claims of irregularities in Ohio voter registration being made during the 2004 campaign. "Thor" Hearne -- a friend of Todd Akin and national counsel to the Bush campaign, who'd been deeply involved in the earlier Missouri claims -- was pushing them. So were Jim Dyke, an astroturf expert who was communications director for the Republican National Committee in 2003-2004, and Scott Hogenson, who was RNC radio services director at the same time. Hearne and Dyke were the people behind the "American Center for Voting Rights" -- the astroturf group mentioned in the Cannonfire post -- founded in early 2005.

As I said above, this stuff is not unknown. What's new and devastating is that the White House was involved as well -- and, in fact, Harriet Miers was concocting her fire-all-the-attorneys scheme at precisely the same time (February 2005) as Herne and Dyke were leaving their official GOP positions and setting up their false front.

Anyone who was hanging out at DU in 2004-05 will recall the burst of manic obsession with electoral fraud that went on for several months following the election. At the time, it could seem as though no one outside was listening. Now we know that the Bush administration was not only listening, but in its own way was just as obsessive as we were.

I suppose that, in its way, that's a good thing.

[starroute]

12. Googling on Thor Hearne is a good place to start

Here are a couple of BradBlog entries:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=1282

3/24/2005

Monday's testimony to a U.S. House Committee by Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, the leader of the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) --- who also happens to be the National Counsel for Bush/Cheney '04, Inc. --- has just been added to the website of the "non-partisan", tax-exempt, one-week old "Voting Rights" group.

In his testimony, Hearne failed to mention to the U.S. House members, either his connection to Bush/Cheney or his long roots in the Republican party going back to the Reagan Administration. The testimony was given last Monday to the U.S. House Administration Committee at hearings held on the Ohio Election problems. The hearings to which Hearne was invited were held just 3 business days after the ACVR suddenly appeared for the first time on the Internet...or anywhere else that we've been able to find. More on that here.

In Hearne's testimony, as seen via the page posted today on the ACVR's website, he describes himself as a "a longtime advocate of voter rights and an attorney experience in election law". No mention of his long-term pedigree as a high-level GOP operative...

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3611

10/13/2006

Following up on our Wednesday coverage of the four- month-old report on "Voter Fraud," which the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) refused to release when they discovered the report points to just how little such fraud actually occurs. The facts don't lie, despite the loathesome high-level GOP/Team Bush operatives who call themselves the "non-partisan" American Center for Voting Rights' (ACVR), and their ongoing disingenuous and well-funded efforts to establish that voter fraud is rampant, perpetrated almost exclusively by Democrats, and must be cured by disenfranchising and unconstitutional Photo ID requirement laws at the polls (although not for absentee or military balloting, of course).

We've now had a chance to review the unreleased report in full. It's just twelve pages. But it slams the notion that there is any massive problem in America with "Voter Fraud", despite ACVR's continuing campaign to suggest the problem is an epidemic --- versus all of the many other forms of disenfranchisement that really do occur and really do threaten our democracy.

"There is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud," the report explains, "or at least much less than is claimed, including voter impersonation, 'dead' voters, noncitizens voting and felon voters."

The report singles out ACVR as the only named proponent of the discredited notion that voter fraud is plaguing the country --- ACVR is ignominously named as dissenting three times in the report! --- so it is little wonder they didn't want this report to see the light of day.

And here's the Democratic Party:

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/08/acvr_report_rid.php

The American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) recently presented RNC chairman Ken Mehlman with a report claiming that Democrats had practiced voter fraud and intimidation during the 2004 election. Their findings would be troubling, except for the fact that they are a GOP front group whose officers are all partisan Republicans. In fact, Jim Dyke, the organizati'n’s spokesman, was the R'C’s communications director during the 2004 elections, where he defended a RNC funded group that was caught tearing up Democratic voter registration forms. AC'R’s counsel ran against former Democratic Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, and its Chairman was an associate of Washington super lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

[starroute]

13. But it all leads back to Bob Ney and the mess in Ohio

Below is part of Hearne's testimony before Ney's committee -- presumably in the spring of 2005, though I can't find a date on the page. (I assume that as an official government document, there's no fair use limit on quotes.)

Ney's involvement was not accidental -- he deliberately gave Hearne's hastily-formed astroturf group a public hearing and an imprimatur of respectability. To put it bluntly, the 2004 election was stolen in Ohio -- with Ney and his cronies, including Jack Abramoff being centrally involved -- but Hearne and his "voter fraud" scam were the crucial other half of the picture.

At this point, it would be extremely helpful to know who the US Attorney was in Ohio in 2004-05 -- as well as in any other places where the elections were particularly disputed -- and what has become of them since.

http://cha.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=665

Mr. Hearne. Thank you, Chairman Ney and members of the House Administration Committee. Because of the late hour my testimony has been presented and, as the Ranking Member requested, I will give you just a brief overview of what I did address in that testimony and I will be available for any questions.

My name is Thor Hearne. . . . Today I am here in my capacity as the counsel for the American Center for Voting Rights. The American Center for Voting Rights is a nonpartisan watchdog voting rights organization and legal defense organization which is committed to defend the rights of voters and to work to increase public confidence in the fairness of our election process.

I am joined in this effort by almost a dozen different Ohio lawyers who were involved in this past election representing several of this state's most prestigious law firms. During the conduct of the last election different events were brought to our attention. This report of these events has been assembled and we presented it to the committee. I would ask, Mr. Chairman, that this report be included in the record.

<snip>

Mr. Chairman, the questions that I believe need to be addressed aren't just what individuals were involved, but what groups were involved. As I said, there is a massive effort in Ohio, as you have noted Congresswoman Millender-McDonald, this was because of Ohio's status as a battleground state where an onslaught was made against the Ohio election system by third parties with outside interests that are seeking to try to influence the election result in Ohio.

One of these means by which that was done is the type of voter registration fraud that we have seen. We had a reference earlier today to the absolutely outrageous case which happened in Defiance County, Ohio, in which an individual was paid by the NAACP Project Vote in crack cocaine to submit more than 100 fraudulent voter registration forms including the now infamous Dick Tracy, Mary Poppins, Michael Jackson, and George Foreman.

The fraudulent voter registration effort was in many ways only part of the onslaught that Ohio experienced. We saw also the concern that has been expressed because of the litigation. These election lawsuits caused great chaos and confusion and difficulty for the election officials seeking to implement Ohio election law and made it more difficult to have a fair and honest election.

My observation, and that of those who have submitted this report and contributed to this report, is that Ohio election officials worked very hard, both Republican and Democrat, in a bipartisan way to make sure Ohio citizens enjoyed a fair and honest election.

The concern that we present to this Committee is that presented by these third party groups and their role sponsoring the submission of fraudulent voter registration forms and promoting strategic litigation seeking to remove the safeguards that would have prevented fraudulent registrants like Dick Tracy from actually casting a ballot that was counted. This litigation seeking to eliminate safeguards against voter fraud is another significant point of concern that we bring forward to this committee at this point. I will let the balance of my remarks, Mr. Chairman, stand in the prepared testimony.

The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Hearne.

[starroute]

15. Gregory A. White

To answer my own question, since 2003 the US Attorney in Northern Ohio has been Gregory A. White, formerly the Prosecuting Attorney for Lorain County.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ohn/us/usattorney.html

It was White's office that brought the case against coin dealer Tom Noe -- but John Conyers, at least, found White's involvement questionable:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050706/SRRARECOINS/307060005

A prominent Michigan congressman is criticizing the U.S. Justice Department’s handling of the Tom Noe investigation, saying it “delayed” its probe until after the re-election of President Bush.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D., Detroit), in a letter to Gregory A. White, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, criticized progress on the case that involved one of the President’s highest-profile fund-raisers in Ohio.

“In particular, I am concerned that your office delayed investigating this very serious matter until after the 2004 presidential election and as a result prejudiced the government’s ability to pursue justice in this case,” Mr. Conyers wrote.

In his letter, Mr. Conyers asked Mr. White to answer a number of questions, which boil down to: What did he know about Mr. Noe and when did he know it? The congressman also wants to know if officials within the Bush administration talked with Mr. White’s office about the case.

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1400

Conyers-Kaptur seek special counsel for Noe probe
by John Conyers, Jr. and Marcy Kaptur
August 4, 2005

The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530


Dear Mr. Attorney General:

We write to request that the U.S. Department of Justice immediately appoint an outside special counsel to assume the Department's investigation into alleged illegal contributions by Mr. Thomas Noe to federal and state political campaigns. In light of recent disclosures that Governor Taft's office, which is a subject of the investigation, made a direct political appeal to Karl Rove for Gregory White, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio to receive his job, there is little doubt that this is a textbook case for the appointment of a special counsel.

We understand and appreciate that it is not unusual for local and state politicians to use their influence to obtain presidential appointments for their friends and political allies; however, it is unusual, and indeed inappropriate and violative of your regulations, for prosecutors who obtain such appointments to review the conduct of those same individuals and their friends. Regardless of the actual or perceived sincerity or motives of any particular prosecutor, to ask an individual who owes his job to certain politicians to pursue legal actions against those same politicians places the prosecutor in an untenable situation. Whatever actions he or she takes will inevitably be subject to questions of favoritism and bias, calling the entire prosecution into question. This is why the special counsel regulations were promulgated to begin with.

<snip>

We now know that Mr. White has very close connections with the Governor's office and the White House. In fact, recently released records show that Mr. White sought Governor Taft's help in obtaining the U.S. Attorney position. The Governor's Chief of Staff, Brian Hicks, apparently communicated with Karl Rove, then a counselor to the President, about Mr. White's interest in the post. In an e-mail to Mr. Hicks, Mr. White wrote, "'I believe that my record speaks for itself, and I doubt there are too many county chairs for the Bush campaign that worked harder.'" This is the same Brian Hicks who was convicted along with his executive assistant, Cherie Carroll for accepting gifts from Mr. Noe in violation of state law (both are now lobbyists). In assessing this prong of the regulations, the test for appointment of a special counsel does not rest on the prosecutor in question's perceived reputation or the characterization of his reputation by others, regardless of their political stripe; it is based on whether the conflict of interest exists at all, which is clearly the case in the present instance.

[spinbaby]

14. Check out this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x400092

One was fired because he refused to start arresting people on voting fraud because there was no evidence.