911 Comm's Tom Keane: Unscrupulous "Piece of Work" at election time, for 25

[ProgressiveEconomist]

years.

Yesterday, 9-11 Co-Chair Lee Hamilton reprimanded Keane for undermining and undoing much of the Commission's years of work through association with the ABC/Disney/YWAM/Horowitz/Scaife "crockumentary", PT911. Keane was Co-Producer! IMO, it's inexcusable that Keane would have put the Commission's impramatur on 5 hours of unanswered Macchiavellian Republican fearmongering propaganda, to be broadcast two months before an election, and apparently funded by Clinton stalker Richard Mellon Scaife.

But Keane's willingness to put scruples aside at election time is legendary. I was shocked when I first heard that he'd been elevated to head a supposedly nonpartisan panel of such importance. Whenever Republicans engage in minority vote suppression, they're violating a consent decree settling a civil rights lawsuit against Keane's 1981 STORMTROOPER election tactics in New Jersey. Tom Keane will do ANYTHING to win an election.

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091101084.html :

"With 9/11 Film, Kean Finds Tough Critic in Hamilton

Kean professed to being puzzled by the conspiracy crowd. "It seems every time there's a traumatic event in American history, it spawns conspiracy theories," he said with a laugh. "I mean, people still think that John Wilkes Booth got away and hid somewhere in the South. As for the 9/11 conspiracy theories, he said, "I don't know what to do about them." Kean saw no link between the conspiracists and his work in the docudrama trade. When the ABC question was put to him, Kean declared himself mystified by the criticism.

"I've been confounded by this whole controversy," he said innocently. He said that the film's creators are "serious people who wanted to do the best job possible," that it "was a responsible project" and that "I thought they did a good job." His one attempt at distancing himself was halfhearted. "I was not the producer or director or the author or the writer or whatever else," said co-executive producer Kean.

Hamilton, a tireless Kean booster, answered with some rare public criticism of his partner. "They didn't ask me to participate in this," he said acidly, adding that complaints from Clinton officials were "accurate in their criticisms of ABC." As for the "docudrama" format, the no-nonsense Hoosier said: "I don't like the ring of that." Spontaneous applause followed Hamilton's criticism. If Kean was surprised by the scolding, he shouldn't have been. Even before the ABC question came, Hamilton volunteered some stern remarks about the importance of truth. "Facts are not Republican and they're not Democrat," he said. "They're not ideological. Facts are facts."

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From http://www.democrats.com/node/59 :

"Voting suit revisits intimidation claims--Letters targeting Ohio minorities said to violate settlement after Kean-Florio race in'81;

Monday, November 01, 2004 BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG, (Newark) Star-Ledger Staff

Armed guards wearing armbands patrolled polling places. Signs warned of criminal penalties for voting illegally. Hundreds of thousands of letters returned as undeliverable were used to compile a list of voters to be challenged at the polls....

It was 1981, during one of the closest elections in New Jersey history -- one that wasn't decided until a recount that dragged on nearly a month found Republican Tom Kean had defeated Democrat Jim Florio for governor by less than 2,000 votes.

State and county prosecutors launched probes into voter intimidation. Furious Democrats filed a $10 million federal lawsuit accusing the Republican state and national committees of depriving minorities of their constitutional right to vote. But the criminal probes went nowhere and the lawsuit was settled a year later for $1. The Republicans admitted no wrongdoing, but signed a promise never to target minority voters for special treatment -- anywhere in the nation...."

[acmavm]

1. This promise wasn't worth the paper it was written on...

"...a promise never to target minority voters for special treatment -- anywhere in the nation...."

[ProgressiveEconomist]

4. But it may still have importance for fighting future GOP vote suppression

One of the barriers to taking Rethuglicans to court over vote suppression is GETTING into court. This consent decree may provide ingenious civil rights lawyers with additional options. I wonder whether Kerry's or Gore's lawyers considered using it.

I also wonder whether Keane Jr. is sub rosa trying to use the same tactics against Menendez his dad used against Jim Florio. Certainly NJ voters in 2006 need to be reminded of this consent decree.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. This has some significance as

Lee Hamilton is not someone who can be portrayed as a screaming liberal.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Why didn't Keane refuse to participate in PT911 unless Hamilton

would be given the same degree of control over the production? IMO that would have been the only way PT911 could have been perceived as possibly fair.

[acmejack]

3. This just seems to be the usual pattern!

"State and county prosecutors launched probes into voter intimidation. Furious Democrats filed a $10 million federal lawsuit accusing the Republican state and national committees of depriving minorities of their constitutional right to vote. But the criminal probes went nowhere and the lawsuit was settled a year later for $1. The Republicans admitted no wrongdoing, but signed a promise never to target minority voters for special treatment -- anywhere in the nation...."

And we keep settling for it.