Urge Dem Senators to REJECT von Spakovsky for Fed Elections Commissions (FEC)!

[mod mom]

Earlier this week, six veterans of the Civil Rights Division's voting rights section wrote the Senate Rules Committee to urge that they reject Hans von Spakovsky's nomination as a commissioner at the Federal Election Commission. The reason, they wrote, was that von Spakovsky had been "the point person for undermining the Civil Rights Division's mandate to protect voting rights" when he worked at the Justice Department.

Von Spakovsky, they wrote, had been instrumental in overruling career attorneys who objected to voter ID laws -- such as the infamous case of Georgia's 2005 law, which was ultimately blocked by a federal appeals court, likened by the judge to a Jim Crow-era poll tax.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003426.php


IT SHOULD BE A NO BRAINER FOR DEMS TO DENY THIS GUY A SIX YEAR TERM ON THE FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION-RIGHT? BUT WAIT, HERE IS WHAT McCLATCHY IS REPORTING (WORTH A FULL READ)....

Posted on Wed, Jun. 13, 2007
U.S. ATTORNEYS
Ex-Justice Dept. lawyer can't recall his role in controversial policies
By Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers
Hans von Spakovsky, who's seeking a full six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, deflected questions about whether he undermined voting rights laws, saying, "I was not the decision maker in the front office of the Civil Rights Division."

Time and again during his confirmation hearing, he cited either the attorney-client privilege or a cloudy memory for his purported role in restricting minorities' voting rights.

Von Spakovsky couldn't remember blocking an investigation into complaints that a Minnesota Republican official was discriminating against Native American voters before the 2004 election.

-snip

Another problem for foes of von Spakovsky is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing a home-state candidate, recess appointee Steven Walther of Reno, Nev., and Republicans are likely to put a retaliatory hold on Walther if von Spakovsky is rejected.

-snip
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/17364767.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_nation

DID YOU READ THAT? HARRY REID IS WORRIED ABOUT RETALIATORY HOLD ON A HOME STATE APPOINTEE. WTF? WHAT ABOUT ALL THE DEM MINORITY VOTERS DISENFRANCHISED BY von SPAKOVSKY'S ACTIONS?

PERHAPS SEN REID AND OTHER DEM SENATORS NEED TO READ SOME OF THE COMMENTS POSTED AT TPM MUCKRAKER AT THE LINK ABOVE!

[ProSense]

1. More on

Hans von Spakovsky

[mod mom]

2. Thank you ProSense!

[LSK]

3. Sadly, the Senate is woefully ignorant about voting issues

They all need to read Armed Madhouse.

[mod mom]

4. also "Fooled Again" and "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio"

the latter by Conyers and the House Judiciary Dem Staff.

[Stevepol]

8. And Steven Freeman's "Was the 04 Election Stolen?"

[L. Coyote]

12. At the hearing today, they seemed better informed than some posters here

and asked very direct questions. I learned a lot from the senators today.

[mod mom]

5. More from ePluribus Media @ Kos:

Hans in the Sockpuppet - Senate Hearing Tomorrow
by ePluribus Media

Tue Jun 12, 2007 at 04:29:19 PM PDT

Hans Von Spakovsky: Right choice for FEC Commissioner? is a three part series. Part 1 of this series covered von Spakovsky's background in the Georgia Voter ID laws and Texas Redistricting. Part 2 looked at his involvement in the U.S. Attorney purges and his advocacy of Voter Roll purges. Part 3reviews von Spakovsky's recess appointment to the Federal Election Commission.

The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration is holding a hearing tomorrow on Nominations to the Federal Election Commission. Hans von Spakovsky is a witness and nominee.

Part 2 - Hans in the Sockpuppet and Part 3 Permanent Recess Appointment are posted this evening.



by Adam Lambert (clammyc) for ePluribus Media
also available on the ePluribus Media Journal
Appointment to and Tenure at Department of Justice

Von Spakovsky joined the Justice Department in Bush's first term, as were many of the individuals who had a hand in helping Bush get elected. As noted in Part 1 of this series, von Spakovsky was involved with the Florida recount:

Von Spakovsky, fresh from serving as a Bush volunteer during the Florida recount battle, became the administration's point man on voting. A veteran of efforts to keep down the Black vote in the run-up to 2000, von Spakovsky tenaciously advocated felony disenfranchisement through the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. He also served on the advisory board of the now-defunct Voting Integrity Project (VIP), which was involved in the massive purge of voters in Florida before the 2000 election.

With a resume consisting of efforts many claim were intended to disenfranchise and suppress minority voting rights, it wasn't long before von Spakovsky spearheaded initiatives at the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to accomplish similar results. His illustrious career at DOJ included many acts which went against the basic premise of "Helping America Vote."

-snip

Here is the link:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/12/1960/18407

[blm]

6. Dems have to stop 'worrying' and DO THEIR JOB WITH INTEGRITY for what's RIGHT.

.

[Bushfire]

7. Thank you for posting this!

Feingold & Kohl's offices heard from me this afternoon. These people need to be stopped at every step to get real democracy back.

[rumpel]

9. Letter from Career DOJ Professionals

Career DOJ Professionals Urge Rejection of von Spakovsky's FEC Nomination PDF Print Email
By Joseph D. Rich, Robert A. Kengle, David J. Becker, Bruce Adelson, Toby Moore
June 14, 2007

We wanted to bring to your attention the following letter to the Senate Rules Committee from six former career professionals at the Justice Department urging the rejection of the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the Federal Election Commission.




June 11, 2007



Dear Chairperson Feinstein and Ranking Member Bennett:



As former career professionals in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, we urge you to reject the nomination of Hans A.von Spakovsky to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Prior to his current role as a recess appointee to the FEC, Mr. von Spakovsky oversaw the Voting Section as Voting Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division from early in 2003 until December, 2005. While he was at the Civil Rights Division, Mr. von Spakovsky played a major role in the implementation of practices which injected partisan political factors into decision-making on enforcement matters and into the hiring process, and included repeated efforts to intimidate career staff. Moreover, he was the point person for undermining the Civil Rights Division's mandate to protect voting rights. Foremost amongst his actions was his central decision-making role on a matter where he clearly should have recused himself. We urge you to use this confirmation process as an opportunity to thoroughly examine Mr. von Spakovsky's tenure at the Department of Justice and how his commitment to party over country will affect his decision making at the FEC.



Each of us came to the Voting Section to participate in the crucial role the Department of Justice plays in protecting all Americans without fear or favor. We saw this as an honor. Our commitment to public service was grounded in the belief that every American should have an equal opportunity to participate in our political process. We sought to work for the Civil Rights Division because of our patriotism, because of the honor of service and because of our commitment to the historic and heroic work of our predecessors in the Division. We are deeply disturbed that the tradition of fair and vigorous enforcement of this nation's civil rights laws and the reputation for expertise and professionalism at the Division and the Department has been tarnished by partisanship. Over the past five years, the priorities of the Voting Section have shifted from its historic mission to enforce the nation's civil rights laws without regard to politics, to pursuing an agenda which placed the highest priority on the partisan political goals of the political appointees who supervised the Section. We write to urge you not to reward one of the architects of that unprecedented and destructive change with another critical position enforcing our country's election laws.



During his three years in the front office of the Civil Rights Division, Mr. von Spakovsky assumed primary responsibility for the day to day operation of the Voting Section. His superiors gave him the authority to usurp many of the responsibilities of the career section chief and institute unprecedented policies that have led to a decimation of the Section and its historic and intellectual resources.

entire letter at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2489&Itemid=26

[mod mom]

10. Thanks for posting this. When career professionals come out strongly against

a nominee such as von Spakovsky, the Senators owe it to their constituents to heed their warnings.

[L. Coyote]

11. Watch the hearing on C-SPAN, plus this thread of the hearing

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1112026

C-SPAN link: http://www.cspan.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

[mod mom]

13. NYT Op Ed: Another Sorry Ascension

Thanks to MCM for finding this one:

EDITORIAL
Another Sorry Ascension


Published: June 14, 2007
It apparently wasn’t enough for the Bush administration to pack the Department of Justice with political operatives. The White House has now nominated one of the most meddlesome of those partisans, Hans von Spakovsky, to a powerful post on the Federal Election Commission.

This is the agency charged with making sure elections are fair — an especially ludicrous perch for Mr. Spakovsky. As a voting-rights appointee in the Justice Department, he promoted Republican initiatives to crimp the ballot power of minorities and the poor who typically favor Democrats.

In one of his party missions, Mr. Spakovsky overrode the recommendations of the department’s staff professionals and approved a regressive law in Georgia that required voters to provide photo identification. The law, a voter suppression tool worthy of the Jim Crow era, was later blocked by the courts. A former G.O.P. county chairman in Georgia, Mr. Spakovsky failed to recuse himself from such an obvious conflict of interest. He also pushed for department approval of Tom DeLay’s Texas gerrymandering plan — the plan that the Supreme Court ruled violated the Voting Rights Act.

Feverish for the Republican edge, Mr. Spakovsky drove career lawyers from the Justice department and constantly parroted the (Karl) Rovian line that voter fraud is rampant, though studies have found otherwise.

-snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/opinion/14thu2.html?ex=1339473600&en=0bb6368e42c72954&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

LET'S HOPE THAT ANY SENATOR WITH INTEGRITY VOTES AGAINST CONFIRMATION OF THIS GUY!

[mod mom]

16. From TPM: The Times Blow-by-Blow Rundown

Here's the Times' blow-by-blow rundown of the shift, which began under John Ashcroft's tenure, but accelerated under Gonzales:

The changes are evident in a variety of actions:
¶Intervening in federal court cases on behalf of religion-based groups like the Salvation Army that assert they have the right to discriminate in hiring in favor of people who share their beliefs even though they are running charitable programs with federal money.
¶Supporting groups that want to send home religious literature with schoolchildren; in one case, the government helped win the right of a group in Massachusetts to distribute candy canes as part of a religious message that the red stripes represented the blood of Christ.
¶Vigorously enforcing a law enacted by Congress in 2000 that allows churches and other places of worship to be free of some local zoning restrictions. The division has brought more than two dozen lawsuits on behalf of churches, synagogues and mosques.
¶Taking on far fewer hate crimes and cases in which local law enforcement officers may have violated someone’s civil rights. The resources for these traditional cases have instead been used to investigate trafficking cases, typically involving foreign women used in the sex trade, a favored issue of the religious right.
¶Sharply reducing the complex lawsuits that challenge voting plans that might dilute the strength of black voters. The department initiated only one such case through the early part of this year, compared with eight in a comparable period in the Clinton administration.


About that "candy cane" case:

In the candy cane case, for example, school officials in Westfield, Mass., had suspended students for handing out candy canes with religious messages, saying it was disruptive and lurid. The students said that the “J” shape represented Jesus and the red stripes his blood, the white his purity.


http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003440.php

[autorank]

14. K*R...more of the same old, same old.

This nominee is a nightmare, he's going on the elections commission, and there's some local issue that will be traded for releasing the nomination.

:sarcasm:
but i thought we were in charge
:sarcasm:

[mod mom]

15. Let's hope "we" care about the disenfranchisement of Dem base voters.

Sometimes I think the Dems want to lose elections, why else would they not fight for their votes to be counted? Without fair elections, there is no hope in winning elections-PERIOD. I hope Sen Reid does the right thing & puts the country's best interest (fair elections, in this case) ahead of a friend who is up for a nomination in his home state. The same should be true for the rest of the Democrats.

[L. Coyote]

17. K&R

[L. Coyote]

18. One more kick. This deserves more attention. So many scandalous players to keep afloat

[annabanana]

19. (wrote to Senators) & kick