Thursday, August 25, 2005
Republican election fraud: Phone jamming grand jury to reconvene
Interesting, and true:
Well, I'm sure the Republican leadership couldn't possibly have known anything about this, even though James Tobin was working for Bill Frist at the time, because they would never countenance anything like election fraud, let alone get caught doing it.
And I'm sure the Republicans are paying Tobin's $700,000 worth of trial lawyer's fees (back) out of pure Christian charity, and not to buy Tobin's silence.
NOTE Josh Marshall's been tenaciously pursuing this story since 2003.
UPDATE Xan points out that Republican election tampering by phone jamming isn't the exception, but the norm. They'll say anything, do anything, as long as they get to hold onto power. Because they know if we ever get to lift off the lid, the stench is going to knock a lot of heads back.
A federal prosecutor said he will reconvene a grand jury in a case involving the jamming of Democratic phone lines in 2002 - raising the possibility that other Republicans might be implicated.
Phone lines were bombarded with electronically generated calls, jamming lines set up for voters seeking rides to the polls on Election Day. Two GOP operatives have pleaded guilty in the case and a third is scheduled for trial.
A grand jury has indicted James Tobin, former regional director for the Republican National Committee, for allegedly orchestrating the jamming. Tobin, who was the regional chairman for President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, has pleaded innocent.
"Based on what I know, [Ooh! How very parseable!] the whole phone-jamming scheme was concocted by one person, and that was [made man and state GOP executive director in 2002] Chuck McGee [who pled guilty and served seven months], who did this without authorization," Lamontagne said.
(via AP)
Well, I'm sure the Republican leadership couldn't possibly have known anything about this, even though James Tobin was working for Bill Frist at the time, because they would never countenance anything like election fraud, let alone get caught doing it.
And I'm sure the Republicans are paying Tobin's $700,000 worth of trial lawyer's fees (back) out of pure Christian charity, and not to buy Tobin's silence.
NOTE Josh Marshall's been tenaciously pursuing this story since 2003.
UPDATE Xan points out that Republican election tampering by phone jamming isn't the exception, but the norm. They'll say anything, do anything, as long as they get to hold onto power. Because they know if we ever get to lift off the lid, the stench is going to knock a lot of heads back.
