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The Daily Muck
In 5 Years, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud
"Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews. Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year." (NY Times)
Democrats Heating Up Prosecutor Probe
"Senate Democrats are getting tougher on the Bush administration by approving more subpoenas for documents and testimony by officials connected to the firings of eight federal prosecutors over the winter. Approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday would permit Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to sign subpoenas compelling the Bush administration to surrender hundreds of new documents and force two officials -- Associate Deputy Attorney General William Moschella and White House political aide Scott Jennings -- to reveal their roles in the firings." (Associated Press)
Joining Gonzales in "Challenging Times"
"This week U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O'Connor of Connecticut was named Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's third chief of staff in as many months, meaning few can congratulate him on the promotion without a sympathetic laugh. O'Connor, 39, takes the job as Gonzales fights for his professional life amid a congressional investigation into his role in controversial firings of eight U.S. attorneys." (Washington Post)
A Unified Theory of Scandal
"The ideological roots of the Justice Department scandal aren't buried in Karl Rove's office. They reside in a less likely place: the pages of The Harvard Law Review. More precisely, this scandal traces back to a 1992 article co-written by a founder of the Federalist Society, Steven Calabresi." (The New Republic)
Kurdistan's Covert Back-Channels
"In June 2004, journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker that Israelis operating in northern Iraq under the guise of businessmen were in fact cultivating Kurdish proxies to gather intelligence in preparation for possible future action against Iran. About the same time, I too was hearing about Israelis operating in Kurdish northern Iraq. What followed was a story of how an ex-Mossad chief, a German uberspy, and a gaggle of top-dollar GOP lobbyists helped Kurdistan snag 15 tons of $100 bills." (Mother Jones)
Waxman Wants Answers on White House Contracts with MZM
"The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is pushing the Bush administration for records of its dealings with a company and two people linked to former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Waxman wants documents and information regarding contracts between the White House and Washington defense contractor MZM Inc. and any of its subsidiaries or subcontractors." (North County Times)
Dems Get to Media... Now Gibbons?
"Ray Hagar and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons are caught on a scratchy audio sharing a dark secret: 'People have told me that there is an organized Democratic kind of conspiracy that is driving a lot of issues, such as The Wall Street Journal thing, pushing...'. 'I've heard the same thing, Ray, I have heard that actually the Democratic Party paid to have these Wall Street Journal articles written, I've heard that.'" (Las Vegas Sun)
Comments (10)
bordersmuggler wrote on April 12, 2007 10:05 AM:Although there have been miminal charges and convictions, the Republican brouhaha over voter fraud provided the perfect cover for their own un-American campaign of vote suppression, well documented by TPM posters.
ponte wrote on April 12, 2007 11:11 AM:Democrats should stop referring to this as voter fraud and use the more accurate and better framed, "VOTER SUPPRESSION".
Mike Conwell wrote on April 12, 2007 11:13 AM:>In 5 Years, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud
Next time that a-hole in your office brings this up, you can counter with the following (Courtesy of TPM)
Jack Abramoff - Pled Guilty - Sentenced to Minimum of 5 Years, 10 Months
Claude Allen- Arrested for Theft - Pled Guilty
Richard A. Berglund - Pled Guilty - Sentencing to One Year of Probation and Fined $2,500
Lester M. Crawford - Pled Guilty - Sentenced to Three Years Probation and Fined $90,000
Duke Cunningham - Pled Guilty - Sentenced to 8 years, 4 months incarceration
Brian J. Doyle - Pled No Contest - Sentenced to Five Years in Jail
Shaun Hansen - Pled Guilty - Sentencing Scheduled for April
Vernon Jackson - Pled Guilty - Sentenced to Seven Years, Three Months in Prison
Adam Kidan - Pled Guilty - Sentenced to 5 Years, 10 Months
Scooter Libby - Convicted- Sentencing Set For June 5, 2007
Chuck McGee - Pled Guilty - Time Served
Bob Ney - Pled Guilty - Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison
Brent M. Pfeffer - Pled Guilty - Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison
Allen Raymond - Pled Guilty - Time Served
Tony Rudy - Pled Guilty - Status Conference Scheduled for April 19th
David Safavian - Convicted - Sentenced to 18 Months
Michael Scanlon - Pled Guilty - Status Conference Scheduled for March 2nd
Roger Stillwell – Pled Guilty – Sentenced to Two Years Probation and Fined $1,000
James Tobin - Found Guilty on Two Counts - Pending Appeals Decision
Neil Volz - Pled Guilty - Status Conference Scheduled for April 26th
Mitchell Wade - Pled Guilty - Status Conference Scheduled for September 10, 2007
Ed Buckham - Named by Prosecutors as Unindicted Coconspirator
Tom DeLay - Indicted - Trial Pending Appeals Decision
Kyle "Dusty" Foggo - Indicted - Trial Pending Appeals Decision
Robert Fromm - Named by Prosecutors as Unindicted Coconspirator
Thomas Kontogiannis - Named by Prosecutors as Unindicted Coconspirator
John T. Michael - Named by Prosecutors as Unindicted Coconspirator
Brent Wilkes - Indicted- Trials Pending Appeals Decision
Oh yeah,
William Jefferson - Under Investigation
Security Word: Fact
anon wrote on April 12, 2007 8:33 PM:"voter fraud", yeah, right.
One other thing about how it's being used - including here in Wisconsin (the focus of today's NYT article) is so the Republicans can push for one of the country's most stringent voter ID requirements (they would have allowed only a Wisc drivers license, official Wisc ID, or military ID. that's IT. IN ALL cases. In a state with one of the most segregated cities in the US (Milwaukee), with an African-American poverty rate higher than NOLA before Katrina (and you can guess how many of those folks have drivers licenses . . ), and where Milwaukee voters routinely, and overwhelmingly, vote Democratic.
Gov Doyle (D) vetoed these Republican voter ID bills several times (before and after 2004 elections) so then the Repubs, who at the time controlled both houses of the Wisconsin legislature, passed a resolution to amend the state constitution. fortunately the Dems took over the state senate last fall so we hopefully are safe for a while.
cube3u wrote on April 13, 2007 11:59 AM:Anon has this absolutely right. A swing state has certain characteristics that can be ranked so Republican efforts are very targeted.
Heavy "other party" voting. GOP should offer money to support candidates in other parties. This drains votes from the Democratic Party.
Mobile populations that trend to the Democratic Party matter. Think college/university areas with a very mobile student population. Oppose registration and GOTV efforts as "not the mission of education". Underman and underequip college and university registration and polling places.
Urban and metropolitan areas have poor and minority populations who are also very mobile. Again, oppose registration and GOTV efforts by making it harder to organize either effort and alleging "fraud" with the results. Man election boards with folks who can help in poor data-matching technology so the rolls are "packed" with people who have died or who have moved. Underman and underequip heavy Democratic areas. Provide poor or nonexistent training and materials for workers.
Take legislative steps to require a photo ID; to restrict absentee voting; to restrict registration; to oppose same-day anything; to restrict organizations in registration and GOTV drives.
Ballot manipulation also comes into play. Eliminate "straight Party voting" which benefits the Democrats. Stuff the ballot with propositions and amendments to increase voter impatience with the process.
The US Attorneys are just one piece of this puzzle. It had to do with spending public funds to advance a long-term GOP agenda--voter suppression using the above techniques. The US Attorneys were to provide publicity; actual fraud and actual convictions simply did not matter. If the US attorneys understood this in the targeted states, then they were okay. If not, they were gone.
There were two US attorneys from California among the eight fired. Although I agree that Lam may have had the further reason of corruption investigations into GOP folks, I suspect that voter suppression also plays into the firing. My suspicions center around same-day voter registration and/or absentee voting. If California folks have a better understanding, I would appreciate data.
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