Comments (32)

jon wrote on April 12, 2007 5:30 PM:

Destruction of evidence in the furtherance of a criminal conspiracy.

Sounds like the RNC falls under the RICO statute.

Paul wrote on April 12, 2007 5:33 PM:

Someone with time -- please camp out outside the RNC headquarters, seriously. There's going to need to be a record of IT professionals and equipment going in and out of that building.

Pinson wrote on April 12, 2007 5:41 PM:

At what point will the interests of the RNC diverge from those of the administration? Afterall, it's not like Bush/Cheney will be of much use, or any use whatsoever really, to the party going forward. The GOP needs to start looking toward the next elections, and getting roped into this email & US attorney fiasco is likely to chew up enormous amounts of attention and resources.

Norb West wrote on April 12, 2007 5:52 PM:

Reading this as a person from Wisconsin it is amazing the Doyle even had a chance against Green in the election. It was a truly rigged election. That is why Mark Green gave up his office to get into the Govenorship.
I hope that the entire country gets to see what was really going on here. Once that is done, the question is how to clean house!
For the republican supporters, "Take another drink of the Rove koolaid, you will feel better!"

shg wrote on April 12, 2007 6:22 PM:

Can we start calling it a "cover-up"?

Anonymous wrote on April 12, 2007 6:43 PM:

This is going to be better than Watergate. Watergate was dirty politics; this is dirty justice.

The threads keep getting pulled. More and more of them...sooner or later, the fabric of lies has got to fall apart.

KN wrote on April 12, 2007 6:55 PM:

Has anyone looked at the judge in the original case? He's either hugely incompetent or, my thought, deeply in bed with GOP corruption. There have to be judges involved as well, it can't just be politicized USA's.

Youffraita wrote on April 12, 2007 7:07 PM:

The question keeps arising: Why wasn't Biskupic purged along with Iglesias? Was it because of this (wrongful) conviction?

Let's get that computer forensics expert (requested by Leahy and Specter) on the emails case. Don't know about you folks, but to me this whole story reeked of the sewer from day one; and the stench keeps growing stronger.

MAL in Madison wrote on April 12, 2007 7:16 PM:

Here is the press release from the US Atty's for Eastern Dist of Wis announcing the appt of Richard G. Frohling, an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He was charged with "overseeing the District’s handling of complaints of election fraud and voting rights abuses in consultation with Justice Department Headquarters."

See: http://malcontends.blogspot.com/ for more info.

Anonymous wrote on April 12, 2007 7:20 PM:

Unfortunately, once the well is poisoned....

Wisconsin Republicans truly believe Wisconsin Democrats set out to steal votes.

In 1992 I voted in my first presidential election for George Bush. I went to the Republican Party's election night in Milwaukee (I drank several beers though only 18; hey, I'm from Milwaukee). The party (small p) was somber but not vitriolic. Maybe I was just too young too notice.

Two weeks ago I was sitting in Budapest with my father. He brought up voter fraud and how big a problem it was in Wisconsin. I've been in Serbia for three years now. I wanted to see what life was like in a country after the US dropped bombs. I can't talk to my father very much anymore.

Thanks Newt. Thanks Ken. Thanks Rush. Thanks Rupert. Thanks Karl. Thanks George. Thanks Dick. So it goes.

Anonymous wrote on April 12, 2007 7:25 PM:

jon, I keep wondering about the application of RICO and not as a joke either.

Bonnie wrote on April 12, 2007 7:43 PM:

Woman who was convicted served time before the appeals decision. How does she get that time back?

rlogan wrote on April 12, 2007 8:03 PM:

Got to really applaud Josh and the whole crew.

You just watch how the mainstream media demonstrates how disgraceful it can be. Here is a story that really at its core is about the Bush administration operating a criminal conspiracy to violate the civil rights of minorities - using the Justice Department to do so.

Will it take a raft of felony convictions before they even hint at an indirect implied insinuation that maybe there is some small chance the palin facts are true?

jen wrote on April 12, 2007 8:49 PM:

rlogan says: Got to really applaud Josh and the whole crew.

I couldn't agree more. If anyone deserves our support it is these guys.

If you haven't lately (or ever) please consider clicking that "donation" link on front page of Talking Points Memo or TPMmuckraker and offering what you can. Even small amounts from enough people make a difference. These guys are doing the job that the mainstream media isn't and I hate to think where we'd be if not for them.

sharon wrote on April 12, 2007 9:39 PM:

I spent the summer of '73 watching the Watergate hearings unfold - I wonder if the summer of '07 will be a repeat. Terrible, fascinating stuff.

Randy wrote on April 12, 2007 9:44 PM:

What I question is how many years it will take to de-polititze the DOJ. Remember Goodling used political tests to qualify career DOJ lawyers. The number of executive appointees is limited and the career people make up the bulk of Justice. And similiarly what has Doan done to GSA. I would suggest that much of the hires in the last 6 years have had to meet some manner of political test, and it may not be just DOJ and GSA but the whole of the Federal agencys may have been subject to the same.

Security Code: wheel The wheels of Justice grind slow.

ww wrote on April 12, 2007 10:07 PM:

The trail of deceit, injustice, and corruption runs so deep and wide that there is a real danger of political implosion. The type I'm talking about is the kind that in and of itself could be seen as seriously threatening our republic. If seen in this light, some with weaker constitutions may decide its not worth it to unravel it all.

I hear the howls of concern troll back there somewhere, but that would be missing my point. I want it all to come to the fore, from Blackwater and Cofer Black, to the thugs that banged on doors in Florida during the 2000 recount.

I ready to fight and then begin again, are you?

bo, wolfish wrote on April 12, 2007 10:13 PM:

I give Bush 60 days. If the rest of the Republican Party expects to save itself, they have to throw him to the wolves.

plainbrown1 wrote on April 12, 2007 10:48 PM:

Isn't it time for a Special Prosecutor? This story has moved from political manipulation to potential obstruction of justice through the destruction of evidence. Since it involves the White House and the Justice Department a independent proscecutor seems warranted.

What say you?

rlegro wrote on April 12, 2007 10:49 PM:

Someone asked the name of the original judge in the Georgia Thompson case. He is Rudolph Randa, whom I am told is a member of the Federalist Society. Once the jury convicted her, Randa inexplicably sent her straight to prison even though her attorney had filed an appeal (the one that eventually was successful) and even though it's common judicial practice to delay sentencing or at least incarceration pending the appeal's outcome. Ver-r-r-y interesting.

fatkat wrote on April 12, 2007 11:11 PM:

plainbrown1...

In my view, with this crowd trying to find someone who could be independent seems impossible! With the climate at the DOJ who would want the job? Only congress can do this at this time because so many other agency's are politicized and the fumigating of the cockroach's has begun by the people and congress!

Mark F. wrote on April 12, 2007 11:49 PM:

The whole damn filthy ball of rat hair is coming undone. The situation is beginning to remind me of the scene in Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" where Chihiro sees the bike handle sticking out of the Stink Spirit's side and pulls on it and all manner of garbage comes pouring out. Keep digging, good Senators and Representatives. I believe we're about to be totally grossed out by the filth.

jimmytheroach wrote on April 13, 2007 12:04 AM:

It seems the MSM has had a hard time trying to name all of this with a catch ditty to create some traction. "Plamegate", "Attorneygate" -- these efforts have failed because this ain't no "gate" boys and girls. It's much more complicated than that...this is a coup.

Let us always keep in mind, the midnight insertion to the Patriot Act. That was the lynchpin.

Was Specter involved? or was he put in an awkward (political or otherwise)position by the conspirators? Was Specter's phone tapped? Did they have dirt on him? Why hasn't Specter (nor Leahy) turned the investigation in the direction of the clearly illegal insertion into the Patriot Act? The first (hah!) in a series of coordinated, illegal acts!

Was Specter witness to the first move in what I would hope history may call "the Federalist Coup"? (attempted?, this is looking to be more the case) and either got blackmailed or waited with baited breath to let these dimwits hang themselves with their own rope?

Is old Arlen a Federalist? Is he the good cop to Leahy's bad? Hard to know.

What if Arlen woke up one day to find that his Federalist assistant had nefariously inserted a little gem into the Patriot Act that would further the Federalist Coup? Would he blow the whistle? or expose him later? Could Specter, perhaps, have figured out what they were up to and let the scheme simmer while the rope got slack?

We may never know, given the results of the November elections, despite the con-job antics of Rove and the Federalist/RNC co-conspirators (You know what a billion dollars is? a million a piece to keep 1000 people quiet).

Can we hope that Senator Specters' cut and paste Federalist assistant will be one of the last conspirators to testify before the Judiciary Committee?

I can't know enough about Specter to say what has been behind his actions, but I hope to live to see the history on this thing. There has been a lot of strategy here, and these Federalist radicals may yet find out what the law really means.

So it goes...

Bobydkd wrote on April 13, 2007 12:05 AM:

Warren G. Harding looks better every day!

pstamler wrote on April 13, 2007 2:20 AM:

Depoliticizing the DOJ won't be all that hard. All it takes is someone at the top, with the backing of the White House, who's absolutely incorreuptible. Edward Levi took about six months to clean out the Augean stables after Nixon left office; I think it'd take about a year to get them clean this time. Progress.

Meanwhile, yes, I do think it's time for a special prosecutor, but who appoints one?

Seek and Find wrote on April 13, 2007 3:01 AM:

least now it's become clearer {who} was behind the Presidential assassination in Dallas back in the early 60's and {why} and {how}. [vast right-wing conspiracy] ... [greed and predjudice] ... [unlimited kool-aid sales before and after tthe event]. Arlen Spector by the way was key as a Republican Party hatchet man, one of many including Gerald Ford, who sanitized the murder of the sitting progressive Democratic President Of The United States, through their willingness to promote the phoney Warren Commission Report. Where was George H. W. Bush during this time? Funny thing is he's the only one that doesnt remember where he was that Nov. day, he just knows he wasnt in Dallas.

Paul Robeson wrote on April 13, 2007 5:52 AM:

There are so many villains in the Thompson case, including Randa, the trial judge. As mentioned above, he immediately ordered her to prison, even though her appeal was pending. (The former speaker of the WI Assembly, a Republican, was convicted on corruption charges over a year ago, and he still hasn't served a day in prison.)

Another villain here is the state's largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which pushed the Thompson prosecution and is still defending Biskupic. Its latest transparent effort to save Biskupic's skin can be found here:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=590657

What's absolutely ABSURD about Biskupic's claims to impartiality is that he has so obviously failed to pursue connections been trucking magnate Dennis Troha and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville). Biskupic has secured an indictment of Troha for illegal donations to Doyle's campaign, but he hasn't looked into links between Troha's donations to Ryan and the latter's efforts to secure federal legislation specifically tailored to benefit Troha's company.

If it were, say, Tammy Baldwin rather than Paul Ryan, Biskupic would be on it like white on rice.

Paul Robeson wrote on April 13, 2007 6:44 AM:

For a good local take on Biskupic and the Thompson mess, try this editorial from Shepherd Express, the alternative weekly in Milwaukee:

http://www.shepherd-express.com/1editorialbody.lasso?-token.folder=2007-04-12&-token.story=176890.113121&-token.subpub=

bordersmuggler wrote on April 13, 2007 8:40 AM:

Key point, jimmytheroach.

"Let us always keep in mind, the midnight insertion to the Patriot Act. That was the lynchpin."

Given Specter's established involvement with the conspiracy, how is he still a sitting member of Leahy's committee? It defies logic.

rlegro wrote on April 13, 2007 10:38 AM:

> It seems the MSM has had a hard time trying to name all of this with a catch ditty to create some traction.

How about: "CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS"

nroxvh obilxv wrote on September 12, 2007 1:53 PM:

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nroxvh obilxv wrote on September 12, 2007 1:53 PM:

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