Karl Rove may be relegated to Fox News appearances and hoping to avoid prosecution once President Bush leaves office — but the political career of one of his proteges, Tim Griffin, may just be getting started.
The Associated Press reports that Griffin, a former White House and RNC staffer, is mulling a run for the US Senate from Arkansas against Democrat Blanche Lincoln in 2010.
“I am certainly thinking about it,” Griffin told the AP. “I’m going to spend some time going around the state and talking to folks and getting an idea of the interest level. … I’m going to try and hit all 75 counties as soon as possible and I know that’s a tall order trying to hit all of those in the next few months.”
A DOJ report released this fall found that the department improperly fired Bud Cummins as US Attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas in order to make room for Griffin, thanks in part to pressure from the White House political office. Wrote Kyle Sampson, the DOJ point man for the round of politically motivated firings of which Cummins’ was a part: “Getting [Griffin] appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.”
Griffin served six months as interim US Attorney but was never confirmed by the Senate.
Griffin has a long trck record as a partisan political knife-fighter. He has been accused of participating in a scheme to cage black voters in Florida in 2004, and was paid by the RNC to dig up dirt on both John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama this year.
After leaving the interim U.S. Attorney job last year, a tearful Griffin said public service was “not worth it” and that he had no plans to return to politics.
He appears to have reconsidered. And as someone who, the evidence suggests, consistently puts partisan advantage over the public interest, Griffin should fit right in with his Senate GOP colleagues if he wins the seat.