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Did Rove Want Wisconsin U.S.A. on Purge List?
Here's what the evidence shows. Karl Rove wanted evidence that there had been a Democratic criminal conspiracy to stuff the ballot box in Milwaukee and New Mexico in 2004. But the U.S. attorneys there didn't deliver. In the case of New Mexico's David Iglesias, that likely cost him his job. Wisconsin's Steve Biskupic only avoided being fired by the skin of his teeth.
Iglesias and Biskupic were the only U.S. attorneys in the country to have launched task forces to investigate voter fraud in the 2004 elections. There's arguably not another U.S. attorney in the country to have so thoroughly investigated such allegations. A review of Biskupic's manifold efforts demonstrates that without a doubt.
Despite that fact, Karl Rove and President Bush himself passed along complaints to Alberto Gonzales in October 2006 about Biskupic's and Iglesias' performance on voter fraud. Iglesias was fired. Biskupic, for some reason, wasn't. But it looks like it was a very close call.
Here's a look at Biskupic's long-running investigation into voter fraud in the 2004 election, Karl Rove's longstanding preoccupation with it, and Biskupic's near escape from being fired.
In the 2004 election, John Kerry took Wisconsin by a scant 11,813 votes. The Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee (72% for Kerry) was key to that effort. But there were problems with the records in Milwaukee -- large discrepancies between the numbers of voters and votes. Republicans screamed bloody murder, saying that the faulty records provided a prime opportunity for fraud.
So in response, Biskupic formed his Joint Election Fraud Task Force in January of 2005. The U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, the District Attorney, and the metropolitan police department teamed up to investigate. Over the following two years, they'd identify individual cases for prosecution and determine whether there had indeed been a broad-based conspiracy by Democrats to stuff the ballot.
Even as Biskupic was investigating, Republicans kept the pressure on. In August of 2005, the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Republicans Rick Wiley sent a letter to Biskupic outlining nine voter fraud cases that demanded prosecution. Biskupic replied with a letter (pdf) knocking down all nine of Wiley's pet cases.
At about the same time, in the middle of 2005, Wiley had one of his staff members prepare a lengthy memo (see page 10) called "Fraud in Wisconsin 2004: A Timeline/Summary." According to Daniel Bice of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the report was prepared for Karl Rove.
But Rove was already interested. We know this because one of the documents released by the Justice Department last month appears to be a printout from his computer of a February 2, 2005 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article about the city's voter records. A study by the paper had found sizeable discrepancies between the number of votes and voters in the records for more than a dozen wards.
How can we tell that this was printed off of Rove's computer? Well, though the letters are cut off, you can see "ROVE_K" among the file information at the bottom (click to see the whole page):
Rove was clearly interested, circling words (like Milwaukee) in the piece and scribbling in the margin "Discuss w/ Harriet" (see image on the right) -- Harriet presumably referring to White House counsel Harriet Miers. 
So as early as February of 2005, Rove was paying close attention to Milwaukee.
But Biskupic would disappoint him. In December of 2005, Biskupic announced in a press conference that his investigation had yielded no evidence of a broad conspiracy. He said that his office would pursue isolated cases of suspected fraud (see the note below for those results) -- ultimately, eighteen cases.
All that didn't stop Rove from harping on voter fraud in Milwaukee. In April of 2006, during a speech before the Republican National Lawyers Association, Rove touched on voter fraud, and the case of Milwaukee in particular. When an audience member, saying that the Democratic Party "rests on the base of election fraud," asked about the issue, Rove said, "yes, this is a real problem. What is it -- five wards in the city of Milwaukee have more voters than adults?" (Actually the article he'd printed out showed that seventeen wards had had more votes than voters.)
Come October, the issue was still burning in Rove's mind. And so that month, both President Bush and Karl Rove passed along complaints about Biskupic's pursuit of voter fraud. Those complaints might very well have put Biskupic on the list of U.S. attorneys to be fired.
Let's look at Bush's complaints. Both White House counselor Dan Bartlett and White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said last month that the White House's legislative affairs, political affairs and chief of staff's office had received complaints "from a variety of sources about the lack of vigorous prosecution of election fraud cases in various locations, including Philadelphia, Milwaukee and New Mexico." The complaints, she said, were passed on to the Justice Department or White House counsel Harriet Miers. And the president himself, she said, had a conversation with attorney general Alberto Gonzales about it in October of 2006.
Here's how Bartlett described the conversation:
The President did that briefly, in a conversation he had with the Attorney General in October of 2006, in which, in a wide-ranging conversation on a lot of different issues, this briefly came up and the President said, I've been hearing about this election fraud matters from members of Congress, want to make sure you're on top of that, as well. There was no directive given, as far as telling him to fire anybody or anything like that.
Karl Rove had a similar conversation with Gonzales at about the same time. According to Kyle Sampson's testimony, Rove had complained to Gonzales "about U.S. attorneys in three jurisdictions, including New Mexico, and the substance of the complaint was that those U.S. attorneys weren't pursuing voter fraud cases aggressively enough."
Sampson did not say in his testimony what those other jurisdictions were, but it's apparent from Bartlett's comments and Justice Department documents what they must be.
Take, for instance, that printout from Rove's computer and the dossier on Wisconsin voter fraud that had been sent to Rove. How did they end up at the Justice Department (they were, remember, turned over as part of the Justice Department's document production)?
Well, it looks like Rove sent it over in an envelope addressed to Kyle Sampson. On the envelope is the handwritten date October 17, 2006.
That would seem to be a significant date. In his testimony, Sampson said that "sometime after October 17th but before November 7th," the department "went back" and looked at the list of U.S. attorneys to be fired and " asked the question: 'Is there anyone else who should be added?'"
Four names "came forward," according to Sampson. All of them were "close cases," because "they weren't specific policy conflicts or significant management challenges." One of them was Iglesias'. Sampson would not say during his testimony who the other three were, saying that he "was not a hundred percent sure" that he remembered.
But think about it. On October 17th, or thereabouts, Rove sent over a dossier on Biskupic, just as the department renewed their effort to find U.S. attorneys to fire. And Bush was complaining about Biskupic too.
Only there was something that saved Biskupic in the end. Iglesias, Sampson said, "remained on the list because nobody suggested that he come off."
So who suggested that Biskupic come off -- and why? Does it, for instance, have anything to do with his office's aggressive pursuit of Wisconsin's Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle?
Note: Biskupic's task force pursued a range of cases -- eighteen prosecutions total. The US Attorney's office prosecuted fourteen individuals. Four were indicted on charges of double voting, all of whom were either acquitted or had charges dismissed. Eight felons were indicted for unlawfully voting. Five of these individuals were eventually acquitted; the others were convicted and sentenced to punishments ranging from fines to probation. In addition, two former felons serving as poll workers were prosecuted for unlawfully voting. Both men received short jail sentences. The office of the District Attorney confirmed their successful prosecution of two individuals who falsified registration cards. Finally, the Journal Sentinel has reported that the District Attorney prosecuted two additional cases of illegal voting by felons.
Will Thomas contributed reporting to this piece.
Comments (83)
fred wrote on April 11, 2007 4:27 PM:If only the Department of inJustice persecuted corporate crimes with half the diligence that they've shown chasing faux-crimes associated with the Democrats, we've be living in a much better America.
lysias wrote on April 11, 2007 4:37 PM:Did Biskupic preserve his job by prosecuting Georgia Thompson?
PTF wrote on April 11, 2007 4:38 PM:Karl Rove committed voter fraud himself in Texas by voting in Kerr County. Rove should have voted in the District of Columbia.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/19078
C 92 wrote on April 11, 2007 4:39 PM:..."In his testimony, Sampson said that "sometime after October 17th but before November 7th," the department "went back" and looked at the list of U.S. attorneys to be fired and " asked the question: 'Is there anyone else who should be added?.."
I found this bit of testimony interesting. For someone who claimed to have such a faulty memory, he sure remembered this tidbit pretty clearly.
cube3u wrote on April 11, 2007 4:43 PM:Thanks for this report. What seems to be happening is that Rove and the Republicans are using the term "voter fraud" for database and procedural issues in the Election Boards. The "troubled" states plainly do not have tight controls for these things.
Having worked as an election judge since the St. Louis voting mess, I can plainly state that the Election Board was at fault. Procedures were either non-existent or poorly explained when they finally began training poll workers.
Democrats need to take command of this issue at the local and state levels--Democrats serve on the Election Board and this role needs to go to database and audit-control savvy Democrats and not the "fluff" we currently assign--like a real estate agent. Any ideas on how to counter this?
US8 wrote on April 11, 2007 4:46 PM:Well, what do you know Wiley now works for the Giuliani campaign and his former boss in the WI GOP is the ambassador to the Czech Republic.
screw
David in NY wrote on April 11, 2007 4:52 PM:"Thanks for this report. What seems to be happening is that Rove and the Republicans are using the term "voter fraud" for database and procedural issues in the Election Boards."
Agreed. The Republicans transform "irregularities" into "fraud," and the irregularities are often simply the abysmal record-keeping by elections authorities. Indeed, because of the low incidence of fraud, there have never been any checks put on these systems -- if I move, my name stays on the rolls at my former address, and I am, quite legitimatley registered in two places.
I saw a complaint about New Mexico, for example, in which one frequent "irregularity" was that people who had already registered, registered again. I mean, this may be an "irregularity" to a bureaucrat, but I say, no harm, no foul.
justthetruth wrote on April 11, 2007 4:54 PM:Again the evidence is weakly circumstantial that is insufficient to result in someone being replaced, let alone a prosecution. Although I feel certain that wrongdoing has occurred, I am afraid that this will all come to naught unless further investigation reveals hard evidence.
Perhaps the subpoenaed documents or the coming testimony of Gonzales et al will uncover stronger evidence.
David in NY wrote on April 11, 2007 4:55 PM:Oh, and in fairness to Biskupic, I think the then-Democratic Attorney General of Wisconsin was involved in the Georgia Thompson investigation. I think she has recently spoken in his defense. I'm not sure why either of them thought this was a case worth prosecuting, but it may not have been exclusively a political misjudgement.
SteveW wrote on April 11, 2007 4:56 PM:Since we're on the subject of alleged voter fraud, how about some follow-up on the real voter fraud involving Ann "the man" Coulter in Florida. Maybe if TPM adds some reporting to this issue, albeit minor, it might shut the right up a bit lest we start looking into other high-profile Republican voter fraud cases.
Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 5:05 PM:Any connections to Mark Grahl? Josh spent a lot of time about a year ago looking into Grahl's Abramoff connections:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007403.php
Grahl ran Mark Green's campaign. Currently he's running a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court...
lysias wrote on April 11, 2007 5:06 PM:That's an interesting photo of Biskupic addressing the Milwaukee Chapter of the Federalist Society. So being a member of the Federalist Society was not enough to keep a U.S. Attorney from being put on Rove's purge list?
br wrote on April 11, 2007 5:07 PM:It is astonishing (or would be astonishing if it weren't part of Karl Rove's political agenda) that federal prosecutors get involved and the FBI is sent to investigate minor discrepancies like those described in the Aug. 22 letter from Richard Frohling & Biskupic.
I was peripherally involved many years ago with two election fraud situations that led to criminal convictions. In one case, there were reports at one election that people voting near the end of the day were told they had already voted. In the next election, a special effort was made to recruit election officials with wide acquaintance in the neighborhood. A young man tried to vote a second time by giving someone else's name. This was not a smart move because the election judge was a friend of his mother's and recognized him.
This is what real election fraud looks like. Note that both cases were successfully prosecuted in state courts without help from the Feds.
What a waste of resources at a time when the Feds aren't bothering to prosecute any but the very biggest financial fraud cases, as described in the Seattle PI article linked this morning.
John Carragee wrote on April 11, 2007 5:07 PM:OK, I'd be just as happy as anyone to see Alberto Gonzales hanged, but with all the above research into the individual Wisconsin cases, I'd like to ask whether the folks convicted were Democrats or Republicans.
If two of them were poll watchers, we should certainly know. And the registrations of the others should be known as well.
Just because we know Rove/Gonzales are devils doesn't mean we have to pretend all Democrats are angels.
Melanie wrote on April 11, 2007 5:10 PM:PTF,
Karl Rove doesn't live in the District of Columbia. His residence is in the Virginia suburb of McLean.
Mehitabel wrote on April 11, 2007 5:11 PM:Won't it be interesting if this case--from Wisconsin--will be the "tipping point" to the decline of the current rule--as someone suggested on another post? Wisconsin is, afterall, where the Republican party was born...
http://www.mcgop.net/History.htm
Mary wrote on April 11, 2007 5:12 PM:I know nothing about tech and computer trails, but does that cutoff actually mean the doc was printed from Rove's computer, or is it showing that the document is stored in a "Rove,K" file folder on someone's c-drive?
lysias wrote on April 11, 2007 5:14 PM:Rove at least used to live in D.C., right off MacArthur Blvd. When did he move to Virginia?
PTF wrote on April 11, 2007 5:16 PM:Melanie -
I must disagree. Rove lives in the "Pallisades" neighborhood of DC.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202397.html
His home is presently assessed by the city at $1.5 million.
va wrote on April 11, 2007 5:17 PM:How did Georgia Thompson end up in prison? Wouldn't that have required cooperation by a friendly legal apparatus? Was she convicted by a jury?
Mike Conwell wrote on April 11, 2007 5:23 PM:MS Windows has a convention of creating a set of folders for each user of a computer. The address on the bottom of the form matches this pattern
For example
c:\documents and Settings\gannon,j\my documents
c:\documents and Settings\rove,k\my documents
c:\documents and Settings\ralston,s\my documents
c:\documents and Settings\abramoff,j\my documents
the rest of the address appears to be the part of the user documents that caches internet browser activity.
JGabriel wrote on April 11, 2007 5:26 PM:Just wanted to note an interesting dichotomy here.
Biskupic appears to have prosecuted Georgia Thompson in a an attempt to discredit Doyle, running for governor. Doyle won anyway.
Iglesias refused to inject his office into the New Mexico political campaigns by not bringing charges against Democrats during the campaign season, either because there was no evidence (in the case of voter fraud), or because the evidence was not yet developed well enough to bring charges (in the case of corruption with respect to the building of a new courthouse).
It was thought that if Iglesias brought such charges, it would help Heather Wilson. Wilson won anyway.
The revealing point here is that: for Rove, Bushm and the rest of the administration, it's not all about winnning. If that were the case, Biskupic would have been fired and Iglesias would remain in office. Instead, it's about obeisance to the wishes of Republican party operatives.
In other words, for these guys, obedience is more important than winning.
Mike Conwell wrote on April 11, 2007 5:29 PM:I forgot to note above that my comment was in response to Mary's question about question
"I know nothing about tech and computer trails, but does that cutoff actually mean the doc was printed from Rove's computer, or is it showing that the document is stored in a "Rove,K" file folder on someone's c-drive?"
While we can't forensically link this to Karls computer, it is not likely a folder on someone else's hard drive.
Joe R wrote on April 11, 2007 5:29 PM:Another indicator of just how liberal the media has become: Paul Kiel refers to the "lengthy memo" called "Fraud in Wisconsin 2004: A Timeline/Summary" that was prepared by the Wisc. GOP. The author of the memo is Chris Lato, who is now a "reporter" for WTMJ radio, which dominates the Milwaukee market and floods it with right-wing talk jocks. Fair and balanced "reporting," I'm sure, from Mr. Lato.
Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 5:31 PM:The C:\etc\etc path would suggest that someone actually visited Karl's computer and printed this stuff out. C: would normally indicate the local hard drive.
I'm a little suspect of the document though. It's clearly a news clipping. Did someone scan it into a computer image -- and later it was printed out and marked up by Karl?
ahem wrote on April 11, 2007 5:34 PM:"Well, it looks like Rove sent it over in an envelope addressed to Kyle Sampson. On the envelope is the handwritten date October 17, 2006."
He's the aggregator. And that's what he was aggregating. It's telling that John Conyers wants metadata. Things like that file location really do fill in some of the blanks.
"is it showing that the document is stored in a "Rove,K" file folder on someone's c-drive?"
It's showing that there's a 'ROVE K' user account on the computer used to print it out. And because it's a 'Temporary Internet File', it was printed straight from Internet Explorer.
"What seems to be happening is that Rove and the Republicans are using the term "voter fraud" for database and procedural issues in the Election Boards."
Sort of: and they're using the term to intimidate minority urban voters and state election boards. The problem they face, cube3u, is that local provision of funding for election boards often puts poorer districts at a disadvantage. Think Florida 2000, when it was the wealthy GOP-leaning 'burbs that had the nice optical scanning machines.
ahem wrote on April 11, 2007 5:37 PM:"I'm a little suspect of the document though. It's clearly a news clipping."
No, it's not: it's from a website. This page, to be precise:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=298312&format=print
ohiomeister wrote on April 11, 2007 5:44 PM:Note the grand total is SEVEN people convicted after what was almost certainly one of the most thorough investigations of voter fraud in U.S. history.
That's the message that we need to spread to the media and others whenever they bring up election fraud. It has been conclusively shown to be total BS and a huge waste of resources. People who deny that are either idiots or liars.
How much money was spent on this investigation? The Joint Election Fraud Task Force included the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, the District Attorney, and the metropolitan police department and took over two years. That's two years they could have been investigating murderers, drug dealers, terrorists, you name it instead.
That's a far cry from showing that, as the Republican National Lawyers Association questioner put it to Rove, the Democratic Party "rests on the base of election fraud." More likely, the Republican Party rests on a base of delusions, including totally bogus allegations of widespread Democratic voter fraud.
hand - as in you've really got to hand it to these nutjobs. They'll remained convinced in the face of stunning evidence to the contrary.
John S wrote on April 11, 2007 5:45 PM:Maybe someone should start a RICO investigation of the DOJ. Of course, these investigations are usually initiated by the DOJ. Oops.
I have to hand it to the Republicans; excellent strategy. When you're crooked and know it, there is no better strategy than to infiltrate and disrupt the one organization (DOJ)that could cause trouble for you.
Campesino wrote on April 11, 2007 5:51 PM:The investigation into Thompson was a joint operation with Democratic officials at the state and county level.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=364492
The investigation will be conducted by both the FBI and the state's Division of Criminal Investigation, which is supervised by Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard also will play a role in the process.
"By working together, we want to avoid any accusations of bias," said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic in Milwaukee.
Biskupic was appointed to the U.S. attorney's post by President Bush, a Republican. Lautenschlager, Blanchard and Doyle are Democrats.
Both Doyle and Lautenschlager are up for re-election next year.
"Any investigation with political overtones needs to have public credibility," Biskupic said. "The public needs to trust that it will be done in a non-partisan, fair fashion."
*************************************************
If this was a political prosecution why did Democrats sign up for it?
retr2327 wrote on April 11, 2007 5:52 PM:A nice, substantial piece of work, tying together many loose threads, and suggesting many future avenues for investigation. This is what journalism used to look like.
But I have a question. You write that "the article he'd printed out showed that seventeen wards had had more votes than voters." Is that really what the article was saying? The article states that there were "more ballots cast than people listed by the city as voting there."
The term "listed by the city as voting there" is ambiguous, at the very least, and could easily refer to some tally of how many people were counted as having voted that day, which was then compared to how many ballots were cast. The alleged discrepancy would remain a cause for concern, but would have little significance in terms of voter registration fraud. It might mean something in terms of fraudulent ballot tabulation.
Does the underlying article make this issue any clearer?
FS wrote on April 11, 2007 5:57 PM:More information at:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=298205
Campesino wrote on April 11, 2007 5:58 PM:Karl Rove committed voter fraud himself in Texas by voting in Kerr County. Rove should have voted in the District of Columbia.
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Sez who?
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County Attorney Won't Prosecute
4 Nov 2005 // A Texas county official said Thursday he will not prosecute presidential adviser Karl Rove after investigating whether he voted illegally in the state.
Kerr County Attorney Rex Emerson said he made the decision after reviewing a report from the county sheriff, who examined documents from Texas, Washington and Florida and interviewed witnesses.
"The facts indicate that Mr. and Mrs. Rove are Texans living in Washington, D.C., during Mr. Rove's service to the federal government," Emerson said.
Emerson said in a statement there was no evidence of dual voting or falsified applications involving Rove, White House deputy chief of staff, and his wife, Darby.
Where Rove votes became an issue after The Washington Post reported in September that he received a homestead tax deduction on his Washington residence, while also claiming an exemption for a Texas residence he later sold.
The District changed its homestead exemption law to restrict the tax break only to people who voted in the city, and took blame for failing to inform Rove of the change in the law. Rove reimbursed the District about $3,400.
Rove is registered to vote in Kerr County, where his residence includes two cottages that are part of a bed-and-breakfast. He also recently built a home in Florida.
A Kerr County resident complained in a letter about Rove, which triggered the county attorney's investigation of whether the Roves had violated the Texas Election Code, a misdemeanor.
The Texas secretary of state has said that those who have moved out of state can vote in the state if they intend to return.
Paul Robeson wrote on April 11, 2007 6:09 PM:"If this was a political prosecution why did Democrats sign up for it?"
Because Lautenschlager, although a Democrat, is widely known to have absolutely detested Doyle with every fiber of her being, that's why. Early in her term, she was arrested for drunk driving -- and in a state car, no less. Doyle did not immediately come to her defense, and she resented him for it. (Well, that and a bunch of other stuff.) She knew that she faced an uphill battle for reelection, and she probably figured that her only hope would be if she showed her moxie by helping to bring Doyle down.
One of the funnier moments in the Thompson case, by the way, was during the pre-trial motion process, when Biskupic's office invoked as precedent U.S. v. Rosenberg.
Yes, THAT Rosenberg case. Honest, I'm not making it up. Check out the reply brief:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/show_case_doc_1.pdf
Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 6:16 PM:The Rove/Kerr County case was not properly investigated.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/23849
"...“They [the Roves] couldn’t find application (for a homestead exemption) where he filled one out (in Washington),” Hierholzer said..."
Of course Rove couldn't find the form. Had he found it, it would have been evidence against him.
"...According to Hierholzer, Rove’s declaration of Texas as his permanent home is similar to the situation faced by elected federal representatives, including former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Others have had to repay taxes to ensure their residency in their home state is maintained, which allowed them to legally represent that jurisdiction..."
Not true. Dashchle was elected to office. Karl Rove is just a government employee. It's different.
And a key statement here:
"According to Emerson, the Texas Election Code defines residence as a place of habitation to which one intends to return after a temporary absence."
So if anyone wants to be a Texas voter, just say you intend to return to Texas, and you're in.
Karl had a lot to lose over this story. When it first broke, the young attorney who commented on the record immediately got fired by Rove/Bush buddy and Secretary of State Roger Williams.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090901963.html
Rove's burning desire to vote in Texas is suspect.
DG wrote on April 11, 2007 6:28 PM:Remember we're dealing with multiple layers of hard copy/electronic media. What we have here is an image probably prepared for the sidebar of a story which was then formatted for the paper's website. Then -- what? Put into a pdf for Rove's convenience? Or did someone just send him the link to the story? Then someone printed it up off a computer. Then the hard copy was put into a document dump that was later scanned page by page for distribution on the Internet.
Print this page yourself and become a part of history.
Whistler wrote on April 11, 2007 6:34 PM:An aside, in regards to Iglesias and New Mexico - because I live in that state, and he came up.
NM is not a very densely populated state, at all. Lots of wide open spaces. Albuquerque is in the center of the state, geographically ... and is where the vast bulk of the media's TV advertising efforts come from. It is also the area that is the main topic of most TV news. (People from mega cities just wouldn't understand. I know, I used to live near Los Angeles.)
I know poll workers 200 miles away from ABQ were asked why Heather Wilson and Patricia Madrid were not on their local ballots ... because even 200 miles from the state's center, New Mexicans were bombarded with constant, nasty, repetitive TV ads from both individuals.
It annoyed the heck out of everyone; especially when Wilson started to run some of her ads literally back-to-back: same ad, twice in a row.
And they both came up with lots of different ads, over time; with Madrid being accused of being a corrupt politician; and with Wilson being accused of being a rubber stamp for Bush. (Paraphrasing, obviously.) They just would not shut up!
When people talk about a "close race" in New Mexico, that translates roughly to "every time you turn on the TV, or flip channels, your odds are about one in three or four that you'll see a nasty attack ad, either from Wilson or Madrid".
People from both parties regularly stated that they could not wait for the election to be over with, so that we'd quit being bombarded with political attack ads. (It was probably the one thing that Dems and Guppies readily agreed on!)
So when Iglesias got those two disputed calls, if he had watched any TV at all, over the weeks (months?) preceeding the elections, there's no way in heck he could see it as anything but an improper attempt for him to give the Republicans more bullets to use against the Democrats.
badgervan wrote on April 11, 2007 6:36 PM:To Campesino: In addition to despising Doyle for not coming to her defense in her very public drunk driving mess, dem-in-name-only Peg Lautenschlager wanted revenge on Doyle for supporting her dem opponent in the primary - who did beat Peg, but lost to a repub in the final election.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on April 11, 2007 6:43 PM:Voter fraud (spelled R-E-D-H-E-R-R-I-N-G) is the midirect. The issue remains institutionalized Republican malfeasence in electioneering (caging, voter roll purges, etc.).
Why do liberals/progressives continue to let the fanatical right and fascist plutocrats frame the debate?
We all need to blow the dust off our copies of 'Moral Politics' by George Lakoff.
Jim wrote on April 11, 2007 6:45 PM:Basically, the direction of Rove et al is clear *If you cannot find cases of voter fraid - PROSECUTE ANYWAY* This will scare States into passing photo ID requirements that will disenfranchize the poor. AMERICA has sunken to the WORST 10 percent of democracies. Is this where we want to be?
Campesino wrote on April 11, 2007 7:11 PM:"If this was a political prosecution why did Democrats sign up for it?"
Because Lautenschlager, although a Democrat, is widely known to have absolutely detested Doyle with every fiber of her being, that's why. Early in her term, she was arrested for drunk driving -- and in a state car, no less. Doyle did not immediately come to her defense, and she resented him for it. (Well, that and a bunch of other stuff.) She knew that she faced an uphill battle for reelection, and she probably figured that her only hope would be if she showed her moxie by helping to bring Doyle down.
Campesino wrote on April 11, 2007 7:16 PM:*************************************************
So you're saying this wasn't really a Republican, but a bi-partisan political hit
Voter fraud (spelled R-E-D-H-E-R-R-I-N-G) is the midirect. The issue remains institutionalized Republican malfeasence in electioneering (caging, voter roll purges, etc.).
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Note: Biskupic's task force pursued a range of cases -- eighteen prosecutions total. The US Attorney's office prosecuted fourteen individuals. Four were indicted on charges of double voting, all of whom were either acquitted or had charges dismissed. Eight felons were indicted for unlawfully voting. Five of these individuals were eventually acquitted; the others were convicted and sentenced to punishments ranging from fines to probation. In addition, two former felons serving as poll workers were prosecuted for unlawfully voting. Both men received short jail sentences. The office of the District Attorney confirmed their successful prosecution of two individuals who falsified registration cards. Finally, the Journal Sentinel has reported that the District Attorney prosecuted two additional cases of illegal voting by felons.
************************************************
Obviously a red herring - only 9 convictions!
lysias wrote on April 11, 2007 7:23 PM:The RICO statute allows for civil suits by private individuals. Treble damages!
Campesino wrote on April 11, 2007 7:26 PM:"...According to Hierholzer, Rove’s declaration of Texas as his permanent home is similar to the situation faced by elected federal representatives, including former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Others have had to repay taxes to ensure their residency in their home state is maintained, which allowed them to legally represent that jurisdiction..."
Not true. Dashchle was elected to office. Karl Rove is just a government employee. It's different.
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Actually it's more akin to people in the military who get to pick their home state for voting purposes no matter where they are stationed. They are "just government employees" too.
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And a key statement here:
"According to Emerson, the Texas Election Code defines residence as a place of habitation to which one intends to return after a temporary absence."
So if anyone wants to be a Texas voter, just say you intend to return to Texas, and you're in.
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If you own property there in Texas or have some other reasonable domicile there and aren't registered to vote anywhere else that doesn't sound unreasonable. I'm sure there are thousands of Texas college kids going to school out of state who vote absentee in Texas and nobody sees that as a problem - it isn't a problem.
ahem wrote on April 11, 2007 7:31 PM:Shorter Campesino: I'm good at playing brain-dead when trolling.
Got one of those prized gwb43.com accounts?
ahem wrote on April 11, 2007 7:34 PM:Shorter Campesino: Pay no attention to the 'immigrants can't vote' mailouts distributed by the truckload to naturalized citizens! Pay no attention to voting roll purges!
(And if we're picking nits, you have seven cases of felons voting where prohibited.)
Campesino wrote on April 11, 2007 8:24 PM:Shorter Campesino: I'm good at playing brain-dead when trolling.
Got one of those prized gwb43.com accounts?
Posted by: ahem
ahem wrote on April 11, 2007 8:47 PM:Date: April 11, 2007 07:31 PM
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Straight to the ad hominem - don't want to deal with any of those nasty facts! Too much work
Shorter Campesino: I'm too busy deleting my gwb43.com email to stop playing the dumb ingénue.
Robin wrote on April 11, 2007 8:50 PM:The irony is so thick. These criminals got their power by abusing the voter registration system (in FL).
And, it seems that their downfall will be their DELUSIONS that 'the dems are cheating in the elections!'
I bet their own guilt -- as twisted as guilt can get when repressed in a human being -- actually TELLS them that in a very paranoid way: "The dems are cheating!! We must stop them!" When it's really their own guilt in election fraud that is eating them away like a cancer.
The Bush Admin folks have driven themselves off the sane ridge.
Sec word: Birth -- BIRTH OF A NEW NATION, baby!
Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 9:03 PM:Oh where, oh where has Mrs. Panstreppon gone? The regular posts which just two and three weeks ago caused me to place this site at the top of my daily read have sadly disappeared and been replaced largely by uninformed drivel and codeword postings.
Codeword: color as in color me gone
Campesino Compadre wrote on April 11, 2007 9:33 PM:Darling Campesino, there are exceptions for Members of Congress. For the President. For the Vice President. And for kids who come to work for their home state members of Congress. And for the military (unless of course your're J. Tim Griffin, who's keen on denying the vote to minority soldiers). And kids in college. (Kids in college tend not to buy 1.5 million dollar homes, btw).
There's no exception for Executive Branch appointees. And no exception for Karl Rove.
You vote where your home is. And Karl's home is pretty clearly not a 2 room cottage in Ingram, TX. It's the 12 room house in DC, just off of MacArthur. The one where he parks his Jaguar.
He got off on a technicality.
But I still want to know, why was he so hell bent on voting in Texas? He had that state locked up anyway in 04.
Al in Austex wrote on April 11, 2007 9:35 PM:So AHEM.
Paul Robeson wrote on April 11, 2007 9:52 PM:Do you suppose some freedom loving ,constitution
respecting , "internets savvy " individual(s) may have already cached all those pesky loose and or lost files from gwb43.com -that gives full unredacted info on all the BushCo criminal enterprises. And then downloaded that gwb43.com "internets documents' to a hard copy and gave all that to the Oversight Commitee Hill Staffers. Would not that be a Hoot , and how bunched up would all the trollers panties be then .Maybe we should ask Campesino just how bunched up his /her knickers would be if Leahy already knew all the answers to the Questions being asked to Abu Gharib Gonzales 17th of April at the hearings ? The bureaucrats that work for the all the Depts-are our friends not BushCo ,Get a good seat this is going to be real fun to watch.
Campesino, what I'm saying is that Lautenschlager's motives were no more pure than Biskupic's. Both of them went into that investigation with one thing in mind -- nailing Doyle's hide to the wall. Their motivations were, however, slightly different.
I wish people would realize that Biskupic is STILL INVESTIGATING DOYLE. Even the debacle of the Thompson case hasn't stopped the hectoring from the USDOJ.
Dan D wrote on April 11, 2007 10:20 PM:I think there was a second round of purges in waiting. If the first round had passed without fanfare, they would have fired more people.
All the lists we see with redacted names on the shit list always look a lot longer than 8. There were others they wanted to fire. I think they made a strategic decision to do it in rounds and hope no one cared.
MarkC wrote on April 11, 2007 11:25 PM:Some dates for the Thompson case:
March 2005 Contract is awarded
June 2006 Verdict reached in Thompson case
September 2006 Sentencing of Thompson
Middle of 2005 is when the pressure was being applied in the voting fraud cases. Biskupic makes the decision to prosecute when? Late 2005? THat fits.
It is worth noting that Biskupic's name on the to-be-fired list is after the Thompson verdict was reached, so it was probably a "he helped us here, but failed us there" sort of calculation being made by the White House.
Code: Green, as in Mark Green, the incredible unelectable Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin
ahem wrote on April 11, 2007 11:43 PM:'And then downloaded that gwb43.com "internets documents' to a hard copy and gave all that to the Oversight Commitee Hill Staffers.'
It would be nice to think so, no?
See, email has the interesting capacity of existing in many places, depending upon the storage facility. It sounds like the backchannel was a regular ol' POP drop, rather than IMAP, hence the 30-day deletion turnover. But were Jennings and Rove using a mail client such as Outlook or a webmail interface? Hence Conyers' desire for images of hard drives. If Unka Karl and Little Scott used email applications, then their computers have the goods.
This could be the largest bit of non-NSA computer forensics in American political history.
Kimberly wrote on April 11, 2007 11:55 PM:Note the grand total is SEVEN people convicted after what was almost certainly one of the most thorough investigations of voter fraud in U.S. history.
That's the message that we need to spread to the media and others whenever they bring up election fraud. It has been conclusively shown to be total BS and a huge waste of resources. People who deny that are either idiots or liars.
How much money was spent on this investigation? The Joint Election Fraud Task Force included the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, the District Attorney, and the metropolitan police department and took over two years. That's two years they could have been investigating murderers, drug dealers, terrorists, you name it instead.
That's a far cry from showing that, as the Republican National Lawyers Association questioner put it to Rove, the Democratic Party "rests on the base of election fraud." More likely, the Republican Party rests on a base of delusions, including totally bogus allegations of widespread Democratic voter fraud.
Posted by: ohiomeister
Ohiomeister, Actually it should be, "the Republican Party rests on the base of election fraud". In the future, whenever somebody questions the outrageous election fraud that was carried out in Florida in 2000, and Ohio in 2004, republicans will point to these investigations and say, we investigated, and didn't find widespread fraud.
They will blur the line between voter fraud and election fraud in the minds of the public, and claim that there's nothing to it.
Democrats need to point out very specifically, the difference between the voter fraud investigations pushed by republicans, and the elections fraud they completely refused to look at.
Sheila Condit wrote on April 12, 2007 3:55 AM:It's a real thrill to see this thoughtful investigation continue at TPM Muckraker. Who can't NOT smell the whiff of the real voter fraud in this octopus? Don't let go of this one.
southbound zax wrote on April 12, 2007 5:04 AM:My addiction to the political blogosphere has added to the blurs of senile dementia, however. I can't remember if this is the site that originally posted the link to young Karl Rove working the re-elect Nixon campaign under the tutelage of (first to plead guilty in the Watergate break-in case) Jeb Magruder. If so, just a reminder that the keeper of The Batcave was getting savvy about the role of computer technology back in the day. Even if it was just slightly post Univac, this guy knew he was on to a world of manipulative possibility.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM0zJl9Bxk8
What a scary creep then and now.
The "red herring" reference is correct. If you want to know what underhanded scheme is in play, just listen to what the GOP mouthpieces are complaining about. Whatever the BushWarInc. crime of the moment is, they try to paint it on their enemies. From "vote fraud" to "rewriting history" to "undermining the troops" to "hating our freedom", if Bush is whining about it, he and his posse are in it up to their necks.
code glove: If the glove fits...
Al in Austex wrote on April 12, 2007 5:37 AM:AHEM
R Easton wrote on April 12, 2007 6:43 AM:But could not somebody, somehow already got all those gwwb43 com little electrons over there at the Bushco Bunker off those pesky servers ,onto a piece of paper(s). And then those pieces of paper got given to the Hill Staffers . Would the good guys even need the NSA for the "whatmacallit forensic" server stuff -if the Hill Staffers already have on their desks downloaded copies of the "rumours on the internets" documented evidence of BushCo criminal wrong doings ?
Turdblossom and the rest of his Merry Little Band of Brownshirts might better hurry & lawyer up before Gonzo goes and spills all the frijoles to Conyers on the 17th. Think Gonzo wants to be eaten alive up there on the Hill.. why don't we ask Ed Gillispie if he thinks the "General " is ready to defend the NeO Thugs - especially now that .uh I mean IF our side has a hard copy of the misdeeds done by BushCo downloaded to hard copy ..Abu G might want to go think about an immunity deal since Sampson has already laid a perjury predicate in previous testimony.Betcha Monica has already got her immunity deal in the works- if not completed by now..
Prior to the 06 election, I recall reading (probably somewhere in TPM) that Rove seemed quite complcent and relaxed in the face of diminishing poll numbers. "What," the piece wondered, is he up to?"
It seems that we have learned the answer to that questions!
And a lot of the credit goes to TPM.
Thanks Josh.
cube3u wrote on April 12, 2007 8:57 AM:Ditto on the thanks to Josh. Don't let up on this issue.
The Rove tactic worked in 2000, 2002, and 2004 and could have worked in 2006 if the Democratic activists had not worked extremely hard on GOTV efforts. It's not a mistake that Wisconsin was targeted--Kerry won by 11,813 votes in 2004. Two areas were key--urban, poor, and minority--and that spells Milwaukee and Madison. Rove took advantage of voter rolls with sloppy procedures or non-exsitent procedures that could handle a mobile society (particularly among the low-income folks who can host a string of addresses between federal elections), further complicated by poorly paid, trained and supervised election workers.
I don't know if the e-mails prove my theory, but here it goes. First, ratchet up the public perception that voting fraud is rampant. Second, have the US Attorney keep up the public heat; convictions don't matter as much as publicity to increase the public perception that American voting is riddled with fraud and stolen elections. Third, use this public perception to scare folks away from current elections and to build support for photo ID legislation in the state. Fourth, when photo ID legislation is passed make sure photos are taken first in Republican areas and only later in urban areas or Indian reservations--and only scarcely available thereafter. Fifth, drive down registration drives by publicizing the "attempts to register dogs" and create onerous regulations for these drives--to the point that the League of Women Voters would even pull out of registration drives where not only are new folks registered but addresses are changed. Sixth, purge voter rolls using "iffy" name-match database techniques as was done in Florida. Seventh, drive down turnout by publicizing how low the turnout is (use the inflated voter rolls that are not effectively purged which makes the turnout seem terrible) which causes the non-motivated voter to stay home.
Couple all of this with poor Democratic GOTV efforts and you have the recipe for Republican wins. What surprised Rove in 2006 was the GOTV efforts that the Democrats made in critical areas. Senator McCaskill would not be in the Senate today if Democratic activists had not turned out in heavy numbers to work the urban areas, guided by some sharp young folks from WDC.
The 2006 midterms would have shown even more Democrats elected IF Democratic activists had turned out everywhere. That is what surprised Rove. And this will be an on-going problem until the Democrats reframe the issue of voter fraud and go on the offense about "cleaning up the process" and presenting good--and costly--legislation at the forefront of this effort.
John wrote on April 12, 2007 9:59 AM:Don't forget about Ann Coulter!
retr2327 wrote on April 12, 2007 11:04 AM:From http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=298205 (Thanks, FS):
Campesino wrote on April 12, 2007 11:50 AM:"City officials said Tuesday that the large gaps can be blamed on major flaws in how polling-place logbooks were scanned and individual votes recorded in the computer. In some cases, entire pages were bypassed in the process, which involves scanning a barcode for each pre-registered person who votes.
* * *
All together, the Journal Sentinel has found a gap of about 7,000 votes that are unaccounted for. That is based on a difference between the 277,535 ballots cast in Milwaukee and the 269,212 people listed as voting in the city's computer system."
Based on the above quotes, it seems pretty clear that the discrepancy is not based on a comparison of ballot totals to registered voters. That sort of discrepancy would raise some fairly serious questions, since lists of registered voters are maintained with a relatively high (but not perfect) degree of accuracy. Instead, the discrepancy seems to be based on a comparison of total votes to the number of people recorded as going to the polls and voting that day. And the flaws in the system used to record the number of people voting that day are fairly obvious, as the top quote makes plain, which means that the alleged discrepancy that Rove & Co. like to whine so much about really isn't reliable evidence of anything.
Don't hold your breath waiting for the MSM to get into this level of detail; they've got more important issues (Breaking: Larry's the father!) to cover.
Darling Campesino, there are exceptions for Members of Congress. For the President. For the Vice President. And for kids who come to work for their home state members of Congress. And for the military (unless of course your're J. Tim Griffin, who's keen on denying the vote to minority soldiers). And kids in college. (Kids in college tend not to buy 1.5 million dollar homes, btw).
There's no exception for Executive Branch appointees. And no exception for Karl Rove.
You vote where your home is. And Karl's home is pretty clearly not a 2 room cottage in Ingram, TX. It's the 12 room house in DC, just off of MacArthur. The one where he parks his Jaguar.
He got off on a technicality.
But I still want to know, why was he so hell bent on voting in Texas? He had that state locked up anyway in 04.
Posted by: Campesino Compadre
Date: April 11, 2007 09:33 PM
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Compadre
If you own homes in two states and DC, as Rove does, you kind of get to pick which of the three you want to use as a primary residence for voting purposes. As long as you are not trying to vote in more than one it's no big deal, and in this case Texas election officials agree. I'm sure if we dug around we would find lots of people of both parties in previous administrations who've done the same. This is really feeble harrassment.
And as I recall it was the DNC that was working overtime in 2000 trying to get military absentee ballots disqualified in Florida.
Campesino wrote on April 12, 2007 11:54 AM:Don't hold your breath waiting for the MSM to get into this level of detail; they've got more important issues (Breaking: Larry's the father!) to cover.
Posted by: retr2327
Date: April 12, 2007 11:04 AM
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Stop, think! You're QUOTING the MSM!
And didn't you get to the part of the article where they talk about thousands of voters registered to bogus addresses? That doesn't bother you? Nothing to see here, move along!
Peralta wrote on April 12, 2007 1:15 PM:Since they sent that poor Black single mother in Milwaukee to jail for a voting error, are they going to indict and convict Ann Coulter and Rove himself for obviously violating federal and state voting laws???
retr2327 wrote on April 12, 2007 4:12 PM:"And didn't you get to the part of the article where they talk about thousands of voters registered to bogus addresses? That doesn't bother you?" (from Campesino, who else?)
I call B.S. Read the article yourself, at the website I cited (here it is again, for your convenience: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=298205). There is no such part of the article. Provide a quote from the article at that website, if you think you have one supporting your claims.
Campesino wrote on April 12, 2007 7:05 PM:I call B.S. Read the article yourself, at the website I cited (here it is again, for your convenience: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=298205). There is no such part of the article. Provide a quote from the article at that website, if you think you have one supporting your claims.
Posted by: retr2327
Date: April 12, 2007 04:12 PM
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BS yourself - go read it again
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The investigation was launched a day after the Journal Sentinel reported at least 1,200 votes in the Nov. 2 election were cast from invalid addresses. Some are due to transposed digits in addresses, but many others could not easily be explained or the voters readily identified.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=298205
Ben Masel wrote on April 13, 2007 2:45 AM:The Doyle Lautenschlager fued preceded Peg's drunk driving arrest. It begins with Jeb Bush's MATRIX privatisedmultistate datamining operation.
Doyle, as AG, had signed the contracts to make Wisconsin a participant. When Lautenschlager took over as AG as Doyle became Governor, his holdovers failed to inform her that they were sharing data on Wisconsin citizens with the Busheviks.
It was only when Utah Governor Leavitt resigned to take Tommy's spot at HHS, and the new Utah governor pulled out of the Matrix, and mentioned to the Utah press the other States in the program that Peg learned of our sharing personal records with Matrix. I was working on a story on the MATRIX for the Wisconsonite, a defunct hardcopy, Peg gave me the scoop on the Doyle role.
Ben Masel wrote on April 13, 2007 3:09 AM:My hunch, it was Sensenbrenner, jealous of his prerogatives as senior Republican in the State, (and still chair of House judiciary) who saved Biskupic's job.
retr2327 wrote on April 13, 2007 12:14 PM:It's still B.S. You wrote:
"And didn't you get to the part of the article where they talk about thousands of voters registered to bogus addresses?"
You cite:
"The investigation was launched a day after the Journal Sentinel reported at least 1,200 votes in the Nov. 2 election were cast from invalid addresses. Some are due to transposed digits in addresses, but many others could not easily be explained or the voters readily identified." as your support.
Last I checked, 1,200 is not "thousands" it's barely over 1,000. And that's without even taking into consideration that the article itself -- as your own excerpt shows -- notes that "some of these 1,200 are due to transposed digits."
Finally, even as to the remainder, there is no claim that these addresses are "bogus," as you asserted. On the contrary, the article only states that "many others could not easily be explained or the voters readily identified." Given the abyssmal state of the record-keeping revealed by article, to say nothing of the fact that you're dealing with hundreds of thousands (about 250,000, more or less) of registrations, the fact that about a thousand, more or less, do not match up perfectly for unknown reasons simply cannot be fairly or accurately characterized as "thousands of voters registered to bogus addresses."
So your claim that we're all overlooking the real story remains B.S.
Better luck next time -
wisconsinite wrote on April 13, 2007 11:27 PM:There have been some q's about whether the Georgia Thompson prosecution was political and some notes that some Dems may have been involved. Read this column by a long-time Wisconsin Democratic strategist - it explains, quite accurately, why the fact that the Dem AG may have OK'd the prosecution doesn't mean it wasn't political. Also gives you some demographics on who got prosecuted for vote fraud (poor african-americans in Milwaukee).
Mark B. wrote on April 13, 2007 11:42 PM:http://www.uppitywis.org/biskupic-prosecutes-ham-sandwiches-but-only-democratic-sandwiche
The oral argument from the Georgia Thompson case is worth a listen.
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp/281AMDQL.mp3
I am glad I was not representing the government there.
DavidW in SF wrote on April 14, 2007 1:17 AM:I would image that Biskupic would be a great candidate for Congress to offer immunity in exchange for testimony. He seems to be between a rock and a hard place if it looks like he railroaded an innocent into jail on tricked-up evidence. There seems to be a lot of serious illegality here performed under duress. And Biskupic seems to be the key to the whole plot.
If Biskupic can testify that the Bush Crime Family threatened to figuratively "break his legs" if he didn't bring trumped-up charges on election eve, BushCo is immediately history. That's the kind of testimony that the average American can wrap their brain around.
Wishful thinking?
andrey@gmail.com wrote on April 30, 2007 10:05 PM:hello
andrey@gmail.com wrote on April 30, 2007 10:05 PM:hello
yellow@gmail.com wrote on May 1, 2007 10:24 AM:hello
yellow@gmail.com wrote on May 1, 2007 10:24 AM:hello
yellow@gmail.com wrote on May 1, 2007 10:25 AM:hello
witney@gmail.com wrote on May 6, 2007 10:57 PM:hello
MAL in Madison wrote on May 12, 2007 8:42 PM:So, Josh and Paul, when are you going to stop listening to the politically connected attys and journalists, and friends of Biskupic here, and draw that the obvious conclusion that US Atty Biskupic should not be allowed within a 10-mile radius of the US Atty's office.
How many bougus prosecutions does this man's office have to make for us to conclude that he is a partisan prosecutor with no concept of prosecutorial discretion who threw away some 12 years experience when he joined the Bush DoJ.
You saw the House hearings; that most credible source of all, Gonzo, really stood up for him after taking a grilling from Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
But, hey, you’re right, the fact that he prosecuted innocent men and women is not important; what's important is that Comey and other say that he would not have.
So, Josh, have you changed your mind yet on Biskupic and Biskupic’s nuclear-proof firewall between the Bush WH-DoJ and Biskupic’s US Atty’s office?
I know of at least one veteran behind bars who would like to know:
Listen to Wisconsin Public Radio's take:
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=news070510gh&link=http%3A%2F%2Fclipcast.wpr.org%3A8080%2Framgen%2Fwpr%2Fnews%2Fnews070510gh.rm
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JEP wrote on May 13, 2007 12:10 AM:Lets not forget Iowa, and state Senator Matt McCoy. Under orders form Iowa's own Republican-clone US-A, the FBI spent hundreds of hours of recording time, and who knows how much in public resources, setting him up in a questionable sting that could easily be construed as a desperate entrapment job.
If all the news about arm-twisting of US-A's by Rove's gang, then one might assume the obvious desperation comes from the US-A's fearing for their jobs if they don't concentrate on attacking Democratic lawmakers
Just how many corporate cheats and book cookers were spared legal prosecution during the time our tax money was being spent to go after Iowa's only openly gay lawmaker?
We need more Watchdogs, not Foxes in charge of the DOJ, and more non-partisan legal eagles instead of Republican vultures.