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Berry: Tanner's "Supposed Apology" Is "Even Funnier"
Mary Frances Berry, the target of a racist "joke" by then-DOJ voting-rights chief John Tanner, has responded to the insult, and to Tanner's credulity-straining semi-apology. Berry, the former chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights, spoke Wednesday at a...
Schumer On Tanner's Racist Email: "Shocking"
In a move that piqued our interest here at TPMmuckraker, Sen. Schumer, during his questioning of Eric Holder, cited the racist email sent by John Tanner, who was at the time the head of the voting rights section, about Mary...
Tanner Sends Letter To Berry Apologizing For Racist Email
So you'll remember that on Tuesday, a DOJ report found that John Tanner, the former chief of the department's voting rights section, had told a colleague over email in 2004 that he liked his coffee "Mary Frances Berry style --...
DOJ Kept Tanner Working On Voting Rights -- Even After Racist Comments
Yesterday we picked out a shocking excerpt from the DOJ report on politicized hiring, in which then-Voting Rights chief John Tanner told Brad Schlozman over email in 2004 that he liked his coffee "Mary Frances Berry style -- black and...
Top DOJer Called Voting-Rights Official "Black and Bitter"
This might be the most horrifying excerpt from the Schlozman report: In that incident in August 2004, Voting Section Chief John Tanner sent an e-mail to Schlozman asking Schlozman to bring coffee for him to a meeting both were scheduled...
Controversial Voting Section Deps Get Demoted
The changes keep on coming in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Less than a month ago, former voting section chief John "minorities don't become elderly the way white people do: They die first" Tanner got canned. And today, his...
TPM´s Great List of Scandalized Administration Officials
Boy, was it time for an update. Late last year we decided to take stock of all the Bush Administration officials who'd been accused of corruption and/or resigned in the face of scandal. Although we had fun doing it, we...
Obama: Tanner Should Have Been Fired, Not Moved
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who called on Justice Department officials to fire John Tanner back in October, has a glass-half-empty view of Tanner's resignation. A statement just out: "It's unacceptable that the Administration is simply shuffling deck chairs by moving...
Voting Chief Tanner Resigns
Today, John Tanner resigned from his position effective immediately as chief of the Civil Rights Division's voting section. His resignation email, with the subject line "Moving On" was sent out at approximately 11 AM to voting section staff. He said...
Nadler: Tanner Resignation is Chance for "Fresh Start"
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) responding to John Tanner's resignation: “Mr. Tanner had a clear record of undermining the core mission of the section – protecting the right to vote. In October, my subcommittee held an investigation on the Section, where...
Aloha! DoJ Voting Chief is Frequent Flier
When John Tanner, chief of the Civil Rights Division's voting section, appeared before a Congressional panel last month, he was upbraided by Democrats for his "ineffectiveness." Little did they know that as the section, probably the most politicized in the...
White House Stacked Civil Rights Panel
You're familiar with what the Bush Administration did to the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. After all, who could forget such muck luminaries as Bradley "Good Americans" Schlozman, voter suppression guru Hans von Spakovsky, and John "Minorities Die...
Voting Rights Chief: "I Hurt People"
After the brutal questioning by Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) followed up. This time, voting rights section chief John Tanner had a brief reply as to what he was really apologizing for, when he apologized for saying...
Former DoJ Civil Rights Analyst on Why He Left: "It Didn’t Make A Difference"
Here's Toby Moore, formerly a redistricting expert under John Tanner in the voting rights section, explaining why he, and so many other career employees left the Civil Rights Division. Moore explained that he'd left because he'd found there was "no...
Davis Grills Tanner on Minorities "Die First" Comment
If there's been a more brutal examination of a witness in a Congressional hearing since the days of Alberto Gonzales, I haven't seen it. Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) laid into voting section chief John Tanner during the hearing today over...
House Panel Holds Hearing on Voting Rights Section
The hearing, broadcast on C-SPAN 3 and streaming on the House Judiciary Committee's website, just got under way. Voting rights section chief John "They Die First" Tanner is, of course, the star witness. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) kicked it off...
Voting Chief Defends Overrulling Staff to Approve Georgia Voter ID Law
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) kicked off the questioning today by asking John Tanner about his involvement in forcing through an approval of the infamous 2005 Georgia voter ID law (here's the whole sorry story). Tanner overruled the recommendation from Civil...
In Voting Section, Charges of Discrimination Persist
When John Tanner, the chief of the Justice Department's voting rights section, goes before Congress tomorrow, he'll have a lot to answer for. One of the most uncomfortable topics, to be sure, will be continuing charges of discrimination in the...
Voting Rights Chief Apologizes for Comments about Minorities
Voting rights section chief John Tanner has apologized for saying earlier this month that "minorities don't become elderly the way white people do: They die first." The apology went out to a number of attendees of the National Latino Congreso,...
Kennedy Asks Mukasey for Review of Voting Rights Chief
Last week Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) called for the Justice Department's voting rights chief John Tanner to be fired. And in written questions to attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey this week, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) asked Mukasey to review Tanner's...
