Phone jamming: GOP fires back

[Judi Lynn]

Phone jamming: GOP fires back
By JOHN DISTASO
Senior Political Reporter
3 hours, 3 minutes ago

The state Republican Party is charging that a Democratic lawsuit against it for an illegal phone jamming operation in 2002 was actually part of a national Democratic plan to “advance their political agenda” in the 2004 general election.

The state Democratic chairman calls the claim baseless and “pretty sad.”

The conviction last month of a former high-ranking Republican official for conspiring to jam state Democratic Party and firefighters union get-out-the-vote telephone banks on Election Day 2002 has re-focused attention on an 18-month-old civil suit filed by the Democrats seeking damages for the illegal GOP operation.

The case is expected to go to trial later this year, and a series of motions have been recently filed.

The Republican State Committee’s attorney, Ovide Lamontagne, contends in court papers that the state Democratic Party filed its civil suit against the Republicans “in attempt to use the court system to interfere with the (GOP’s) constitutionally protected election activities.”
(snip/...)

http://www.theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Phone+jamming%3A+GOP+fires+back&articleId=c2ca1af0-f665-435f-92bc-ea12dafb1d56

[Erika]

1. I would say the claim was pretty pathetic. SOP of the GOP n/t

[MADem]

6. My favorite section of that article from that rag of a paper (NH's version

of the MOONIE TIMES, and absolutely rabid!):

State Democratic Chair Sullivan said Lamontagne “is making things up, and it’s pretty sad. When you file a pleading, you are supposed to have facts underlying your claim. He has none here and with good reason. There are no facts.”

Sullivan said Lamontagne “has lost his perspective in this case. As an attorney, I understand someone wants to vigorously defend their client, but you should not do that by pulling things out of thin air.”

Two Republicans have pleaded guilty, and a third official was convicted last month, of conspiring to have repeated telephone calls made to Democratic and firefighters union phone banks to block their efforts to get voters to the polls.

Former state GOP executive director Charles McGee completed a seven-month prison term in November and GOP consultant Allen Raymond has received a five-month term. Former Republican National Committee regional director James Tobin is seeking a new trial on his Dec. 15 conviction by a federal jury on telephone harassment charges...

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

2. Oh please, are the New Hampshire Republicans really this desperate?

Since when is "jamming" phone lines of the opposition party an acceptable part of American political discourse?

I guess it's really true. We do live in a facist state....

Whatever happened to my beloved country?

[Wilms]

7. Maybe not NH but MO Republicans...

What Role Did Missouri Republicans Play In The New Hampshire Phone Jamming

12/27/2005

by Roy Temple

Avid politicos may have noted the conviction in New Hampshire last month of a top-level GOP political operative on charges of telephone harassment in a scheme senior GOP officials used to interfere with GOTV efforts in the 2002 Senate race in New Hampshire.

The RNC spent nearly 3/4 of a million dollars on legal fees to defend James Tobin, so you can bet they knew there was plenty to hide. He has now been convicted on two counts.

During the trial, certain documents came to light that raise questions regarding ties between Missouri Republicans, particularly Senator Jim Talent, and the New Hampshire Republican Party's phone jamming scheme.

The company hired to orchestrate the phone jamming was GOPmarketplace.com. That firm was run by Allen Raymond, who received a jail sentence in this case. Certain financial records from GOPmarketplace were introduced as evidence during trial. An Income by Customer Summary, shows receipts of $12, 904.28 from "Millennium." That is roughly the same amount GOPmarketplace received from the NH GOP to pay for the phone jamming there. Perhaps there was a Missouri version planned.

snip

http://www.firedupmissouri.com/gop_phone_jamming_talent


Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407038

[Judi Lynn]

8. Sorry, Dupe. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

9. Thanks for the Missouri information. I'd never heard about this.

Here's hoping the story there will be exposed. Missouri has some hideous Republicans, and TWO dead high-ranking Democrats, Governor Callahan, and Rep. Jerry Litton (n 1976, on the evening he was returning to Kansas City to celebrate his victory in the primary) who were killed in airplane crashes during their campaigns, just like Paul Wellstone.

Talent is a loathesome person. It's no stretch to imagine he was involved in some dirty, low-down treachery, just like phone-jamming to destroy Democratic votes.

On edit: Only Republicans could invent "pre-emptive vote tampering."

[Warren Stupidity]

22. Huh.

So not only did us nasty NH Democrats make the GOP jam our phone banks to make the GOP look evil, but we conned the MO GOP to pay for it. Boy are we clever, especially considering that there hardly is a NH Democratic Party.

Do the Republican whiney boys ever just take responsibility for their own actions, or is it some kind of rule that they always have to blame somebody else?

[Wilms]

23. Correct.

"Personal Responsibility" means holding someone else (libruls, immigrants, scientists, minorities) responsible for their misdeeds.

[Kokonoe]

11. That reminds me of one of their old excuses for sleaze.

(As long as someone did something 150 years ago, than it's OK politics.)

[aquart]

3. They always accuse us of what they're doing.

Pretty much tells us where to look.

[bluestateguy]

4. I say make them a deal

We drop the lawsuit, if we get to re-do the Sununu/Shaheen election again.

[gumby]

5. Why is it that

“advance their political agenda” almost always works as a 'defense' against anything the fascists want to discredit?

"A G E N D A" is a code-word that at least 30% of the population has been conditioned to react against.

The neo-fascists don't have an 'agenda.' Only the Evil Forces (of liberals, feminists, non-Christians, labor unions, etc.) have an a n g e n d a.

[truthisfreedom]

10. Phone jamming: GOP backfires

[MaineDem]

12. "The state Democratic chairman" is a woman

State Democratic Chair (Kathy) Sullivan said Lamontagne “is making things up, and it’s pretty sad. When you file a pleading, you are supposed to have facts underlying your claim. He has none here and with good reason. There are no facts.”

When has lack of facts ever stopped the Republicans?

And Lamontagne is using the GOP trick of saying the "Democrat party". :mad:

[Wilms]

15. As if the criminal conviction doesn't count as proof.

That's why they're appealing that case and trying to wriggle out of the civil trial.

[Historic NY]

13. Dirty tricks & breaking the law are legal by GOP standards.......

The Republican State Committee’s attorney, Ovide Lamontagne, contends in court papers that the state Democratic Party filed its civil suit against the Republicans “in attempt to use the court system to interfere with the (GOP’s) constitutionally protected election activities.”

The Republican Party and its minions have been so caught up by the "culture of corruption", they non longer know right from wrong.

That is why we have lost the last 2 Presidential elections because to them anything to ensure party survival and victory is legal.

[gratuitous]

14. So a 2002 Republican crime was a Democratic ploy?

I think the operative word is "pathetic." Republicans are so accustomed to sneering at criminal defendants with their "lock 'em all up" mentality, that when they're in the dock, they just can't help themselves and make the looniest pronouncements to excuse their own bad behavior. Such pathetic excuses are routinely and rightfully laughed out of court.

Remember when former Reagan administration official Michael Deaver was being tried for influence peddling and corruption? At the height of his influence, he'd been on the cover of either Time or Newsweek sitting in his limo with a car phone and big smile. The caption was "Who Is This Man Calling?" and the story was about how much pull Deaver had in DC. Hauled into court to explain some of his less savory calls, Deaver claimed that he couldn't remember all the folks he'd called because . . . he'd been drinking really hard in those days. I thought, "Hoo boy, now if this excuse flies, there are going to be criminals all over the country sprung from jails and prisons who committed their special crimes drunk out of their minds!"

Deaver's hopes for special consideration due to his powerlessness over alcohol were dashed, however, by a judge more interested in the facts and the law than in self-serving Republican spin. Let's hope the judge in New Hampshire is similarly unmoved by craven GOP excuse-making.

[Rex]

16. GOP is full of liars, cheats and thieves.

I hope they all pay in a court of law someday!

[Warren Stupidity]

24. And whiney little boys

who always blame somebody else when they get in trouble.

[HuffleClaw]

17. "constitutionally protected..."

??? who are they fooling? phone jamming is hardly 'constitutionally protected. this is just one more particularly pathetic attempt at 'attacking the attacker'. their claim that the democrats filed suit as an election tactic kind of flies in the face of the fact that the suit was because the republicans were breaking the law and screwing with the DEMOCRATS 'constitutionally protected election activities'.

[MidwestTransplant]

18. Is that supposed to be a retort to their criminal conduct?

If that's the best they have, it's only a good sign.

[struggle4progress]

19. Damn, we're clever! I'm also impressed by the way Democrats forced ..

.. Abramoff and DeLay to engage in illegal acts so we could sweep Congress in 06 ...

[gtar100]

21. That's right!! Soon *ALL* repuke corruption will be the dems' fault

We are clever, aren't we! :) What a strategy. Make the repugs do all sorts of underhanded, criminal BS that nearly destroys our nation just so people can see how bad they are and then they vote for Democrats. Wow, what a plan.

[brooklynite]

20. Boy, don't you just hate it...

when people campaign on issues like the criminal records of their opponents?