WP,pg1: Politics Alleged In (DOJ Civil Rts Div.) Voting Cases (big story)

[DeepModem Mom]

Politics Alleged In Voting Cases
Justice Officials Are Accused of Influence
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 23, 2006; Page A01


The Justice Department's voting section, a small and usually obscure unit that enforces the Voting Rights Act and other federal election laws, has been thrust into the center of a growing debate over recent departures and controversial decisions in the Civil Rights Division as a whole.

Many current and former lawyers in the section charge that senior officials have exerted undue political influence in many of the sensitive voting-rights cases the unit handles. Most of the department's major voting-related actions over the past five years have been beneficial to the GOP, they say, including two in Georgia, one in Mississippi and a Texas redistricting plan orchestrated by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) in 2003.

The section also has lost about a third of its three dozen lawyers over the past nine months. Those who remain have been barred from offering recommendations in major voting-rights cases and have little input in the section's decisions on hiring and policy.

"If the Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division is viewed as political, there is no doubt that credibility is lost," former voting-section chief Joe Rich said at a recent panel discussion in Washington. He added: "The voting section is always subject to political pressure and tension. But I never thought it would come to this."

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his aides dispute such criticism and defend the department's actions in voting cases. "We're not going to politicize decisions within the department," he told reporters last month after The Washington Post had disclosed staff memoranda recommending objections to a Georgia voter-identification plan and to the Texas redistricting....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/22/AR2006012200984_pf.html

[EFerrari]

1. This is the second major story about election fraud in two days.

ELECTION F R A U D

And, not even Torquemada could stop it. )

:kick: and recommend

[kevinbgoode]

2. The Culture of Corruption is alive and well. . .

and the Republican machine continues to roll out more plans for instituting the most repressive society in American history.

For godsakes - I haven't seen Gonzales make any statements that aren't politicized - every plan the DOJ seems to have mirrors either neo-con hysteria, hetero-supremacist white boy panic, or neo-con federalism and activist executive branches.

[bleever]

3. The Culture of Corruption brought us Corruption of the Vote.

It was on their to-do list.

It has a check mark next to it.

Way to go, Culture of Corruption!

[LiberalAndProud]

4. Wishing bad things on Gonzales.

really really bad things.

Shame on me.

[Pastiche423]

5. Why the hurry?

"Mark Posner, a former longtime Civil Rights Division lawyer who teaches election law at American University, noted that Justice could have taken as many as 60 more days -- rather than seven hours -- to issue an opinion because of the new data."

[fearnobush]

6. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales - You sold your soul to the Devil.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his aides dispute such criticism and defend the department's actions in voting cases. "We're not going to politicize decisions within the department,"

[me b zola]

8. Appointments in the bush* malAdministration come with a high price

...and I believe your subject line states what that price is.

Gonzales:

~signs off on torture policy-->> calls the Geneva Conventions "quaint"

~signs off on domestic NSA spying

~corrupts the office of the AG, like any other mobster would.

[lala_rawraw]

7. Ouch!

and kick to the roof

[NYC]

9. Recommended.

Who is going to undo all this harm?

[HuffleClaw]

10. "The Bush administration has also initiated relatively few...

...cases under Section 2, the main anti-discrimination provision of the Voting Rights Act, filing seven lawsuits over the past five years -- including the department's first reverse-discrimination complaint on behalf of white voters. The only case involving black voters was begun under the previous administration and formally filed by transitional leadership in early 2001.

By comparison, department records show, 14 Section 2 lawsuits were filed during the last two years of Bill Clinton's presidency alone."


- and that really says it all, doesn't it? there is NOTHING these asshats don't completely make subordinate to their sinister political aims.

[BlueCaliDem]

22. So Kenya *was* right---Bush hates black people. n/t

[EFerrari]

11. You wanna win another election? Kick this!

:kick:

[orleans]

12. i'm surprised Gonzales didn't say he just doesn't want to play the

BLAME GAME!

[leftchick]

13. good god

this is terrible. :grr:

[DemReadingDU]

14. K&R

[rodeodance]

15. the decisions were quick--Not reasoned according to this person.

...But an Aug. 25 staff memo that recommended opposing the plan disparaged the quality of the state's information and said that only limited conclusions could be drawn from it.

"They took all that data and willfully misread it," one source familiar with the case said. "They were only looking for statistics that would back up their view."

Mark Posner, a former longtime Civil Rights Division lawyer who teaches election law at American University, noted that Justice could have taken as many as 60 more days -- rather than seven hours -- to issue an opinion because of the new data.

Staff writer Thomas B. Edsall and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

[ClintonTyree]

25. "Only looking for statistics that would back up their view"......

Hasn't this been the case with EVERYTHING the bush administration has done? The rounds of tax cuts for the rich (trickle down and stimulate Clinton's flagging economy), the Iraq war (WMD's, Al Qaeda training camps in Iraq, uranium centrifuge tubes), relaxation of mining laws (too cost prohibitive for mine owners), relaxation of environmental laws (trading pollution "credits", too constricting for industry).......the list goes on and on and on. This administration has cherry picked "statistics" for every outlandish attack on our civil liberties and safety.

There ought to be a law.......well, there ARE laws, the bush administration simply ignores them and does whatever it damned well pleases because they've placed "yes-men", bush enablers is every aspect of our government. It's going to take a herculean effort by our next Democratic President to undo what this criminal regime has wrought upon our country.

Our country can't take much more of this. This tipping point is very near and WE have to make the difference. WE have to bring pressure to bear upon our elected lawmakers, WE have to let them know that they're being closely watched and that WE will make their lives totally fucking miserable if they don't STOP this bushit, NOW! :grr:

[rodeodance]

16. k

"They were only looking for statistics that would back up their view."

[loudsue]

17. SEND THIS ARTICLE TO YOUR SENATORS & REPS!!!

Until the Democrats in congress start opening their frikkin' mail, and realize that ELECTIONS are the reason we keep losing races, there's going to be NO change in Washington.

Harry Reid was BRAGGING about doing away with "the mob" in Las Vegas. Then he compared this administration to 'the mob'. Well, Harry, DUH???? Would "the mob" ever think of STEALING ELECTIONS so they wouldn't be found out? Especially when votes for one candidate can merely (and EASILY) be substituted for the totals of the other candidate at the stroke of a key?

All they have to do is reverse the totals, and it doesn't make a tinker's dam whether a Dem candidate wins by 1 vote, or a million; it will merely show up as the opponent's total.

Now we find out that OUR JUSTICE DEPARTMENT is yet another part of the problem, which, of course was obvious all along to those of us paying attention.

That's why we must send this and all other voting articles to our representatives. Even the republican ones. Somewhere in there, there's BOUND to be ONE republican who gives a TINY care to Democracy.

If we don't fix the problems with the elections, NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING in this country will ever be fixed.

:kick::kick::kick:

[stepnw1f]

18. Kick This DU

Don't lay down and die. It's just a mouse click...

[Chi]

19. But, but, but...there is no election fraud, so why would they do this.

:eyes:

/sarcasm

[KansDem]

20. The same thing happened to the Supreme Court

"If the Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division is viewed as political, there is no doubt that credibility is lost"

The Supreme Court is no longer viewed as "impartial," thus its credibility is lost. When I was growing up, I often heard about the desire for each president to "leave his mark" on the Supreme Court in terms of appointees. SC justices were described as intellectual, bright, and fair. I had a teacher in high school (ca. 1970) tell us that, whatever you say about the executive and legislative branches (in the form of criticism), you must respect the judicial branch for the reasons mentioned; that SC justices were beyond the fray of politics. Now, 35 years later, it is obvious the SC has become a political organ on par with the other two branches. Perhaps it is time now to impose term limits (why should they serve for life when the person nominating them only gets a maximum of eight years), or subject justices to national elections, just like the other two branches.

[intheflow]

21. That's right. But we're all conspiracy theorists who have talked

about voting discrepancies in the past three election cycles. :eyes:

[stillcool]

23. More Revelations...

than a mind can handle.

[Joanne98]

24. They're always tinkering around in the basement of the machinery

[greiner3]

26. So when the WaPo writes a just article, the DOJ just knocks it down;

[anotherdrew]

27. standard operating procedure...

kill a duck, then say it's not dead... and dare anyone to say otherwise.

who's gonna do anything about it? The american people? hah, what a joke. congress? they love it! we live in a dictatorship now and we will as long as these republican bastards hold power.

Mark my words if we ever get this government back, the republican party need to go to jail, the whole fucking party. Any thing but keeping them on the defensive will not be enough and we'll just get another repeat of the "clinton scandals" for however long it takes for them to lie their way back to power.

[Judi Lynn]

28. A disgusted kick!

[wordpix]

29. what about the voting rights of Ohioans who stood in line for several hrs.

in 2004 or were subject to confusing instructions about polling places? How about Diebold? What about that sleazy Ohio Sec. of State who deliberately engaged in ways to thwart voting?