How high did the Republicans' New Hampshire phone scheme reach?(Carlyle Gr

[UpInArms]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2658/

In October 2002, just weeks before Election Day, Chuck McGee, executive director of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee (NHRSC), hit on what seemed like a brilliant idea. His party faced a number of close races, the most important of which was the open seat Senate race between Rep. John Sununu (R) and Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D). Every vote counted, as polls showed Sununu and Shaheen in a dead heat. Republicans had attacked with the standard array of ads and mailings, but McGee believed more could be done to ensure victory.

Drawing on his experience as a helicopter crew chief in the Marines, he hit on the elemental strategy of jamming the enemy’s communications. “n the military, it’s common sense that if you can’t communicate, you can’t organize,” McGee would later testify. The enemy here, of course, was the Democratic Party. McGee’s idea was to make it impossible for Democrats to organize on Election Day by flooding their phone banks with calls.

<snip>

But did the conspiracy stop with those four? There are a number of reasons to think that it did not. First, all four have claimed that they did not know that the scheme was illegal. It might seem obvious that sabotaging get-out-the-vote operations would be illegal, but it appears the thought never occurred to these Republicans. Since those involved did not think that they were part of a criminal conspiracy, it seems likely that they spoke to others about it. McGee, for instance, called a number of other vendors before settling on GOP Marketplace to carry out the jamming. And this four-year-old crime was catapulted into the national spotlight in April when evidence emerged that Tobin had been in frequent contact with the White House.

<snip>

The connections to the national Republican establishment grew more significant in April when the AP reported that GOP Marketplace had started up in 2000 with help from some big-hitters. Haley Barbour, former RNC chairman and current governor of Mississippi, owned a stake in the firm, along with his investment partners Ed Rogers and Lanny Griffith (both well-connected conservative operatives). Carlyle Group Managing Director Ed Matthias also provided capital for the initial loan.

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[XemaSab]

1. I wonder about GOTV for the democratic primaries

:freak:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Sure hope John Sununu has enjoyed the hell outta his stolen governorship.

According to this article, Abramoff got Mississippi Choctaw money and Agua Caliente money to help finance the voting day sabotage of the Democratic Party's and the Firefighter's efforts to help transport home-bound voters to the election booths.

How damned dirty can you get?

Then, once the truth was finallly out about these deviant actions, the _Bush Justice Department decided to take it niiiice and slooooooow looking into it, until NOTHING WHATSOEVER WAS DONE UNTIL AFTER THE NEXT ELECTION HAD PASSED. Didn't want any bad publicity for the MEpublicans, after all!

[tanyev]

3. That's why we don't have Osama Bin Laden yet.

Democrats and liberals are at the top of the GOP enemy list. OBL and his henchmen got penciled in down at the bottom somewhere.