Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

1. Background: As of late February, the “scandal” had disappeared, as had all the guys responsible…..
http://BetsyDevine.weblogger.com/2003/02/21#a50

2. 7 months later, columnist from conservative NH paper gets Ashcroft off the dime…

http://www.theunionleader.com/Articles_show.html?article=26161&archive=1

In case page has gone:

COINCIDENCE? Remember the GOP “phone-jamming” controversy? We reported in February that a GOP consultant paid by the New Hampshire Republican State Committee for “telemarketing” had a subcontractor jam the phones at Democratic and firefighters union get-out-the-vote sites on Election Day 2002.

Chuck McGee resigned as state party executive director the following day but maintained he had nothing to do with the operation. He now heads the local chapter of Citizens for a Sound Economy.

Investigative information on the case was provided to the U.S. Justice Department’s Election Fraud Unit about a week after our report. Although we’ve sought updates from the Justice Department, our calls were never returned.

When Attorney General John Ashcroft came to the state this week, we asked chief spokesman Mark Corallo if anything was up. He promised to get back to us.

Sullivan reports that just last week, the state Democratic Party’s legal counsel, Finas Williams, was asked by the Justice Department to provide the names of people working at the state party offices when the phones were blocked.

Sullivan said she found it “frustrating” that the feds were asking for basic information seven months after the fact. “It is the very same information we provided to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office several months ago,” she said. “I’m grateful they are paying attention and taking it seriously. I just wish they’d take it more seriously and pay a lot more attention.”

3. Follow-up, one week later state officials also remembered they said they would do something.
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In case page has gone:

PHONE-JAM UPDATE UPDATE. Last week, we reported that the U.S. Justice Department wants the names of the staffers who were at Democratic Party offices when phones were jammed last Election Day on the orders of a GOP consultant. It appears that 11 months later, a state review is under way.

State Democratic Chair Kathy Sullivan received a letter a few days ago from Attorney General Peter Heed. “I want to assure you my office is treating this matter very seriously,” Republican Heed wrote, promising “a thorough investigation.”

He wrote that “in order to give this matter the full priority of my office,” he assigned a second attorney to the case.

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• Virginia’s phone scandal in March 2002 produced indictments in April 2002.Virginia Republican eavesdropped on Democratic conference calls last year. The result? Underlings sentenced to probation–the former GOP executive director was quickly moved to another lucrative job, though he got his law license suspended for 2 years.