Bush’s New England campaign coordinator James Tobin may be the unnamed co-conspirator in a 2002 case of NH election tampering.
If Ashcroft’s Justice Department has its way, however, you won’t know the truth until after November 2.
It took years for the Justice Department to bring wrist-slapping indictments against two lowly scapegoats for NH phone-jamming in 2002.
Scapegoat #1 Chuck McGee decided “one of the best ways to disrupt the enemy [Democrats] is to disrupt their ability to communicate.” Several local telemarketing firms told McGee “No way!” when he asked them to take out the Democrats’ phone service on election day.
But “an official of a national political organization” loved McGee’s plan. This official urged McGee to contact a “former colleague” Allen Raymond (now scapegoat #2), and “to mention the official’s name”. (Quotes taken from a July 29, 2004 story in the Union Leader.)
James Tobin–Bush’s New England regional campaign director–has been identified by Democrats as the enabling official. Tobin quit once his name got into the papers. But what did Tobin do or didn’t he do? How widely known was his role by the Republican insiders who kept him in positions of trust for the two years since the phone-blocking?
Ted Kennedy and others are demanding that John Ashcroft should stop using the Justice Department as a stonewall against Democrats’ efforts to get answers to these questions.
At last this cover-up is out of the NH newspapers and into USA Today!
Bonus link:
More recent Republican dishonesty, via Josh Marshall, who also did some good blogging of the NH phone scam.