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

Big snowflakes were still falling when Frank and I woke up.

We hiked up Broadway, past miniature Christmas trees for sale, each of them wafting the full-sized evergreen smell. A snow-muffled (and grumpy) stone lion greeted us on the Columbia campus.

Later, alone, I wandered down Fifth Avenue past Central Park, amazed by the fantasy opulence of the great storefronts. Earnestly, carefully, I snapped snow-photos of all the kinds of things that kids from NH go to New York to see.

But I bet all the people in this photo, who joined me in ogling the fairytale window at Lord and Taylor, were (at least some of them) big-city folks from Manhattan.

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Twenty-five years ago today, Mark Chapman shot John Lennon in NYC. Tonight, December 8, 2005, it is perishing cold. The Dakota, where John Lennon lived, has hired some very bulked-up security guards in case tonight’s mournful crowds rush their uniformed doorman. We wouldn’t do that. We’re just passing by, en route to “Strawberry Fields” in Central Park, so that we can join mittened hands and frosty breath with other sad strangers for a few choruses of Beatles songs. “Eight Days a Week,” “Yesterday,” even “Hey, Jude.” Then back to our hotel, hand in hand, past the little memorials of flowers and photos and poems that people like us, but having more foresight than we did, have taped to the Dakota’s ornate ironwork.

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Update: I flickred my photos; so did many others.

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Josh Marshall’s TPMCafe hosts your updates and comments on the Concord, NH trial of James Tobin in the NH phone-jamming case from 2002.

I am racing out the door to NYC this morning, but here’s what the world reported on the damning testimony of Tobin’s former colleagues (Charles “Chuck” McGee and Allen Raymond) yesterday, December 7:

• Beverley’s Wang’s AP story
• Concord Monitor
• Bangor News (Tobin’s hometown paper)
• Maine Press Herald (Good piece by Kevin Wack; start here if you’re new to the story)

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Josh Marshall’s TPMCafe hosts your updates and comments on the Concord, NH trial of James Tobin in the NH phone-jamming case from 2002.

I am racing out the door to NYC this morning, but here’s what the world reported on the damning testimony of Tobin’s former colleagues (Charles “Chuck” McGee and Allen Raymond) yesterday, December 7:

• Beverley’s Wang’s AP story
• Concord Monitor
• Bangor News (Tobin’s hometown paper)
• Maine Press Herald

I spent December 6, 2005 front row center in NH Federal District Court, just a couple of yards behind James Tobin and his three very high-priced litigators.

The spectator benches were half-full of young DC lawyers, taking notes as their seniors put on one heck of a show. If you’ve given money to the Republicans lately, many thousands of RNC dollars per hour are burning away on the defense counsel benches in Concord, NH–and (I suspect) on the spectator benches as well.

Tobin is looking at 19 years in prison and a fine of up to $1M–if the jury finds him guilty as charged–unless he can make a deal with the US Attorney. Such a deal would require Tobin to “flip” and give evidence against somebody who’s done something even worse.

Josh Marshall has suggested that Tobin’s case may be tied to the Abramoff scandal. If Tobin had information on higher-level RNC involvement with Abramoff, the Feds would most likely love to make a deal.

I can’t help wondering how seriously “Tobin’s” lawyers are taking their duty to consider Tobin’s interests first and the RNC’s interest second. If Tobin has information that could save his hide–but those high-priced attorneys torpedo his deal possibilities and slide him into a long prison sentence–well then, Tobin and his young family will (like Charles McGee) end up victims of the
“politics is war” meme that has corrupted their party’s leadership.

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On December 6, 2005, Charles McGee looked tired and miserable. Slumped in the witness stand of NH Federal District Court, he answered questions about his relationship with defendant James Tobin. Real reporters reported his testimony;* now here’s what I think is the story-behind-the-story.

Chuck McGee, exhausted, unhappy, disillusioned, and fresh out of Federal Prison, is a victim in the NH phone-jamming scandal. He is a victim of the culture wars, where both left- and right-wingers have re-defined politics as a kind of war against an opposition that’s just-plain evil. And he is a victim of James Tobin.

In 2002, young Charles McGee was an enthusiastic political go-getter–one whose paying job (Executive Director for the NH Republican Party) mirrored his very strongly-held beliefs. One of those beliefs was that Democrats were “the enemy.” Then McGee had an idea that seemed to him wonderfully clever–why not disrupt “enemy communication” on election day 2002?

McGee took his brainchild to several telemarketers–every one of them gave it the cold shoulder it deserved. Then came what McGee must have seen as a great opportunity. James Tobin, a very big national RNC bigshot, came to town, and Chuck McGee sold him his scheme: they would hire telemarketers to tie up Democrats’ phones on election day, creating chaos and blocking their get-out-the-vote effort.

Tobin’s response should have been, “You must be kidding.” Or maybe, “Our party supports honest elections.” Or even, more cynically but showing some care for the future of his much younger colleague, “Do you realize how much trouble you could get into?”

James Tobin’s response was none of the above. James Tobin liked McGee’s idea so much that he gave McGee the phone number of a Republican telemarketing bigshot named Allen Raymond. Tobin liked McGee’s idea so much that he went a step further, pre-calling Raymond to say that McGee would be in touch.

Wow! Chuck McGee must have seen himself as a young Republican taking that first step up the big career ladder. Instead, Chuck McGee had just volunteered to play fall-guy if this un-American scheme was ever discovered.

Now Chuck McGee is back from seven months in federal prison. The two much-older mentors who turned his wild idea into real-life crime have yet to spend a single day in prison. But chances are that Chuck McGee will spend the rest of his life paying for his belief in the
“politics is war” meme that has been so profitable for his party’s generals.

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* More on this story in the Concord Monitor, Maine Press Herald, Bangor News , and Beverley Wang’s AP story. (Or, use Google News to roll your own news search.)

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“Courtroom opponents fear the scorched-earth tactics of Williams & Connolly lawyers,” says The Washingtonian. But it’s hard to imagine a less scorched-earth, more just-folks fellow than W&C partner Dane Butswinkas, as he moseys forward to address the jury. My summary, with elisions–my fingers are tired!

Today, as I walked into the courthouse with James Tobin, who is facing the most important day of his life, I noticed that this courtroom had been labeled “US versus _John_ Tobin.”

And that reminded me that sometimes the government makes mistakes. Sometimes, witnesses don’t tell the truth. And when this happens, and a citizen is in danger, we depend on a jury. [Praise of juries in general and the dedication of this panel of jurors in particular.]

I mention my appreciation of juries because I need to make clear that the law says we can’t chat or interact with you outside this courtroom. So if I pass you without making eye contact–I’m not being unfriendly. It’s the law. It’s the law for my associates and for Mr. Tobin. If you happen to pass Mr. Tobin’s wife in the hallway (he gestures toward bench where Tobin’s family and friends are sitting). Or Mr. Tobin’s fine sons. Or his mother and father, who are here. We need you to understand, it’s just the law.

I’m going to write down three guideposts that describe what you’ll see in this case. Now, I’m not from around here, so if I go outside this courtroom I need people to help me find my way. I need guideposts. For instance, I might ask someone to tell me about places in NH to vacation. And he might tell me, go see the beautiful Shaker Village. And while you’re there enjoy the Creamery. Or he might tell me [several more glowing descriptions of NH tourist attractions]..he’d give me guideposts.

So here’s the first guidepost. [Taking a big felt-tip pen, he scrawls in capital letters on a big newsprint tablet] “1. JIM DID NOT AGREE TO JOIN A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY OR TO HELP TO COMMIT A CRIME.”

In 2002, Jim was working 80 to 100 hours a week. He was raising money, arranging state visits by dignitaries, and working with state parties to help them function on their own. He was making more than 100 phone calls per day.

McGee told Tobin a vague idea. McGee’s plan was to get legal advice and run it by his boss John Dowd before implementing it. McGee tried to do both these things.

Now, you have heard that Tobin was on a higher level than McGee and Raymond. I disagree. Allen Raymond was a national political figure, the head of the Republican Leadership Committee, a prestigious group that included Christie Todd Whitman. Raymond was making a six-figure salary and running a very profitable business.

You will hear from Allen Raymond that John Tobin called him, told him a vague idea, said you can expect a call from Chuck McGee.

Guidepost: [writing it] “2. JIM HAD NO INVOLVEMENT IN THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN RAYMOND AND MCGEE, OR IN THE AGREEMENTS THEY MADE.”

McGee and Raymond and others discussed four things

• They designed a specific telephone program.
• They negotiated cost.
• They consulted with legal counsel.
• They agreed to go forward.

On the day before the election, McGee asked Republican State Chairman John Dowd’s permission to go forward. Dowd said, “Can I cancel at the last minute?” McGee takes this as endorsement to go ahead. At 7:30 a.m., McGee gets a phone call from Dowd, “We need to stop this, I think it’s illegal.” McGee tries to reach Raymond. Raymond says he will stop it, but doesn’t do so immediately because he’s afraid he won’t get paid if the calls stop as soon as they started. Then Raymond calls a bunch of people to complain about this, including Jim.

Guidepost. [Writing] “3. MR RAYMOND IS HERE IN THIS COURTROOM TO SAVE HIMSELF FROM FEDERAL PRISON.” When Mr. Raymond gets here–I don’t know what he’ll say. It’s hard to predict, based on what he’s said in the past. Mr. Raymond has a 5 month sentence hanging over his head like a grand piano. He asked the start of his sentence to be held off until after this trial so that he could give, and I quote Mr. Raymond here, “valuable testimony.”

My client Jim Tobin is 42 years old. He spent the first half of his life in Windham, Maine and the next half in Bangor, Maine.* He and his wife met in church–when he was 5 years old and she was 4. They have been married for 19 years. They have 4 kids–the “two bigs”, their teenage sons, and the “two littles”, aged 4 and 7. Jim is very active in the church…[more anecdotes about Jim, the church, mentoring…]

Ladies and gentlemen, this case must be decided on law, not on emotion. It must be decided based on reason and fact. That is what we are here to do.

But when this trial concludes I am confident that you, based on law, not on emotion, will find Jim not guilty and send him home with his family, through that door.

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* Sourcewatch says that, despite “living” in Bangor, Maine, Jim Tobin is employed by the DCI group in Washington, DC, a top Republican PR firm.

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Quote from NH lawyer, who shall be unnamed: “Lots of guys from big law firms come up here to NH. They think they’re so smart, and NH folks are so stupid, that all they have to do is to play violins, hearts and flowers stuff. Well, NH juries can see right through that violin-playing hearts and flowers stuff!”

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James Tobin has two different high-powered law firms paid by the Republican National Committee and eager to make themselves look good to–you guessed it, the RNC.

For example, they demanded to have jurors instructed that the phone-jamming wasn’t organized or paid for by the Republican National Committee. (Exactly how does this benefit poor James Tobin?) Reports John Di Staso, “This particular motion appeared to intrigue U.S. District Court Judge Steven J. McAuliffe”, who denied the motion, pointing out that “Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with this, either, but I’m not going to tell the jury that.”

Other pre-trial motions included asking to have the case dismissed because voters have no constitutional right to a ride to the polls and asking the judge to exclude any evidence that people receiving two hours of hang-up calls felt harassed.

Is the goal to harass Judge McAuliffe into some outburst they could use to claim a mistrial? If so, they’re out of luck–this judge has a fine sense of both funny ha-ha and funny peculiar.

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Andrew Levchuk of the US Department of Justice stood up and shambled over to the podium. Just before the jury filed in, the defense attorneys had made a last-minute objection to the poster Levchuk planned to show in his opening statement, so the judge disallowed it. Here’s my summary of what he said instead.

The story you will hear in this courtroom is a story of a conspiracy.

A line has been crossed here, the line that separates old-fashioned, hard-knuckle politics from crime.

What is the crime?

On election day in 2002, there were important races to be decided. People came to the polls to choose a Senator–a Representative–a Governor. This kind of election is very important–it is the Superbowl, if I can use a sports analogy. People involved in politics have spent weeks, months, even years working for this event.

You will hear in the courtroom about one political party, and about another political party. This trial is not about which political party is which, and you as jurors have sworn to give fair consideration to the evidence. When an election comes, both parties want to get their core voters to the polls. One way to do this is giving rides to the polls. Telephones are key to this activity.

The malicious idea at the center of this crime came from Chuck McGee. He was a political activist and a true believer. His aggressiveness was a great strength and also his downfall.

Chuck McGee got a campaign flyer from Democrats, offering rides to the polls, giving a phone number. Chuck McGee had a military background. Considering the Democrats as “the enemy,” he had the idea to disrupt their communications by disrupting their phone systems. He contacted several telemarketers about this idea. Nobody would touch this. This idea should then have died the death it deserved.

But, enter James Tobin. Instead of discouraging McGee, he connects him to telemarketer Allen Raymond.

Tobin doesn’t stop there. He phones Raymond and asks him to help McGee. Now, McGee and Raymond are not on the same level as Tobin, an important official on the national level. To each of them, Tobin’s endorsement of this scheme seems like an approval from “on high.”

Without James Tobin, this scheme does not happen.

On the morning of election day, this scheme results in two hours of nonstop hangup calls to Democratic headquarters around the state and to the Manchester Firefighters’ Union, which had a nonpartisan get-out-the-vote effort. After two hours, the calls were stopped. Even so, the plan had been for the calls to go on all day.

I’m giving you just a roadmap of the case we will be presenting. The indictment* lists two counts of conspiracy, an agreement to break the law–first for violating people’s right to vote, and second for interstate harassing phone calls. The indictment also lists two charges of aiding and abetting, based on two different federal laws broken by these interstate phone calls–one count for anonymous calls, the other for repeated or continuous calls made with the intent to harass the recipients.

An opening statement like this is not evidence. But it is the roadmap of what we intend to prove with evidence. How will we prove this?

We will prove this with witnesses. In the case of McGee and Raymond, these witnesses have made plea bargains. You will want to look for corroboration. We will also prove this with documents.

In conclusion–the 30 minutes I have been speaking with you is only one quarter the length of the telephone barrage that is the focus of this trial.

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* Indictment against James Tobin pdf May 18,2005.

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Next installment: Opening statement by the defense for James Tobin.

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By 6:40 a.m. my briefcase was loaded with printouts and lunch (pink Odwalla drink, brown protein bar)–and I started north to NH. The courthouse was where my brother had said it would be, and the parking meter was just as quarter-hungry as he predicted. No computers, no cameras, no phones are allowed in the courthouse. And the x-ray guard asked me why I had so many quarters…

Upstairs, reporters and spectators shared one (1) hard wooden bench for the morning event–all the rest of the seats went to 60 prospective jurors. By 12:45, voirdire whittled that number down to a jury of 12 plus 2 alternates.

The wooden bench would have been much more annoying if not for the amusement of watching a slick DC lawyer woo prospective jurors, one by one, with identical smiles, nods, concerned question, extreme satisfaction with the answer to that question, etc. This charade goes on in full view of the whole jury pool, but I guess if the defense is basing its strategy on the idea that NH jurors are stupid and gullible, they might as well go for it all the way.

After lunch, I came back half an hour early to get a softer seat in the larger courtroom where we heard opening arguments and some evidence. Beverley Wang’s AP story gives the essence of the afternoon, but she left so much out! And I’ve got all the room in the world. Next story: the Government’s case against James Tobin.

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