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RNC phone-jamming lawyer spills disturbing beans

March 17th, 2007 · 1 Comment

How do our new Democratic Senate and Congress look to the many who have so much to hide?

Scarily revealing is the oh-so-subtle promo for DC white-shoe lawfirm Covington and Burling co-authored by one of the many high-priced DC lawyers who worked for the RNC on the NH phone-jamming, one Robert Kelner.

Phone-jamming fans may recall that Kelner let slip some embarassing info to a TV station in NH–making it clear that the RNC’s defense lawyers were fully informed about DOJ investigations into the phone-jamming’s White House connection, although said investigations were kept a deep secret from Democrats.

Kelner’s remark inspired a Freedom of Information Request to the DOJ (pdf here), filed on April 18, 2006 but not yet answered by the DOJ….

(Quotes, etc. below the fold at my DailyKos page.)

Tags: Editorial · New Hampshire!

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Betsy Devine // Sep 7, 2007 at 3:44 am

    Half a year later–from Kelner’s memo to clients on recent “lobbying reform” by the Democratic Congress:

    As a practical matter, it should be possible for much of the permissible gift activity that took place prior to the new legislation to continue if the activity is properly structured to fall within one of the various significant exceptions to the gift ban. Many events, for example, can be structured as widely attended events or as permissible receptions. Lunch and dinner events, which may not qualify under these exceptions, could nonetheless be structured as political fundraisers that are exempt from the gift rules. And in appropriate, albeit narrow, circumstances, the “personal friendship” exception may apply to lunches and dinners with Members and staff.
    Apart from the signficant changes to the travel rules, what will change under the new legislation is not so much the substance of the gift rules themselves but rather the rigor with which they will need to be adhered to.

    Kelner notes that under the Republicans’ leadership, lobbying “rules” were rarely if ever enforced. We’ll see if Democrats do a better job on this.