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

Mosquitos ate my anklebone yesterday, as I struggled to repair an ailing pump.

But I shall take a super-villain’s revenge, bwa ha ha ha, recycling old water bottles into this low-tech mosquito-baffling trap.

Thanks for the link, BoingBoing!

Interesting news about the phone-jamming scandal continues to emerge from court transcripts–and since major media continues to fail to cover it, I will continue to put new info online. 1) Defense attorney Dane Butswinkas mentioned that Chuck McGee started to look for vendors willing to phone-jam in early October. (I wonder if this reflects evidence given by NH telemarketing companies to McGee’s grand jury?)

[Page 9, Line 6] … What we know
7 from the facts is that Mr. McGee started in early
8 October or even perhaps late September going around
9 trying to find vendors…

So it’s even more likely that phone-jamming was on the (lunch?) table on October 23, 2002, when Tobin’s expense account suggests that he met with McGee, gas lobbyist Darrell Henry, and NHRSC Chair John Dowd:*

2) Did James Tobin abuse his position of trust with the Republican Party? US Attorney Andrew Levchuk made the case that Tobin did. Judge McAuliffe’s viewpoint was more in line with the choice of the RNC to pay Tobin’s legal bills:

[Page 23, Line 10] [Judge McAuliffe] ..he didn’t abuse the trust placed in him by those who
11 place trust in him, the Republicans. He helped them.
12 That was his goal. He suppressed votes for the
13 opposition, and thereby in a zero-sum game sort of way
14 enhanced the votes cast for the Republicans. So he
15 didn’t abuse their trust.
16 MR. LEVCHUK: I would disagree with that, your
17 Honor, only because, as I mentioned, Special Agent
18 Fuller talked with both supervisors, the supervisor of
19 the Republican National Committee and at the National
20 Republican Senatorial Committee. Those supervisors made
21 clear that they didn’t know about this beforehand, and
22 at least implicitly, it’s not something that they would
23 have condoned. That was the message.

So the FBI did indeed question Tobin’s supervisor at the NRSC, Chris “Mr. Swift-Boating” LaCivita, who said he knew nothing about any phone-jamming. Although, to quote Mandy Rice-Davies, “Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”

3) On a lighter note, and as a reminder that attorneys aren’t under oath when giving their own slant on the facts of a case, Tobin’s attorney laments the extensive media coverage of his client’s triat:

[Page 81 Line 9] … There have been, by our
10 count, over 500 articles about this case, about Mr.
11 Tobin, many of which are quite disparaging, some of
12 which refer to him as a terrorist.

A terrorist? Yes, and he had the footnote to prove it: two sarcastic blogposts described in his sentencing memo as “more than one site” comparing James Tobin to a terrorist.

Bloggers, it’s been a long wait–but I think we’re now being conflated with the press.

* Yet another indication that Chuck McGee started thinking about disrupting Democrats’ lines of communication much earlier than I had guessed, also from Dane Butswinkas:

[Page 82 line 7] …Exhibit 79 that the
8 defendants put into evidence was an internal e-mail at
9 the Republican Party from Jayne Millerick that went to
10 Mr. McGee and the people involved in the state party but
11 not to Mr. Tobin, and it’s on October 17, 2002, and it
12 makes reference to the disruption of the Republicans’
13 events by the Democrats. It says: As many of you may
14 already know, this year’s candidates and especially the
15 Sununu campaign have been enduring an increasing problem
16 with members of the opposition intercepting our
17 communications and disrupting events.

No, I don’t approve of anyone, Democrat or otherwise, who sets out to disrupt somebody’s campaign event. But is that quite the same thing as disrupting elections themselves?

Source: Official court document, USA v. James Tobin (CR.04-216-01-SM), Transcript of Sentencing Before the Honorable Steven J. McAuliffe, May 17, 2006, prepared by Court Reporter Diane M. Churas.

Still recovering from that long weekend…

• Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … Super Broccoli!
• Make your own motivational poster.
• Don’t wait around for the day when your ship comes in! Author Elizabeth Benedict quotes a friend: “Forget about the ship. It will be a series of small dinghies that’ll come your way.”
• Dervala reveals that Bill Clinton is her puppet.

Ah, Dervala, if only! He’d have acted a whole lot smarter if that were so…

Just how stupid do Republicans think we are?

“Offensive and abhorrent.” That’s how NH GOP Chair Jayne Millerick described Chuck McGee’s behavior the day he pled guilty to a felony for the 2002 Election Day phone jamming. (Manchester Union Leader, July 29, 2004) “No one on our side is trying to gloss over the fact that something terrible was done by Chuck McGee,” said Ovide Lamontagne, an attorney defending the NH GOP against the Democrats’ civil suit. (Manchester Union Leader, January 8, 2006)

And yet both remarks were made as the NH GOP continued to do business with Chuck McGee, many thousands of dollars of business each year. Because after the phone-jamming started making headlines, after Chuck McGee was allowed to resign from his job with the NH GOP “to avoid distraction,” he got a new paid position within a month, as NH Executive Director for a conservative think tank.

When that job ended, in March of 2004, McGee once again quickly found a new job and executive title:
Vice President for Political & Corporate Communications with Spectrum Printing, a direct mail firm specializing in GOP candidates.

If McGee’s phone-jamming was “offensive and abhorrent” to the NH GOP, it’s hard to understand how he’s had the same job for two years, a job that depends on his ability to attract business from…the NH GOP!

I blogged about McGee’s ongoing GOP ties back in December. Now John DiStaso of the Manchester Union Leader has news of an even stinkier smoking gun: McGee’s now sending out invitations to “GOP Campaign School.”

One thing Republicans can hope to learn: election shenanigans up to the level of felony don’t seem to get you in trouble with the NH GOP.

Here’s a rough timeline of Chuck McGee’s employment:

Federal Election campaign, 2002

Chuck McGee, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Republican party, gets a flyer in the mail from NH Democrats with phone numbers to call if you want a ride to the polls. McGee gets the idea to “disrupt enemy communications” by jamming these numbers. He approaches several telemarketers, all of whom refuse to help him, and is stymied until James Tobin puts him in touch with Allen Raymond, an unindicted co-conspirator in a recent telemarketing scandal.

11/4/2002

McGee tells NH Republican State Chair John Dowd about his phone-jamming plan, puts Dowd’s signature onto the $15,600 check that pays for phone-jamming, and emails GOP Marketplace a list of 6 Get-Out-The-Vote telephone numbers to jam.

11/5/2002

Early in the morning, NH RSC Chair John Dowd tells McGee to stop the phone-jamming. Even so, nonstop hangup phone calls from Idaho telemarketers disrupt the first hours of election day for NH Democrats and the Manchester Firefighters’ Union.

January, 2003

NH RSC Chair John Dowd pays Chuck McGee a $6,000 bonus.

2/6/2003

More Republican approval for Chuck McGee’s role in 2002 Elections: New Hampshire Young Republicans Federation gives him its annual “Gipper” Award.

2/7/2003

Phone-jamming scandal finally makes local news. Chuck McGee resigns as Executive Director of the New Hampshire Republican party. The new NH RSC chair Jayne Millerick describes McGee’s false statements to local newspapers as “mistaken,” adding that he’s done nothing wrong and is resigning “to minimize distractions.”

March, 2003

Chuck McGee already has a new job as NH Executive Director for conservative think-tank Citizens for a Sound Economy.

December, 2003

FBI agent first interviews Chuck McGee to ask him about his role in the phone-jamming. (Chuck McGee’s testimony)

March, 2004

The Bedford chapter of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (B-CSE), described as “a project of McGee’s“, is fined several thousand dollars for illegal sign-posting. “Chuck McGee, state director of the CSE and spokesman for the local chapter, said the matter would be pursued but the group had higher priorities at the moment.” The national CSE later tells reporters (Manchester Union Leader, July 15, 2004) that McGee’s paid job with them terminated in March, although their website still lists him as executive director in July, 2004.

July 28, 2004

Chuck McGee pleads guilty to a federal felony in the NH phone-jamming; NH GOP Chair Jayne Millerick says what he did was “offensive and abhorrent.” (Manchester Union Leader, July 29, 2004)

August, 2004

The Bedford chapter of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (B-CSE), after various “Wild West” activities got them in trouble is “disowned and stripped of its title by the national group.” (Manchester Union Leader, August 23, 2004) The group is also seeking a new director for NH.

05/25/2006

Chuck McGee has been Executive Director of Spectrum Monthly for more than two years–presumably since soon after he lost his job with CSE. This job was kept open for him during the seven months Chuck McGee spent in federal prison last year.

Update: NH Republican State Committe chair Wayne Semprini tells reporters that they have “ “absolutely nothing to do with” Chuck McGee’s GOP campaign school. Not that he plans to discourage NH Republicans from going to it, however…

That phrase sounded so familiar I looked it up–Wayne Semprini told reporters last week that Karl Rove’s $70,000 fundraiser had “absolutely nothing to do with” with their $80,000 legal bill for the phone-jamming civil suit.

“Ho ho ho!” That’s “refined feminine laughter” (sorry, Santa!) at least, according to this comprehensive list of Japanese “manga” sound effects. “Ho ho ho” is distinct from more general laughter (“ha ha ha”), not to mention:

• fu fu fu (hu hu hu) = a strange laugh. M.J.: “The evil chuckle in the back of the throat.” (see also ku ku ku, pu pu pu)
• ku, ku ku, ku ku ku = giggle in the throat
• paku paku = opening and closing mouth, eating, gobbling. This is where Pac-man came from! (see also hau, gatsu)

Now, can you match each sound effect with its definition?

That’s 1 – C, 2 – D, 3 -E, 4 – A, and 5 – B. If you got these right, let me offer you pachi, the sound of clapping!

Judy Harrison–an experienced legal reporter who attended James Tobin’s trial from voir dire to sentencing–wants to know: Why did Tobin’s attorneys keep him from testifying?

Not putting a defendant on the stand may have been the biggest* mistake Tobin’s defense team made in a trial strategy that at times seemed to be more focused on a possible appeal than on getting at the truth of what happened.

Experienced white-collar-crime Attorney Jay McCloskey, for eight years the U.S. attorney for Maine, is clearly also baffled by their decision. McCloskey told Harrison that “in white-collar cases, my view is that your chances of winning are increased if you put the defendant on the stand.” Harrison lists the very few ways a defendant could hurt his own case:

1. Jurors might not like him.
2. He lacks the ability to communicate
3. He might “hint at a previous criminal history.”
4. He might “inadvertently admit to other crimes on the stand.”

(FindLaw gives a similar list.) James Tobin, with a successful career in politics, many friends, and a spotless past, had little to fear.

Keeping Tobin quiet hurt him in obvious ways:

• Jurors don’t tend to like or trust defendants who plead the Fifth.
• Despite Tobin’s silence, prosecution witnesses convinced the jury of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
• Because of Tobin’s silence, he couldn’t apologize or tell his own side of the story. Put this together with his lawyers’ futile claims that he’d done nothing illegal, and Tobin looked as if he didn’t think messing up an election was any big deal–something the judge explicitly cited when sentencing him to ten months in federal prison.

McCloskey also told Harrison that defendants don’t keep quiet to “take a bullet” for higher-ups. Maybe not–but James Tobin *might* be kept quiet if legal counsel advised him that this was in his own best interests. But was it? Is it still in his best interests? I don’t think so, but of course I am not a lawyer.

For me, this once again raises
the question if the RNC’s $2.8 million paid for Williams and Connelly lawyers to defend James Tobin
or for lawyers whose first interest was instead a cover-up on behalf of the RNC.

* In my opinion, keeping Tobin off the stand was only the defense’s third biggest mistake. The biggest mistake was Tobin’s failure to plead guilty and cooperate. The second biggest mistake was…something I’m not going to explain here, because DC lawyers don’t need any help from me with manipulating juries and jurors.

As I drank morning coffee, still half asleep, I heard Frank upstairs simply roaring with laughter at his email, which (I later discovered) included this YouTube video of live-action bloopery.

Making a
long story short, a grad student or taxi driver (I’ve seen two versions) named Guy Goma was whisked into a BBC studio where a young woman interviewer informed her live TV audience that they would now be hearing from technology expert Guy Kewney.

Guy Goma’s expression, as he hears himself thus introduced, goes from pleasant acceptance to surprise and shock at amazing speed.

But what’s more remarkable is his grace and good humor, as he responds in French-accented English (he’s from the Congo) to the interviewer, to avoid embarassing her while in front of the camera.

Being put on the spot in front of live cameras is the kind of thing that happens in nightmares. Thanks to Guy Goma, I now have a warm-hearted, dignified role model for what I ought to do next.

Congressman Bob “Freedom fries” Ney (R, OH) no longer heads the powerful House Administration Committee–for years now the graveyard of Congressional efforts to mandate a verifiable paper backup for US elections.

Diebold voting machines are used in 80% of US elections–but (I’m sure you already know this) they aren’t safe from hackers.

Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) has introduced H.R. 550, a bill that requires voting machines to create a paper trail, with a mandate to get it in place before the 2006 elections–but

• despite the departure of Bob “Friend of Diebold” Ney,
• despite the high stakes for democracy,
• despite being co-sponsored by close to one-third of the members of Congress,

Holt’s bill is still (unbelievably!) stuck in committee:

“.. it was stalled in the House Administration Committee for two years by its chairman, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. Rep. Ney stepped down from that post in January after being subpoenaed in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, but so far the new chairman, Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, R-Mich., has shown no inclination to move the bill.” (Editorial from the Trenton (NJ) Times, April 4, 2006)

What can we do?

• Sign Rush Holt’s online petition.
• Check out the Bill’s list of 187 (bipartisan!) cosponsors–is your Representative on the list? Either way, let that Representative hear from you!
• Write your own blogpost or letter to the editor.

Free and fair elections are everybody’s business.

p.s. Thanks to my little sister for noodging me to write about this!

Speaking of White House involvement in the NH phone-jamming scandal, guess which White House official has promised to headline a fundraiser to help the NH GOP cover the legal bills they’ve been running up since this felony?

Karl Rove.*

Karl Rove, the architect (in 2001) of the 72-hour task force–an all-out pre-election push to victory that got its national rollout in 2002, perhaps coincidentally the year that the then-Executive Director of the NH GOP Chuck McGee decided to try jamming NH Democrats’ phones.

The NH Republicans were keeping the name of their June 12 headliner quiet. After Democrats outed them, GOP leaders told John DiStaso of the Union Leader that the $70,000 they hope to raise from Rove’s visit has “absolutely nothing to do” with their roughly $80,000 legal fees for defending themselves against the Democrats’ civil suit.

And those legal bills just keep getting bigger. Several defendants’ lawyers were in the audience during James Tobin’s three-hour long sentencing hearing, and presumably billing those hours, on May 17.

Does Karl Rove’s assistance to the NH GOP also have “absolutely nothing to do” with James Tobin’s phone calls to the White House? Does Karl Rove also have “absolutely nothing to do” with RNC chair Ed Gillespie’s unnamed White House contact, the person who gave him the nod to pay Tobin’s lawyers?

In related news, there’s a good editorial today in the Portsmouth Seacoast News:

No time in jail is good time, but we believe 10 months in a federal prison is too light a sentence for James Tobin…We also believe there is more to this story and that Tobin did not act in a vacuum. Phone records show multiple calls between New Hampshire Republicans and the White House in the days surrounding the phone-jamming incidents, but the details of those calls remain a mystery.

Now we find out that former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who remains embroiled in his own controversy regarding the outing of a CIA agent, will be coming to New Hampshire shortly to fund-raise for the state Republican Party, whose coffers have been decimated by the costs of legal efforts to have Tobin, McGee and Raymond exonerated.

The fact that the man who virtually created the George W. Bush persona is working so hard to undo the financial harm done by the phone-jamming scandal raises even more questions about White House involvement…

There is a strategy that has been used by those in power in Washington for years that involves the sacrifice of subordinates in order to halt investigations. They claim the culprits have been punished so there is no need to look into the matter any further.

There is enough information out there to believe that is what is going on in the phone-jamming scandal. We believe the future of the Republican Party and this country hinge on getting a definitive answer on possible White House involvement in this operation, and we will pursue every means at our disposal to make sure that happens.

We hope others with more political clout join us in that effort.

* Yes, that Karl Rove:

Inside [his office], Rove was talking to an aide about some political stratagem in some state that had gone awry and a political operative who had displeased him. I paid it no mind and reviewed a jotted list of questions I hoped to ask. But after a moment, it was like ignoring a tornado flinging parked cars. “We will f— him. Do you hear me? We will f— him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever f—ed him!”

Ron Suskind, Esquire, January 2003, “Why Are These Men Laughing?”