"Live Free or Die" has New Meaning: Stolen Elections? Not Just 2000 and 2004, But Also 2002
By Richard Power
"Live free or die," that's the motto of the state of New Hampshire.
It has new meaning now. It is not just the personal declaration of a patriot, it is also a statement of fact about democratic institutions, if the elections are not fair and free, then those democratic institutions die.
In 2002, control of the US Senate was at stake.
The polling numbers in several tight races were trending Democratic.
New Hampshire was one of them, so were Georgia and Minnesota.
When the dust cleared, Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN) was dead, Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA), who lost three limbs in Vietnam had lost his seat to a man who never served (Georgia was an early adopter of electronic voting machine) and yes, Jeanne Shaheen had lost in New Hampshire.
These three "victories" guaranteed that the Bush-Cheney regime would be able to operate without congressional oversight for years to come.
Does the trail of criminal activity in the 2002 New Hampshire Senate race lead to Karl Rove's political operation inside the White House? What do you think?
The educated guess, of course, is yes, or at least it would have if the DoJ had not been compromised so brazenly.
We already know Tobin made many calls to the White House during that period, we just can't seem to get the White House to confirm whose number he was calling.
As I wrote many months ago in
Hard Rain Journal 3-25-07: DoJ Purge Update: Four Blockbusters that Have Not Hit -- YET, the real reason Rove pushed for trumped up investigations of alleged voter fraud by the Democrats was to distract attention from authentic election fraud by Republicans. It was the refusal to do so which lead to the firing of eight US attorneys, most of them from key battleground states.
The politicization of the DoJ and the theft of elections in 2000, 2002 and 2004 are both elements of what would be recognized as the greatest political scandal in US history --- if all the facts were ever brought forth.
Anyone who thinks it ends with the departure of Rove is a fool.
All of the contenders for the nomination of the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party (with the exception of Rep. Ron Paul R-TX) have embraced the most odious policies of Bush-Cheney, e.g., declaring the Bill of Rights optional, instituting a Gulag system, launching "pre-emptive" wars, denying scientific truth to pander to religious extremists, etc.
Do you think that men who identify themselves with such ugliness would not also avail themselves of the means and methods with which those who conjured such ugliness seized power and held on to it?
Here are excerpts from two important McClatchy News stories:
The prosecution of a Republican official for phone-jamming in New Hampshire was slowed by the Justice Department until after the 2004 election, an unnamed official alleges.
Senior Justice officials delayed the probe "until after the 2004 election, protecting top GOP officials from the scandal until the voting was over," writes Greg Gordon for McClatchy Newspapers.
"An official with detailed knowledge of the investigation into the 2002 Election-Day scheme said the inquiry sputtered for months," Gordon continues, "after a prosecutor sought approval to indict James Tobin, the northeast regional coordinator for the Republican National Committee."
The phone-jamming was apparently "aimed at preventing New Hampshire Democrats from rounding up voters" to participate in the Senate race between GOP Rep. John Sununu and Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D). Sununu won, helping Republicans regain Senate control at the time.
Official reveals Justice Dept. stalled probe into NH phone-jamming, Raw Story, 12-19-07
A former GOP political operative who ran an illegal election-day scheme to jam the phone lines of New Hampshire Democrats during the state’s tight 2002 U.S. Senate election said in a new book and an interview that he believes the scandal reaches higher into the Republican Party.
Allen Raymond of Bethesda, Md., whose book Simon & Schuster will publish next month, also accused the Republican Party of trying to hang all the blame for a scandal on him as part of an “old-school cover-up.”
Raymond’s book, “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative,” offers a raw, inside glimpse of the phone scandal as it unraveled and of a ruthless world in which political operatives seek to win at all costs.
McClatchy obtained an advance copy of the book.
The 2002 New Hampshire Senate race, in which GOP Rep. John Sununu edged Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen by 19,000 votes, was among several targeted by Republicans seeking to win control of the U.S. Senate.
Raymond said those who’ve tried to make him the fall guy for the New Hampshire scheme failed to recognize that e-mails, phone records and other evidence documented the complicity of a top state GOP official and the Republican National Committee’s northeast regional director. Greg Gordon, Inside a GOP Effort To Rig The 2002 New Hampshire Elections, McClatchy, 12-19-07
To follow developments in election security issues on a daily basis, I refer you to the fantastic work of both Brad Friedman (Brad Blog) and Mark Crispin Miller (Notes from the Underground).
For the Words of Power Archive of Election Security Posts, click here.
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