McCain hires boss of NH phone jammer, nothing here move along folks

[caligirl]

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Granite+Status%3A+Meridian+to+guide+Coburn+race+for+governor&articleId=1a0f8a86-a086-40a6-8963-65395f7767fc
CALLING KEN?

In the days before and after the state Republican Party’s 2002 Election Day phone-jamming scheme, the man who now chairs the Republican National Committee was the White House director of political affairs.

And a Democratic-affiliated advocacy group says that court records show Ken Mehlman’s office received more than 75 telephone calls from now-convicted phone-jam conspirator James Tobin from Sept. 30 to Nov. 22 of that year.

The Senate Majority Project, a brainchild “527” of former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, wonders why Tobin called the White House so often. Tobin at the time worked for the Republican National Committee and the affiliated National Republican Senatorial Committee — and a hot race that year was the New Hampshire Senate contest between Republican John Sununu and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. Meanwhile, John McCain has hired Tobin’s old boss at the RNC, Terry Nelson, as an adviser to his Straight Talk America PAC.<

>Nelson was identified in the Tom DeLay indictment as the recipient of a $190,000 check in illegal corporate campaign contributions and a list of Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature for whom the money was intended.

In 2002, Nelson was Republican National Committee national political director while Tobin was both RNC New England political director and Northeast political director of the GOP senatorial committee.

Nelson and Tobin then moved to the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign — Nelson as campaign political director and Tobin as New England chairman.

Dismissing the notion that Nelson had anything to do with phone-jamming, New Hampshire McCain strategist Michael Dennehy said of Nelson, “We’re happy to have him.”

[DrGonzoLives]

1. So they're happy to have a fraudster

Good to know, Mr. "Straight Talk."

[wisteria]

2. What a sleaze bag. I suppose this hire is an indication of the

"quality appointments" we can expect from McCain if he wins the Presidency. Oh, and with a hire like this we should assume McCain is willing to go well beyond that Presidential hug he gave Bush, and resort to lying and cheating in order to win.

[karynnj]

3. What a sleaze, I hope all of these things eventually add up to enough that

people see this.