Phone-jamming case invokes images of Watergate

[helderheid]

Posted on Thu, Apr. 27, 2006


Phone-jamming case invokes images of Watergate

By William Douglas
Knight Ridder Newspapers

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Is it a third-rate political dirty trick by Republicans or a cheap attempt by Democrats to drag the GOP through the mud before November's elections?

Democrats and Republicans here are locked in a legal battle over GOP operatives who tried to suppress voter turnout in a key 2002 U.S. Senate race by jamming Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks on Election Day.

The case has national implications. New Hampshire Democrats, through a civil lawsuit, are trying to question Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, and White House officials about why one GOP official who was involved in the scheme called the White House repeatedly.

Democrats describe the phone-jamming case in Nixonian terms, using Watergate-era phrases such as "follow the money" and "what did they know and when did they know it?"

"It's been the gift that's kept on giving for the Democrats," said Dante Scala, a political-science professor at Manchester's St. Anselm College. "It's been gradually going up the ladder, and now it's in Ken Mehlman's office."

Democrats say smoking guns abound in the case:


MUCH more here:

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/14444680.htm

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[helderheid]

1. a little help for this sinking thread :)

[renate]

2. "GOP Phone-Jamming Scandal Has Legs"

...so says the blurb about Eleanor Clift's column:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12424467/site/newsweek/

"A little noticed scandal in New Hampshire about phone-jamming is gaining traction. Initially dismissed as a petty political trick, it led to the trial and conviction for telephone harassment last December of the New England political director for the Republican National Committee, James Tobin. That in itself would barely register on anybody’s radar except Tobin was represented by one of Washington’s white shoe law firms, Williams & Connolly, and his legal fees were $2.5 million. The Republican National Committee picked up the tab, which suggests this may not have been a rogue operation."

[helderheid]

3. How many scandals does this make with this administration so far?

11203?

[Mnemosyne]

4. .

:kick: