Ken Mehlman Can't Hide From GOP Phone-Jamming Scandal...

[Imagevision]

Apologizing for long read but with too much voter fraud issues not being exposed I found it necessary to get this out there.

A three-year-old political scandal in New Hampshire -- where Republican operatives conspired to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002 -- has suddenly become a national headache for GOP leaders, who are being pressed to explain why one author of the scheme was repeatedly calling the White House.

Ken Mehlman, former director of the White House political office and current chairman of the Republican National Committee is fighting Democratic efforts to force him to testify under oath in a civil suit about the New Hampshire scandal. Mehlman said the calls from James Tobin -- a consultant who in 2002 led the RNC's New England effort -- were for the White House to get the latest information about a close race, which would be unexceptional on election night. He said none of the calls to him or his staff involved the phone-jamming operation.

While under no legal obligation to do so, the RNC has paid more than $2.5 million in legal fees incurred by Tobin, who in 2004 was the New England director for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

In an interview on CNN, Mehlman said the decision to pay Tobin's legal fees was made "before I was chairman -- that in this case that was going to happen based on assurances he made." Mehlman stood by the continuing payments under his chairmanship, saying "it was right to honor that decision."

The court documents describing the calls were only discovered recently by researchers at the Senate Majority Project, a Democratic group based in Washington. In addition to Tobin, two GOP operatives pleaded guilty in the case.

There are no public documents or public sworn testimony concerning the matters that were discussed in the phone calls. "They started calling the White House about 11 a.m., and didn't stop until 2 a.m.," said Christy Setzer, a Senate Majority Project spokeswoman.

Paul Twomey, of Epsom, N.H., an attorney for the Democratic Party in its civil lawsuit, said that he wants to question Mehlman and Davis to determine if the calls dealt with the phone-jamming scheme.

"You have somebody who's committing a felony, and he's calling during the planning, the execution and when it's falling apart," Twomey said, adding that he will request records listing what outgoing calls were made from the White House during the same time. Twomey told New Hampshire reporters that the RNC's coverage of the legal fees "raises questions of who they were protecting, how high does this go and who was in on this."

Yesterday, White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to comment on the suit, saying "we don't comment about ongoing legal proceedings."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/13/AR2006041301673_pf.html

[acmavm]

1. They don't comment about on-going legal procedures. Then what the

hell was Mehlman doing? And what does Libby's attorney do? It's standard operating procedure for these guys.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. They comment, all right, unless to do so would force them to say

something, ahem, uncomfortable.

[bunkerbuster1]

4. My under-oath question for Ken Mehlman

would, I admit, have nothing to do with phone-jammin', but rather another kinda jammin'.

Because I think all those Red-State Merkins who voted for those "God Hatez Fagz" referenda would be real interested in the answer.

[madfloridian]

3. In Dean's Q &A with the Prospect...he said Mehlman gave him a name.

I have a post in GDP with a link to the audio. One of the reporters asked if he got back a response to Mehlman from his letter about the phone-jamming...he said actually yes...but did not catch the rest. He said Ken M. gave them a name.

[saltpoint]

5. Swear to God, Ken Mehlman looks to me like a hit man in a gangster

movie.

Classic typecasting.