Fired U.S. Attorney Iglesias: "I'm Astounded" By DOJ's ACORN Probe

[Hissyspit]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/iglesias_im_astounded_by_dojs.php

Iglesias: "I'm Astounded" By DOJ's ACORN Probe

By Zachary Roth - October 16, 2008, 6:50PM

David Iglesias says he's shocked by the news, leaked today to the Associated Press, that the FBI is pursuing a voter-fraud investigation into ACORN just weeks before the election.

"I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again," Iglesias told TPMmuckraker. "Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic." In 2006, Iglesias was fired as U.S. attorney thanks partly to his reluctance to pursue voter-fraud cases as aggressively as DOJ wanted -- one of several U.S. attorneys fired for inappropriate political reasons, according to a recently released report by DOJ's Office of the Inspector General.

Iglesias, who has been the most outspoken of the fired U.S. attorneys, went on to say that the FBI's investigation seemed designed to inappropriately create a "boogeyman" out of voter fraud.

And he added that it "stands to reason" that the investigation was launched in response to GOP complaints. In recent weeks, national Republican figures -- including John McCain at last night's debate -- have sought to make an issue out of ACORN's voter-registration activities.

As we noted earlier, last year, Sen. Diane Feinstein publicly highlighted changes made to DOJ's election crimes manual, which lowered the bar for voter-fraud prosecutions, and made it easier to bring vote-fraud cases close to the election.

Speaking today to TPMmuckraker, Iglesias called such changes "extremely problematic."

MORE

ALSO, FROM JOSH MARSHALL:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/237825.php

Simply a Disgrace

10.17.08 -- 12:36AM By Josh Marshall

"I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again. Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic."

Who's that speaking? And what's he talking about?

That's fired US Attorney David Iglesias talking about the news leaked today that the DOJ and FBI are opening a nationwide investigation into allegations that the community organization ACORN is somehow working to undermine the November election through fraud. For more from Iglesias and his fellow fired US Attorney Bud Cummins, don't miss TPMMuckraker's Zack Roth's interview post from earlier this evening.

Iglesias got fired not long after the 2006 midterm election because he wouldn't get off the dime and bring bogus vote fraud indictments against Democrats or time other indictments of Democrats to sway the 2006 election. In other words, he got canned for not doing what a number of his former colleagues at the DOJ are happily doing this very day.

Nor was Iglesias simpy a respected attorney with solid enough connections to swing a US Attorney appointment. He was a rising start in the New Mexico Republican party. Iglesias was the Republican nominee for Attorney General in 1998. (Not that it's immediately relevant to this question, but Iglesias was the Navy JAG lawyer on whom Tom Cruise's character in A Few Good Men was based.) This was that reassuring case where a political person's partisan attachments butted up against his integrity and the latter won the day hands down. This is someone who knows this scam from the inside and whose testimony -- literal and figurative -- comes not in line with partisan attachments but in spite of them. Everyone should listen.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[tom_paine]

2. Mr. Iglesias is astounded because, like most Amerikans he fails to grasp what the Bushies really ARE

which is to say nothing less than the modern "kinder and gentler" spiritual reincarnation of the Nazis.

As such the audaciousness and the clear injustice of the Bushie ACORN Propaganda Op is stunning to him.

It is not stunning to me, nor even in the least surprising. It is fully in keeping in they way with how the Nazis worked (although the Bushies are relatively nonviolent compared to their spritual forebears, the Nazis... for now) and in the way in which ALL totalitarians work: Nazi, Bushie, and every monster in between.

And, like the Nazis, the Bushies have created essentially a National Psychosis in which the screams and protestations of the victims, even if they are as loud and principled and truthfully debunking of Bushie/Nazi Lies as Mr. Iglesias' comments, simply cannot be heard over the Bushie/Nazi cocophony of nonsense that passes for Cable TV and other "news".

One wonders if Mr. Iglesias' eyes are opening now, a la Naomi Wolf, or if he still insists as viewing authoritarian Bushie Monsters as still "just another political subset of people".

Or is the denial still too strong in him, even as he gazes with sure, certain, deep and personal knowledge into the heart of Bushie Totalitarian Corruption and Monstrousness?

I am guessing still in denial. It's what Goebbels and J. Edgar Hoover BOTH predicted would happen to people when they come up against a monstrous corrupt conspiracy too big for the mind to handle.

Yes, I am betting Iglesias is still in denial, even with his personal knowledge of Bushie Monsters.

Just like a lot of Liberal and Jewish Attorneys were undoubtedly in denial in 1934 Germany, even after they had personal knowledge of Nazi Monsters.

[seemslikeadream]

3. modern "kinder and gentler" spiritual reincarnation of the Nazis.

Truer words were never spoken

[KharmaTrain]

4. It Was Right On Cue....

Muck-assey had to give Camp Gramps cover...he's got too much to lose if Gramps loses. This is one of the few tricks these goons have left...attempt to muck up the election any way they can and attempt to discount an Obama victory...or prevent it, if possible.

Again, this is not a new game these asshats have played...they've done this in past elections as a cover for their own caging efforts...the best defense is an offense...and this "investigation" (that should have been conducted months ago if there was any real fraud...they did a ton of registrations during the primaries) will give the GOOPers justifications for any and all losses...similar, dare I say, to some here who are quick to say elections were stolen as well.

The silver lining in this cloud is we're seeing all the tricks these goons can play...and hopefully with a big electoral victory, we can not only smash this machine and its ring of corruption, but also investigate what caused it and revamp laws that prevent these antics in the future.

[UpInArms]

5. it was what the crapweasel "replacement" AG in Missouri did

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/06/missouri_attorney_a_focus_in_firings/

Missouri attorney a focus in firings
Senate bypassed in appointment of Schlozman
Bradley Schlozman now works handling sentencing matters and cybercrime for the Justice Department.

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | May 6, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Todd Graves brought just four misdemeanor voter fraud indictments during his five years as the US attorney for western Missouri -- even though some of his fellow Republicans in the closely divided state wanted stricter oversight of Democratic efforts to sign up new voters.

Then, in March 2006, Graves was replaced by a new US attorney -- one who had no prosecutorial experience and bypassed Senate confirmation. Bradley Schlozman moved aggressively where Graves had not, announcing felony indictments of four workers for a liberal activist group on voter registration fraud charges less than a week before the 2006 election.

Republicans, who had been pushing for restrictive new voting laws, applauded. But critics said Schlozman violated a department policy to wait until after an election to bring voter fraud indictments if the case could affect the outcome, either by becoming a campaign issue or by scaring legitimate voters into staying home.

Schlozman is emerging as a focal point of the investigation into the firing of eight US attorneys last year -- and as a symbol of broader complaints that the Bush administration has misused its stewardship of law enforcement to give Republicans an electoral edge.

No stranger to election law controversy, Schlozman previously spent three years as a political appointee in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, where he supervised the voting rights section.

There, he came into conflict with veteran staff over his decisions to approve a Texas redistricting plan and a Georgia photo-ID voting law, both of which benefited Republicans. He also hired many new career lawyers with strong conservative credentials, in what critics say was an attempt to reduce enforcement of laws designed to eliminate obstacles to voting by minorities.

"Schlozman was reshaping the Civil Rights Division," said Joe Rich , who was chief of the voting rights section until taking a buyout in 2005, in an interview. "Schlozman didn't know anything about voting law. . . . All he knew is he wanted to be sure that the Republicans were going to win."

Schlozman declined to be interviewed. In a statement, Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd denied that the timing of the election-eve indictments violated department rules and said politics has played no role in Civil Rights Division hiring decisions.

...more...

[leftchick]

6. what is the Obama team doing to mitigate the potential election disaster

that is looming? Does anyone know???

:(

[machI]

7. Kick

[Imagevision]

8. Mukasey is slow to answer Obama's lawyers calls for special investigator to do probe...