It's All About Voter Fraud & Giving Republicans an Electoral Edge: New USAgateJesselyn Radack
As I said yesterday, don't get distracted by tales of hurt feelings, bruised egos, or anything else this Administration throws in front of the public. USAgate, at its core, is about voter fraud: interfering in investigations of it when it harms Republicans, and perpetuating it when it benefits them. Look into this name: Bradley Schlozman--another young, unqualified Federalist Society member who enhjoyed a meteoric rise to power by mixing the Kool-Aid.
Who the heck is Bradley Schlozman you are probably asking because you've never heard of him. But he is a typical and instructive story in what has become known as USAgate.
He cut his teeth as a political appointee in the Voting Rights Section of the Justice Department's "Civil Rights" Division. (I put "Civil Rights" in square quotes because the Justice Department has bastardized the Division to look out for anything but.) The Voting Rights Section, in particular, is supposed to referree disputes over the fairness of state election requirements. Under federal civil rights law, the Section must sign off on redistricting maps and new voting laws in Southern states to ensure that changes will not reduce minority voting power.
In November 2001, Schlozman became an aide in the office of the Deputy Attorney General. This dovetailed with the Bush Administration's increased interest in voting laws because of the 2000 election they barely won and the increasing Red/Blue divide that was shaping key elections.
In May 2003, Schlozman was promoted yet again to Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, where he supervised the Voting Rights Section and other sections. During this time, he approved a Texas redistricting plan that benefitted Republicans. He also hired many new career lawyers with the important Federalist Society stamp and other conservative credentials. (Half of the 14 career lawyers he hired were members of the Federalist Society or the Republican National Lawyers Association, up from zero among the eight career attorneys hired during the previous two years.) He did his utmost to reduce enforcement of laws designed to eliminate obstacles to voting by minorities and other disenfranchised individuals.
In the fall of 2005, he was rewarded with promotion to head of the Civil Rights Division. During this time, he overruled the career folks who recommended rejecting a Georgia photo-ID voting law, which benefitted Republicans. (Republicans claim that ineligible voters were a major problem in voter fraud and pushed for laws to require photo IDs; Democrats claimed that such requirements suppress turnout among legitimate voters who are poor, disabled, or don't get driver's licenses for myriad other reasons. Courts later said the redistricting map and photo-ID law were illegal.)
In January 2006, the U.S. Attorney for Missouri, Todd Graves, was put on a USAgate hit list and given the chance to resign to save face. In March 2006, Schlozman became U.S. Attorney for Missouri. He had no prosecutorial experience. His appointment bypassed the Senate confirmation process. But even more problematic is the fact that he moved aggressively in voter fraud indictments against Democrats. In doing so, his election-eve indictments violated a Justice Department policy to wait until after an election to bring voter fraud indictments if the case could affect the outcome, for example, by becoming a campaign issue, scaring legitimate voters into staying home, etc.
Senator McCaskill, please haul his ass before the Senate Judiciary Committee.http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/6/8569/24207
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