Monday, April 10, 2006

The continuing slide

Betsy has asked me to keep an eye on things while she is out of town, so I guess I've been passed the outrage torch for a few days. It's so hard to keep up--new Bushite scandals seem to crop up by the minute. Here's the latest, via Shakespeare's Sister:
Phone Jamming Records Point to White House
WASHINGTON
- Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire
Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House
and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records
introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush
campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case,
made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period
around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was
finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national
Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin,
says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was
"preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

The
Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't
accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing,
nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside New
Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House
were exhibits in Tobin's trial but prosecutors did not make them part
of their case.
Lots more at the link.

So, does this mean Bush was authorizing phone-jamming schemes to block Democrat voters? Who knows? Who cares? We've gotten to the point with this "president" that just about any story sounds plausible. I'm sure this will be sneered away as tinfoil hattery, but christ, if it were true, would it even matter? Would anything happen to this criminal that's drunk-driving our country off a cliff and into the LaBrea tarpits?

And, more importantly, will pooh-poohing of Bush's involvement in this crap erase the fact from the minds of the public that Republicans were scheming and carrying out plans to stop Democrats from voting?

If we don't have free elections in this country, we have nothing.

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