The U.S. Attorney Scandals suck onward. href="http://www.gonzaleswatch.com" target="blank">Alberto VO5
can't seem to remember anything, except that he can't remember
anything. Well, that and everyone else, href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Fired-Prosecutors-Resignation.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin"
target="blank">including his Deputy Attorney General has more
power, more accountability and a better memory than he does. Even when
he can't be bothered to stop his bedside pestering of John Ashcroft for another FISA transgression, all while the former Attorney General is high on painkillers, post-surgery. Shades of Teri Schiavo, shades of Richard Nixon, shades of tampering, votejacking and all other manner of moral and political trespasses we
will be busy paying for later.
Because that's when the hammer should come down, according to href="http://www.gregpalast.com/investigative-journalist-greg-palast-reports-on-the-firing-of-new-mexico-attorney-david-iglesias"
target="blank">smartass muckraker and investigative reporter Greg
Palast, who chatted up attorney David Iglesias, one of Gonzales'
victims as well as the dude Tom Cruise played in style="font-style:italic;">A Few Good Men. As Palast reports,
what really pissed Rove and his cronies off the most was the fact that
Iglesias started out playing ball but ended up bailing on the Bush
bandwagon after he refused to push through bogus cases of voter fraud.
"They wanted a political operative who happened to be a US attorney,"
Iglesias told Palast, "and when they got somebody who actually took
his oath to the Constitution seriously, they were appalled and they
wanted me out of there. The two strikes against me was, I was not
political, I didn't help them out on their bogus voter fraud
prosecutions."
See, this whole scandal is not about improper firings, departmental
ineptitude or simple partisanship invested in the, ahem, pleasure of
the president. (Does anyone else feel creeped out in a sexual way when
they hear or read that phrase? Man, I totally do.) No, the brouhaha
over Gonzales and his cadre of Pat Robertson grads is about
votejacking, plain and simple. It is the href="http://www.morphizm.com/observations/palast/palast_rfkrove.html"
target="blank">messy residue of a botched attempt to swing the
national vote towards the president, by any means necessary. Even
if that means firing a Hollywood success story. Actually, especially
if it means firing a Hollywood success story.
And thank the Big Bang that Iglesias has gone Hollywood, or this
scandal may have never blown up into the front-page material it is.
Now, thanks to Palast, the blogosphere and other unafraid
shit-stirrers, votejacking and the caging lists that make it possible
are national news. What is a caging list, you ask? A good question, as
it is at the heart of how the Republicans stole millions of votes in
2000, 2004 and will in 2008, according to Palast and Robert Kennedy
Jr.
Caging is a practice that works best in two areas, direct-mail
marketing and votejacking. And Karl Rove is an old hand at both. href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caging_list" target="blank">From
Wiki:
"Caging has also been used as a form of voter suppression. A political
party challenges the validity of a voter's registration; for the
voter's ballot to be counted, the voter must prove that their
registration is valid. Voters targeted by caging are often the most
vulnerable: those who are unfamiliar with their rights under the law,
and those who cannot spare the time, effort, and expense of proving
that their registration is valid. Ultimately, caging works by
dissuading a voter from casting a ballot, or by ensuring that they
cast a provisional ballot, which is less likely to be counted."
In other words, the Republican National Committee fires off a letter
challenging a voter's identity, at which point the voter must verify
their identity -- because, really, they have nothing better to do all
day, right? -- or lose their vote. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. The
fact that most of these people are of color or without cash should
surprise no one. The fact that we're talking about Imus, Sanjaya,
Mormons or other so-called issues of color should. Especially if you
want it all to stop.
Look, voting and its labyrinthine mechanics are snooze-inducing
matters. But all you are is a vote in a liberal democracy, so if you
lose it, or allow others to lose theirs, you're aiding and abetting
apathy at best, fascism at worst. I didn't make the rules up; I just
play the game the way they tell me to. And so should you: Remember,
just because the Democrats swept Congress in the midterms doesn't mean
millions of votes weren't destroyed. href="http://www.alternet.org/story/44007" target="blank">They
were. What matters now is that the elections get cleaner every
year. And that's impossible to do with a Republican in the White
House. Remember that when you hear the criminal activities of Alberto
Gonzales and Karl Rove referred to something innocuous like, well,
what I called them at the beginning of this screed.
"U.S. Attorney Scandals." Sounds so innocent. So technical.
"Votejacking." There, that's better.