A Look at How Bush's Justice Department Operates
Posted by Stephanie Taylor on June 4, 2007 at 02:34 PM
A must-read article in the Los Angeles Times describes the role of Bradley Schlozman at the Justice Department. Schlozman, a Bush administration political appointee, is the former chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. His work reveals how the Bush administration has flipped the idea of civil rights enforcement--and pursued cases that may have had the effect of discouraging voter participation.
For example, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit in November 2005 against the state of Missouri, claiming that there were too many voters registered in some counties, and therefore potential for voter fraud.
Todd Graves, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, had reservations about the lawsuit and refused to sign the complaint. Graves was later ordered to resign by department headquarters. Schlozman was appointed to replace Graves in March 2006.
Less than a week before the November election, Schlozman obtained indictments of four members of the liberal activist group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, for allegedly submitting fraudulent voter registrations. The Justice Department election manual says prosecutors should refrain generally from bringing cases just before elections, out of concern that the charges could affect voting.
ACORN itself had brought the case to the attention of authorities after discovering that some of its employees were making up names of registrants as part of a voter-registration drive.
Schlozman's office was apparently in such a rush to file the case, one of the names on the indictments was wrong.
Missouri Republicans seized on the charges in the final days of the campaign. Nevertheless, Missouri voters narrowly elected Democrat Claire McCaskill over Republican incumbent Jim Talent, a victory that sank GOP hopes of maintaining control of Congress.
In April, the suit was dismissed by a federal judge, who ruled that the government failed to produce any evidence of fraud or that any Missouri resident had been denied the right to vote because of the alleged registration deficiencies.
Schlozman is scheduled to testify tomorrow on Capitol Hill in connection with the ongoing U.S. attorney investigation. Todd Graves is also scheduled to testify.
Comments (7) «
When is all this going to end???
INVESTIGATE!! IMPEACH!!! INDICT!!!
LET'S GET RID OF THESE OLIGARCHS!!!
I was on the front lines of this struggle for voting rights. The LA Times story has its right. ACORN was targeted because they focused on registering low-income, African-Americans. Apparently Bradley J. Schlozman and his handler "He Who Must Not Be Named" (a little Harry Potter humor there) didn't think poor blacks voting were helpful to Sen. Jim Talent. (And they were right on that account).
I blog about this more at, my site: The Blog of Independence.
Anything thing to win that`s the repub motto!Obviously their strategy is to turn over the judiciary to the right wing and have everything their way.They might call it their way of thinking.
http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/index.1.htm
The ELECTION FRAUDS go way beyond Goodling's accounts of VOTE CAGING !
All around HUMBLE TEXAS vast land Fraud Cons were engaged in a MASSIVE Bank and S&L Looting Debacle that ROCKED the 1980s. It happened again in the 1990s with Corp "O'RAT Wall Street Lootings.
The bottom line is MASSIVE amounts of LOOT was donated by the Crooks to the PUBLICANS.
see http://www.publican.com and see what Dubbya's TOP Contributers do for money.
CNN's Nelda Luce Radabaugh Blair is one ROTTEN Publican
This Bradley Schlozman episode is simply an unfortunate typical example of this illegally installed regime's tactics. I have a son who was attending college during the 2004 election, and went to Ohio with the Move-on people on behalf of Kerry. He indicated at the time that it looked like things were taking place that were unfair and illegal, but that they didn't have time to look into anything as their m.o. was just to get out the vote. When the opposition's m.o. is voter suppression, it becomes a different kind of contest, and it is frustrating to say the least!
All of the methodology that we have traditionally used in elections, while still effective, becomes minimized when you're going up against a foe using "banana republic" tactics. The thing that I find the most infuriating is that when you speak to friends and co-workers who are on the Republican team, they usually dismiss these things, saying "That's how politics is, or They're just making things up, Everybody in politics does this kind of thing." So, the result becomes dirtier and dirtier tricks from the GOP and unless we are able to outdo them with sheer numbers, we won't hold the day! I am hopeful that after all of the scandals we've seen from the GOP, we will sweep the elections, get back the Senate and House for real along with the White House. Currently, I agree with John Edwards' positions on the Democrats inability to raise the courage level and confront this president. I am cognizant that we don't want to overdo the anti-bush stuff and antagonize the electorate. Speaking of acting in the best interest of our parties' interests, are we really aware of the potential from the Jefferson scandal? They are timing this so that it will muddy the waters and make it look as though all parties are corrupt, thus minimizing our ethics image. I would hope that we could do a better job of dealing with this problem, as we can all see what's coming!!!
I wish that we would launch a national campaign showing all of the criminal convictions obviously being resultant from the White House's "end justifies the means" approach. My suggestion for a Democratic commercial would be to go straight after them with something like: "Not Since Richard Nixon has the level of political activity fallen to such an unethical and illegal level. And even Nixon's former associates are shocked with what bushes' group has done." I would show every Cunningham, Lay, Delay, and drive home the theme: "restore law and order and civility-Vote Democratic!!!" This will, of course, require that we get Jefferson off the front page. Perhaps, a public ostricizing coming directly from the leader's office would help us. If not, they will use this to muddy the waters and blur the distinction. Remember they have all of the old stories about the Johnson machine, Tammany Hall, and JFK Illinois state machine that they can recite chapter and verse back at us. I believe that if we are pro-active in driving our points home, it will score points with average people and tilt the direction into the Democratic Party and give us an even chance. That's what this all about, after all, is just to get a fair chance and let the country hear our message!!!
Under this Administration, it's become the (drumroll please....!)
InJustince Department
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