Hullabaloo

Friday, October 17, 2008

 
Squeezing Every Last Drop

by digby

... of power.

Somebody needs to tell the twits at CNN about this. They've been flogging this ACORN story as if it features fellatio or something. It's been totally wild and irresponsible. And, naturally, they've missed the real story.

From TPM:

A former top Department of Justice voting rights official -- who once worked with John McCain in defense of the senator's campaign-finance reform bill -- has added his name to the growing chorus that is denouncing the department's investigation of ACORN as a shameful and inappropriate politicization of Justice along the lines of the US attorney firings.

Speaking to TPMmuckraker, Gerry Hebert described the investigation, word of which was leaked off the record to the Associated Press less than three weeks before the election, as "a continuation of injecting DOJ into what has clearly become a political issue."

He continued: "That's really not the proper role for the DOJ, and why their policies counsel otherwise."

To demonstrate that point, Hebert provided TPMmuckraker with a copy of the department's Manual on Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses.

Under a section headlined "Investigative Considerations in Election Fraud Cases", the manual reads:

When investigating election fraud, three considerations that are absent from most criminal investigations must be kept in mind: (1) respect for the primary role of the states in administering the voting process, (2) an awareness of the role of the election in the governmental process, and (3) sensitivity to the exercise of First Amendment rights in the election context. As a result there are limitations on various investigative steps in an election fraud case.

In most cases, election-related documents should not be taken from the custody of local election administrators until the election to which they pertain has been certified, and the time for contesting the election results has expired. This avoids interfering with the governmental processes affected by the election

Another limitation affects voter interviews. Election fraud cases often depend on the testimony of individual voters whose votes were co-opted in one way or another. But in most cases voters should not be interviewed, or other voter-related investigation done, until after the election is over. Such overt investigative steps may chill legitimate voting activities. They are also likely to be perceived by voters and candidates as an intrusion into the election. Indeed, the fact of a federal criminal investigation may itself become an issue in the election.

I'm sure CNN could call this fellow and get him on the air. And there are others:

... House Judiciary chair John Conyers, and, in an interview with TPMmuckraker, former US attorney David Iglesias, have ... also connected the FBI's ACORN investigation to the kind of politicization exposed in the firings saga.

And finally, (thank you!) the Obama campaign has engaged on this:

"With this voter fraud [investigation], we're seeing an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics," Bob Bauer, an elections lawyer with the Obama camp, said on a conference call with reporters just now. Bauer compared the decision to launch the investigation with the US attorneys scandal, in which several US attorneys were fired for their unwillingess to pursue politically charged cases, including voter fraud, with sufficient aggression to satisfy the Bush administration.

Bauer released a letter sent to Attorney General Michael Mukasey calling on him to have the issue taken on by Nora Dannehy, the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the US attorney firings.

Maybe now the media will take a closer look at what's going on here. They have been actively helping the Republicans breathlessly frame this election as illegitimate based on nothing more than right wing propaganda. Events are driving the election to a possible big win in a couple of weeks, but this is the sort of thing that could deny Obama a much needed mandate to do what needs to be done. That's part of the plan.


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digby 10/17/2008 06:30:00 PM |