GOP Official Faces Sentence in Phone-Jamming

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601712.html

GOP Official Faces Sentence in Phone-Jamming
Democratic Lines Were Blocked in 2002 as New Hampshire Elected U.S. Senator

In October 2002, Charles McGee, executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, was mailed a Democratic flier that offered Election Day rides to the polls. The circular listed telephone numbers of party offices in five cities and towns.

"I paused and thought to myself, I might find out -- I might think of an idea of disrupting those operations," McGee later testified. A Marine Corps veteran, McGee approached the situation like a combat operation: "Eventually the idea coalesced into disrupting their phone lines . . . military common sense that if you can't communicate, you can't plan and organize."

When voting began Nov. 5, McGee's plan worked like a charm. For two crucial hours, an Idaho telecommunications firm tied up Democratic and union phone lines, bringing their get-out-the-vote plans to a halt. The effort helped John E. Sununu (R) win his Senate seat by 51 to 47 percent, a 19,151-vote margin.

...

In a pre-sentencing memo, federal prosecutors are seeking a prison term of 18 to 24 months for Tobin. "The 2002 U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire was hotly contested, and one of the main goals of the Republican Party was to retain that Senate seat," they wrote. "Overcome by his desire for success in the election, Tobin exercised his considerable authority to make the phone jamming scheme succeed, rather than to stop it."

[C_U_L8R]

1. We'll see him again

McGee did the Republican's dirty work
without ratting out his superiors
(like a good little nazi)

We'll see McGee again in some spiffy new
position as reward for his party "loyalty"

[napi21]

2. Hope the Dems are putting this info into a 30 sec ad for the next

NH election, just as a reminder to the voters!

[gratuitous]

3. So a couple of guys go to jail for a little while

But the New Hampshire seat stays safely Republican. In the GOP world where the end justifies any means, that seems an exceedingly small price to pay for electoral success. And yes, watch for Mr. McGee and Mr. Tobin to resurface after serving their piddly little terms, graduating to bigger and better dirty tricks for the greater honor and glory of the crooks of the GOP.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Republicans always get rewarded for finding new ways to sabotage

the interests and will of the people. By blocking communication between Democrats and the firefighters and the people who needed transportation to the polls, they voided any chance these people would vote against their Republican candidates.

Another route to election theft. Republicans have so many criminal schemes, they never have to worry about using the same one again and again, and risk getting caught BEFORE they can pull it off.