NH phone jammer says GOP "not only threw me under the bus but then blamed me for getting run over."

[madfloridian]

Last night on C-Span at the NH Democratic dinner, Howard Dean mentioned Allen Raymond's book which is coming out..."How to Rig an Election". Dean gave kudos to his Yale roommate, Paul Twomey, for pursuing Raymond on this issue. It is the story written by Raymond of his role in the New Hampshire phone jamming and the rigging of the election there.

I think this might be an interesting book because Raymond is so angry at the GOP who gave him the shaft. Here's how he put it:

After all, when the shit hit the fan, my political party and my former colleagues not only threw me under the bus but then blamed me for getting run over.

Huff Post...How to rig an election

More from the Huffington Post link:

Mr. Raymond pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit phone harassment and was sentenced to five months in prison. Mr. Tobin argued in court that the idea to jam the phones was not his and that he committed no crime. A federal appeals court in Boston reversed his conviction, saying that the law he was found guilty under was not “a close fit for what he did.” The Republican Party has paid a high-priced law firm in Washington to defend Mr. Tobin, according to The Associated Press, and Mr. Raymond suspects it is because Republican bigwigs “wanted him to keep his yap shut” about the origins of the scheme.

Sounds like he named some names in high places. The FBI offered him what he thought was a good deal but it did not turn out that way.

Until the judge tore into me, I had been thinking I'd get nothing worse than a few months of home confinement, a bit of a break that could be used to catch up on some relaxing little projects around the house. From the second the FBI came to my door I'd done everything they wanted, connecting all the dots between the shady tactics of the New Hampshire Republican Party during the John E. Sununu Senate campaign, the Bushie who'd orchestrated the whole thing, and me. The Department of Justice was getting ready to indict, because of my testimony, President George W. Bush's main political guy in New England. The DOJ went so far as to argue that I should be given the best possible treatment by the court for my exemplary cooperation. Why wouldn't I have cooperated? After all, when the shit hit the fan, my political party and my former colleagues not only threw me under the bus but then blamed me for getting run over.

TPM Muckraker has more posted about this book. Some terribly dirty tricks were played there in New Hampshire. It has taken forever to hear anything much about it.

Dirty tricks on GOTV

Raymond's telemarketing consulting firm engineered the 2002 New Hampshire phone jamming, where Republicans jammed Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks. But it wasn't his idea (it was the New Hampshire GOP's executive director's), and he was referred to the job by a big-wig from the Republican National Committee (more on this shortly). Yet when the story broke, his former co-conspirators did all they could to pin the thing entirely on him. So, with nothing left to lose, Raymond walks readers through his rise in the ranks at the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (where he encounters Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), whom he frequently compares to "a sheet of drywall"), and finally on to create his own telemarketing firm, which he started with the help of Haley Barbour, now the governor of Mississippi. He also gives great insight into the murky world of phone tricks.

You might say he holds a grudge. But you can't say he minces words. "Back in 2002," he writes, "just about every Republican operative was so dizzy with power that if you could find two of us who could still tell the difference between politics and crime, you could probably have rubbed us together for fire as well."

Or in case he wasn't clear, he writes about heading to prison for his role in the jamming: "After ten full years inside the GOP, ninety days among honest criminals wasn't really any great ordeal."

So about those phone tricks. They involved sneaky stunts like the one described in the passage below.

I'm not saying that all Eastern European whites are racists, but, no matter where or when an election is held, there is a always a cultural divide that you can rely on. The message was "I'm ghetto black calling you, racist Ukrainian guy, and scaring the crap out of you because you probably think that if you don't vote for the Democrat I'm going to come to your house and take care of some business."

The calls were extremely highly targeted, household by household, no message ever left on an answering machine. We wanted the message heard only by people whose reaction would be "I'm not voting for Holt because he uses scary black men to call my house."

We made calls to Democratic union households supporting Zimmer, taped by actors putting on thick Spanish accents, figuring union workers were the voters who felt most threatened by immigration.

I remember writing about this way back in spring of 2006. The subject I gave the post sounds ridiculous after almost two years.

NH phone-jamming scandal getting wings..Mehlman may testify.

SAM SEDER: Now I got to ask you ...a couple of stories of the Republicans..I never cease to be amazed. This latest story, the New Hampshire phone jamming case, tell us a little about that. It has been going on for a couple of years, but they just started sending people to jail for this.

DEAN: And there may be a lot more that go. I think my counterpart, Ken Mehlman will end up in court over this...testifying at least. What happened was that the Republicans jammed the GOTV efforts on the phone. Tied it up, they broke the law. Couple of people have gone to jail. The RNC has paid all their legal bills which makes one think this was not just someone just acting on their own. And as often happens in these scandals, the net is getting wider and wider and wider.

Turns out there were many many many phone calls made to the White House political office on the day this stuff was going on and right before it. And the question is who did they talk to in the White House? And nobody will say of course...so it does remind a little bit of Watergate.

Still no wings yet, but maybe soon. This Allen Raymond sounds like a very angry man.

[BattyDem]

1. "threw me under the bus ... then blamed me for getting run over."

The VP shot a guy in the face and blamed him for it, so what do you expect? :shrug:

[madfloridian]

2. Seems to be a pattern with Republicans.

:rofl:

[monktonman]

3. Boo - frickin - hoo. swim with sharks - get eaten. n/t

[MH1]

4. K&R - That should be an interesting book

I'm putting it on my reading list. Thanks for the post!

[Zorra]

5. Could it be....SATAN?!?

WTF else do you expect if you make a deal with the devil - er, I mean, the republican party?

You are going to get thrown under the bus, and then get blamed for being run over. It's the nature of belonging to the dark side.

You don't like it, become a Democrat.

[pansypoo53219]

6. boo hoo.

the party you picked.

[fascisthunter]

7. What Exactly Did He Expect?

The guy is a screwing Americans over by messing with an election and he expects what exactly? No clue....

[madfloridian]

9. The only good part is that angry people let more slip...

I think the book would be an interesting read. The GOP is trying to discredit him completely, and they probably will succeed. He was wrong, but it would be good if some truth came out after 5 years.

[fascisthunter]

12. Oh Hell Yes.... Air it ALL OUT!

I'm not trying to diminish that possibility or helping to discredit the man, but man.

[madfloridian]

14. You are right....he should have known they were a rotten bunch

because he was doing their dirty work. He should have expected it.

[madfloridian]

8. Remember the 2000 election when Katherine Harris's office could not be reached

by poll workers who needed help with crises? I have often wondered about why no one could get through. Here's some stuff about it. Just speculation. This mentions some who were not allowed to vote because they could not get through by phone....wonder how many others?

The magnitude of the disenfranchisement, including the disparity between black and nonblack voters, is supported by the testimony of witnesses at the Commission’s hearings. These witnesses include local election officials, poll workers, ordinary voters, and activists. Among the sworn testimony:

One potential voter waited hours at the polls because of a registration mix-up as poll workers attempted to call the office of the supervisor of elections. The call never got through and the individual was not allowed to vote. A former poll worker herself, she testified that she never saw anything like it during her 18 years as a poll worker.

A poll worker in Miami-Dade County with 15 years of experience testified, “By far this was the worst election I have ever experienced. After that election, I decided I didn’t want to work as a clerk anymore.”

A poll worker in Palm Beach County testified that she had to use her personal cell phone to attempt to contact the election supervisor’s office. Despite trying all day, she only got through two or three times over the course of 12 hours.

A Broward County poll worker testified that in past elections it took about 10 minutes to get through to the elections supervisor. During the course of the November 2000 election, she turned away approximately 40–50 potential voters because she could not access the supervisor of elections.

A Boynton Beach poll worker explained how his precinct workers turned away about 30–50 potential voters because they could not get through to the supervisor of elections. He was successful only once during an eight-hour period.

Other persons testified about waiting in long lines only to be ultimately denied their right to vote.

http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/exesum.htm

[tanyev]

10. Kick.

[L. Coyote]

11. All we need now is a Justice department.

[madfloridian]

18. Look at all the delays....

Here is an article from the Nashua Telegraph. It is unbelievable.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071227/NEWS02/401185376/-1/news01

"According to the McClatchy source, the case's original prosecutor, Todd Hinnen, also wanted to bring a criminal case against the New Hampshire Republican Party but was stopped by his superiors. Hinnen could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Hinnen got approval from his bosses to investigate Tobin in early 2004, but his investigation was slowed by requests from his superiors that he "write a formal, detailed prosecution memo" and then that he talk to Tobin's lawyer before preparing the indictment, McClatchy reported.

At the end of October 2004, Hinnen's bosses told him "it was too close to the election to bring such a politically sensitive indictment"

..."In New Hampshire, Democratic Party leaders have long contended that the investigation was delayed and slowed. Party attorney Paul Twomey, who has handled criminal cases for 30 years, said he found the Tobin case "astonishingly slow."

But now, he said, he hopes that Tobin is acquitted so that the judiciary committee can call him in to testify. "As a country, I think we'd be better off with charges dismissed and him raising his right hand and telling the truth," Twomey said."

[L. Coyote]

19. Rather like the history of the Abramoff prosecution, a series of people in charge

delaying action.

[HughMoran]

13. Funny how every elected body and post in NH went to Dems after this

Hmmmm, you have to wonder if they've been rigging the elections for a long, long time.

[KittyWampus]

15. does make one stop and think.

[Ian David]

16. The Son of Sam Laws

Son of Sam law
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


A Son of Sam Law is a law designed to keep criminals from profiting from their crimes often by selling their stories to publishers. Such laws often authorize the state to seize money earned from such a deal and use it to compensate the criminal's victims.

The first such law was created in New York after the Son of Sam killings. It was enacted after rampant speculation about publishers offering large amounts of money for the serial killer's story. The law was invoked in New York eleven times between 1977 and 1990, including once against Mark David Chapman.

In certain cases a Son of Sam law can be extended beyond the criminals themselves; to include friends, neighbors and other relatives of the lawbreaker who seek to profit by telling publishers and filmmakers of their relation to the criminal.

Critics disputed the law on First Amendment grounds. Also, it was argued that it would take away the financial incentive for many criminals to tell their stories, some of which (such as the Watergate scandal) were of vital interest to the general public.

In 1987, lawyers for Simon and Schuster sued the New York authorities to enjoin enforcement of the Son of Sam law. Their case involved the book Wiseguy, written by Nicholas Pileggi about ex-mobster Henry Hill and used as the basis for the film Goodfellas. The case reached the Supreme Court in 1991. In an 8-0 ruling, the court ruled the law unconstitutional. Simon & Schuster v. Crime Victims Board 502 U.S. 105 (1991). The majority opinion was that the law was overinclusive, and would have prevented the publication of such works as The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, and even The Confessions of Saint Augustine.

The Supreme Court ruling actually stated that Son of Sam laws could conceivably be constitutional, but only if written very carefully with regard to First Amendment concerns. Though this original New York law was struck down, various states (including New York) have laws to prevent felons from capitalizing on their crimes written with an eye towards adhering to the First Amendment ruling laid out by the Supreme Court.

New York, after numerous revisions, adopted a law in 2001 again known as the "Son of Sam" law.<1> This law requires that victims of crimes be notified whenever a person convicted of a crime received $10,000 (US) or more--from virtually any source.<2> The law then attaches a springing statute of limitations, giving victims an extended period of time to sue the perperator of the crime for the crimes of which they were the victim.<3> This law also authorizes a state agency, the Crime Victims' Board, to act of the victims' behalf in some limited circumstances.<4> Thus far, the current New York law has survived constitutional scrutiny.

The state of California's Son of Sam law was struck down in 2002 after being used against Barry Keenan, one of the men who kidnapped Frank Sinatra, Jr. in 1963.

In Texas in 1998 a civil jury awarded $1.001 billion to the siblings of Holly Maddux, invoking the Son of Sam law. The Maddux family is not expectant to receive the money, rather the lawsuit was based on the rumor that Holly Maddux's murderer Ira Einhorn was expected to sign a book deal with a European publisher. The siblings had refused to allow Einhorn to make money over the tragedy, and their lawyer had argued in court "we seek to seize any earnings of Ira Einhorn or his wife. If he can spend it, we want it." <5>

With the advent of the Internet and online sales, many Son of Sam laws are now targeting the sale of murderabilia. The constitutionality of many of these new laws is mostly untested at this point.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Sam_laws

[madfloridian]

17. Raymond sounds pretty ruthless to me, but I may buy the book anyway.

I hear the RNC is trying to discredit him, but he served his jail time already and has nothing to lose.

McClatchy papers did a pretty indepth job on this issue.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/23357.html

Raymond, 40, who served three months in jail last year, said he earned a graduate degree in political management at New York's Baruch University solely to make money off politics, and it made no difference to him whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. He soon climbed the GOP ranks to get jobs with the RNC and the GOP's senatorial committee, before borrowing $250,000 from a group headed by former RNC chairman Haley Barbour in 2001 to set up a consulting firm specializing in phone bank services.

One of his tactics, Raymond said, was angering union households with calls in which people with Latin-sounding voices talked favorably about a rival candidate's support for the North American Free Trade Agreement. And he used the voice of an angry black man, posing as a Democrat, to stir up "fear, racism, bigotry" in white neighborhoods

Shortly before the November election, New Hampshire Republicans hired his Alexandria, Va.-based consulting firm, GOP Marketplace, for $15,600 to barrage Democrats' phone lines on Election Day with 800 hang-up calls per hour amid the tight Senate race between Sununu and Shaheen.

The tactic was aimed at disrupting efforts by five Democratic offices and a firefighters' union in Manchester, N.H., to shuttle voters to the polls. The state Republican Party chairman, John Dowd, halted the calls after the first hour, saying he feared that the operation was illegal.

Raymond said it was Tobin who first phoned him 2 1/2 weeks before the election and asked if he could jam Democrats' phone lines, connecting him with Charles McGee, the executive director of the New Hampshire GOP.However, he said, when he phoned Tobin after Sununu's 19,000-vote election victory to tell him that a Manchester, N.H., police officer was looking into the scheme, Tobin responded, "I don't know what you're talking about. Raymond said he was seething with anger in the ensuing weeks as he read news reports of McGee denying knowledge of the scheme.

In early 2003, Raymond recalled, the state GOP wrote to demand its money back.

[Virginia Dare]

20. Well, let me rosin up my bow...

:nopity:

[Supersedeas]

21. isn't Matthews obsessed with political gamesmanship--wonder if he'll touch this??

[Javaman]

22. to quote condi, I have never ever had an original idea ever, rice...

"I don't think anyone could have anticipated this"

I love when repukes eat their own. :)

[progressoid]

23. "the Bushie who'd orchestrated the whole thing"

Well, I'm sure the White House will reprimand that person. :eyes: