TPM: You Just Can't Keep Tim Griffin Down = RNC rehires vote-cager.

Okay, Greg Palast, dust off those gw.org e-mails!!

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You Just Can't Keep Tim Griffin Down
By David Kurtz - May 22, 2008, 12:16PM - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/you_just_cant_keep_tim_griffin.php

Greg Sargent at TPM Election Central reports (http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/republican_national_committee.php) on the return of former U.S. Attorney and Karl Rove aide Tim Griffin to oppo research.

As I wrote on the main blog (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/196459.php), TPM, especially TPMmuckraker, has a long history with Griffin. His return to doing oppo research for the RNC brings his story full circle.

For newer readers, here's our Tim Griffin reporting (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/cgi-bin/mt-current/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=12&search=griffin&x=0&y=0) over the last 18 months or so. For you regulars, it's a trip down muck memory lane.

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DU Archives: Rove-Protege, RNC Vote Cager, Tim Griffin Resigns As U.S. Attorney
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3183926&mesg_id=3188586

Lest we forget, Rove's protege was installed as USA in Arkansas after the Patriot Act was illegally amended to allow Bush to sneak in USA appointments without consulting with the Senate. Rove cannot forget this friend of his when he has to address his involvement in the process of firing and choosing USAs.

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Rove-Protege Tim Griffin Resigns As U.S. Attorney
May 30th, 2007 - http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/30/griffin-resigns /

The Arkansas Times reports that the controversial U.S. attorney in Arkansas, Tim Griffin, has resigned:

The U.S. Justice Department has notified Arkansas’s congressional delegation that Interim Eastern District U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin is resigning effective Friday, June 1.

Griffin, a former protege of Karl Rove, was formerly research director of the Republican National Committee. In 2004, BBC News published a report showing that Griffin led a “caging” scheme to suppress the votes of African-American service members in Florida.

Griffin became the poster boy for the politicization of the U.S. attorney process ........

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Bush's New US Attorney a Criminal?
http://www.gregpalast.com/bushs-new-us-attorney-a-criminal

BBC Television had exposed 2004 voter attack scheme by appointee Griffin, a Rove aide.
Black soldiers and the homeless targeted.
by Greg Palast

There's only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That's replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal. ............

Griffin made a wee mistake. Instead of sending the emails -- potential evidence of a crime -- to email addresses ending with the domain name "@GeorgeWBush.com" he sent them to "@GeorgeWBush.ORG." A website run by prankster John Wooden .........

it is illegal to challenge voters en masse where race is an element in the targeting. So several lawyers told us, including Ralph Neas, famed civil rights attorney with People for the American Way.

Griffin himself ducked our cameras, but his RNC team tried to sell us the notion that the caging sheets were, in fact, not illegal voter hit lists, but a roster of donors .........

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Tim Griffin's 2004 involvement in caging Jacksonville, FL minority voters now under investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1145798

If the government wants to delete someone from the voter rolls, they should be required to,
at the very minimum, send a first-class letter to the address of the registered vote informing them.

If the person moved, the letter will forward and provide them an opportunity to re-register.
If they have not moved, they can challenge the purge, and purges should only take effect after a sufficient time for responses.

And may know the burial location of just one or two...

:kick:

strike their name from the voting rolls.
Goose meet Gander

More likely he was fired by Bush and Rove for sending the evidence to the opposition! Not exactly "oppo research" that! LOL

Brad Friedman was all over this story, over at the BradBlog = http://www.bradblog.com/

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Rove Pick for US Attorney Resigns After BBC Television "Newsnight" report
Conyers Requests Palast's "Vote Caging" Evidence
Brad Friedman - 04 June 2007 - http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060407R.shtml


... Rove Pick for US Attorney Resigns After Conyers Seeks Evidence From BBC ... Tim Griffin, formerly right-hand man to Karl Rove, resigned Thursday as US attorney for Arkansas hours after BBC Television "Newsnight" reported that Congressman John Conyers requested the network's evidence on Griffin's involvement in "caging voters." ....

Experts have concluded the caging lists were designed for a mass challenge of voters' right to cast ballots. The caging lists were heavily weighted with minority voters, including African-American homeless men, students and soldiers sent overseas.

Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of US attorneys, met Thursday evening in New York with Palast. After reviewing key documents, Conyers stated that, despite Griffin's resignation, "We're not through with him by any means."

Conyers indicated that he thought it unlikely that Griffin could carry out this massive caging operation without the knowledge of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rove. ......

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from: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1029113&mesg_id=1044149

Bush's New US Attorney a Criminal?

BBC Television had exposed 2004 voter attack scheme by appointee Griffin, a Rove aide.
Black soldiers and the homeless targeted.
by Greg Palast - http://www.gregpalast.com/bushs-new-us-attorney-a-criminal/

There's only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That's replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal.

There was one big hoohah in Washington yesterday as House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers pulled down the pants on George Bush's firing of US Attorneys to expose a scheme to punish prosecutors who wouldn't bend to political pressure.

But the Committee missed a big one: Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove's assistant, the President's pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.

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BBC journalist warns against voter irregularities
Dwayne Robinson - Palm Beach Post - May 18, 2008
http://www.gregpalast.com/bbc-journalist-warns-against-voter-irregularities/


The BBC journalist who uncovered possible voter fraud in the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections told a South Florida crowd Sunday those same forces that led to President Bush's victories will not "steal" this year's election.

"They've already stolen it," Greg Palast told a crowd at the Palm Beach Democratic Club on Sunday. "But, you can steal it back."

Speaking before a crowd of more than 400 at the Kravis Center, Palast outlined what he said were Republicans erasing black, homeless and military voters from voter registration rolls, possibly preventing millions from casting votes in razor-thin races.

The latest example came in 2004, he said, in a method known as vote caging. ......

Gonzales Backdated Griffin's Appointment to Get around Pryor
emptywheel - May 22, 2007 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x938720


Yesterday's document dump includes the Control Sheet for Tim Griffin's appointment. The control sheet makes it very clear: Alberto Gonzales signed the appointment on December 18 ... but it was dated December 15. .......

So why would Alberto Gonzales backdate the Tim Griffin appointment from a Monday to a Friday?

Because Alberto Gonzales and Senator Pryor had a conversation on December 15 at which Pryor asked for reasons why Cummins was resigning and indicated he did not support Griffin for USA. It appears that, after that conversation, they quickly made Griffin's appointment a done deal, only later submitting the paperwork for it. By backdating the appointment, they got Griffin appointed without making it look like they were using the PATRIOT provision specifically to get around the Senate. Which, of course, they were. ......

At which point, on December 19, Kyle Sampson launches into his "gumming it to death" strategy. Apparently, after having retroactively appointed Griffin so as to pretend it occurred before the Pryor conversation, Goodling, Sampson, and Oprison went into a flurry of activity to try to pull off this retroactive fuck-you to the Senator from Arkansas.

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/22/111456/606

Former Rove-Protege Tim Griffin Joining RNC Opposition Research Shop To Help McCain ‘Turn His Fire’ On Obama
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/22/griffin-rnc-mccain/

Last year, in the middle of the U.S. attorney scandal, former Karl Rove protege Tim Griffin resigned as the interim Eastern District U.S. attorney in Arkansas. Griffin had become the poster boy for the politicization of the U.S. attorney process after the Justice Department fired Bud Cummins to make way for him.

Now, Robert Novak reports that Griffin will be returning to his roots as a member of the RNC’s opposition research team. According to Novak, Griffin is being brought in as part of “the McCain campaign’s plan” to “turn his fire against (Sen. Barack) Obama“ ....



As RNC research director in 2004, Griffin reportedly led a “caging” scheme to suppress the votes of likely Democratic voters, including African-American service members in Florida.

.........

Thank you for pulling the rather impressive pile of evidence together for us.

If anyone out there is ever in the same room with this weasel... rev up your cell phones cameras and film away! The odds are in your favor that you'll catch him doing something illegal, immoral or both!

I howl at criminals, not the moon!! And at inane irrationality when the troll raise the tide above the bridge!! :rofl:

Whitehouse Explains Caging: An ‘Especially Nefarious Voter Suppression Tactic’
By Amanda on Mar 3rd, 2008 - http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/03/whitehouse-caging/


Last week, the Senate Rules Committee held a hearing on the voter suppression tactic known as “caging.” Its first witness was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a former U.S. attorney who has introduced a bill explicitly outlawing the procedure.

Whitehouse’s testimony clearly explained the tactic, which gained prominence during the U.S. attorney scandal. Karl Rove pushed heavily for the ouster of the U.S. attorney in Arkansas in order to install his protege, Tim Griffin. During his time as research director for the Republican National Committee in 2004, Griffin allegedly engaged in the caging of African-American servicemembers.

As Whitehouse notes, caging is a three-step process that targets voters of the opposite party, who are often minorities. The campaign sends “do not forward/return to sender” letters to those individuals, and then challenges the votes of those whom do not respond — even if they are servicemembers stationed abroad, as happened in 2004. From his remarks:

Indeed, vote caging was used as early as 1960 in Arizona and continued, in fits and starts, through the 2004 elections — when evidence surfaced that voter caging lists were being compiled. While not every voter caging effort is successful in disenfranchising large numbers of voters, the failure of a voter suppression effort is no excuse for its legality.

Whitehouse’s bill — the Caging Prohibition Act (S. 2305) — would “require any private party who challenges the right of another citizen to vote (or register to vote) to set forth in writing, under penalty of perjury, the specific grounds for the alleged ineligibility.” Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced a similar bill in the House. .......

Part I: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x136317

Part II: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x136320

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x136379

EXIT RIGHT. Sara Taylor, WH political director, Rove Aide RESIGNS? "subpoenas for her testimony"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x990202

:patriot: Thank you! :yourock: