Does Karl Rove belong in jail?
NEW YORK — Monday, May 7, 2007
Voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for prison time for the new US Attorney for Arkansas, Timothy Griffin and investigation of Griffin’s former boss, Karl Rove, chief political advisor to President Bush.
“Timothy Griffin,” said Kennedy,”who is the new US attorney in Arkansas, was actually the mastermind behind the voter fraud efforts by the Bush Administration to disenfranchise over a million voters through ‘caging’ techniques – which are illegal.”
Kennedy based his demand on the revelations by BBC reporter Greg Palast in the new edition of his book, “Armed Madhouse.” On one page of the book, Palast reproduces a copy of a confidential Bush-Cheney campaign email, dated August 26, 2004, in which Griffin directs Republican operatives to use the ‘caging’ lists.
This is one of the emails subpoenaed by Congress but supposedly “lost” by Rove’s office. Palast obtained 500 of these, fifty with ‘caging’ lists attached.
‘Caging’ lists are “absolutely illegal” under the Voting Rights Act, noted Kennedy on his Air America program, Ring of Fire. The 1965 law makes it a felony crime to challenge voters when race is a factor in the targeting. African-American voters comprised the bulk of the 70,000 voters ‘caged’ in a single state, Florida.
Palast wrote in his book, “Here’s how the scheme worked. The Bush campaign mailed out letters,” particularly targeting African-American soldiers sent overseas. When the letters sent to the home addresses of the soldiers came back “undeliverable” because the servicemen were in Baghdad or elsewhere, the Republican Party would, “challenge the voter’s registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballots being counted.”
The Republicans successfully challenged “at least one million” votes of minority voters in the 2004 election.
Absolutely.
What is your source here? This is an opinion piece. Please list your source. If you look carefully, you’ll see “at least one million” in quotes, because that is apparently true, but votes of minority voters is not in quotes, so it could have been added by anyone. There is no proof that Karl Rove tampered with votes.
I have three kids in the military. There is a legal obligation on a service member who is transferred or deployed to file a change of address card. Palast’s “revelations” (The accurate word would be “inventions”) are simply not true.
A letter mailed to a deployed service member would not be returned “undeliverable”.
If it were sent to a base address the military locater service would get it where it needs to go. My kids still get junk mail addressed to them at duty stations they haven’t been at in years. My older son is literally living in a hole in the ground in south-eastern Afghanistan – but he still gets credit card offers addressed to him at his first base.
If the letter were sent to a civilian address it would be forwarded to the address on the change of address card. If the service member was living in civilian housing and failed to file a change of address then he is breaking the rules.
Sorry, but Palast’s *big story* is just another Liberal smear attempt at their favorite bogeyman. Apart from anything else, the allegation makes no sense. Military personnel – even African-American ones – overwhelmingly vote Republican.
Richard
technically yes but it will be a hard case to resolve firstly who was responsible for sending the email out and was there any intention to deceive and secondly how can you put the head of department has being responsible for the said email they mite easily put the blame on some one else that missunderstud the original draft that was ment to be sent out politacal misdermeners are hard to prove look at watergate