[T]hink about this for a moment: Why on earth would the
White House allow this guy to call them directly if they
knew what was going on? [....]
Further, why would the President get involved with a
scheme to jam phone lines in a Congressional race
Republicans were heavily favored to win anyway?
Media's Bush Scandal Of The Week: Jammed Phones
Say Anything
<<< Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House
WASHINGTON - Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.
The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.
The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.
The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial but prosecutors did not make them part of their case. >>>
So let me get this straight: The GOP's regional director for New England called [the White House political affairs office] a bunch around election day. That's it. That's the sum total of evidence connecting the Bush administration to Tobin's scheme, yet apparently it is enough to warrant misleading headlines and breathless reporting about the White House's connections to the incident.
But let's think about this for a moment: Why on earth would the White House allow this guy to call them directly if they knew what was going on? Don't you think that Rove, etc. would be a little smarter than that? Further, why would the President get involved with a scheme to jam phone lines in a Congressional race Republicans were heavily favored to win anyway? Plus, if these phone records amounted to anything more than Tobin doing his job as regional director for the GOP you'd think the prosecutor in the case would have gone after it.
After all, what prosecutor wouldn't like to go after a President?
Undoubtedly this will be enough evidence for Howard Dean and the media to try, judge and convict President Bush for yet another bit of corruption, yet the evidence is pretty dang flimsy. Not that it matters, I guess. The media will get their quota of Bush-bashing out of the story and then next week we'll have another faux-scandal to keep us all busy.
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