The Obamabots conduct a Rovian attack on a voter registration group -- and BradBlog takes the "Thor" position!

(Note: In the original version of the previous post, I misspelled the name of Bob Somerby. Since we are supposed to blame all problems on women this election season, I blame Jodie Foster, who made Sommersby in 1993.)

Remember the U.S. Attorney scandal? Remember how the Bush DOJ, prodded by Karl Rove, wanted the USAs and state prosecutors to target voter registration groups?

Well, now the Obamabots have joined forces with that very crusade.

Recently, Talking Points Memo, Kos and the DU crowd have attacked a group called Women's Voices, Women's Votes, which has launched a pro-registration robocall campaign in North Carolina.

The WVWV group is a legitimate non-partisan group, headed by one Page Gardner. The organization has existed since 2003. Its primary purpose is to encourage unmarried women to vote -- a goal which the Obot bloggers view as nefarious.

The Obamasphere has tried to castigate the group for failing to inform potential voters that the deadline for registration has passed for the primary. So? The group is using proven techniques to increase registration for the GENERAL ELECTION.

Voter registration drives often occur during primaries. That's when interest in politics runs high. I can recall encountering primary season registration drives when I was a boy -- and I'm no spring chicken.

The Obamabots presume not only that a registration drive is an evil thing, but that a Hillary-run group has somehow tried to disenfranchise black voters. This conspiracy scenario makes no sense whatsoever.

Here's the truth of the matter:

In 2004 WVWV partnered with the NAACP on their voter registration drive. One approach that they have found to be cost effective for large registration campaigns is an automated phone call, followed by a voter registration form in the mail and then a follow-up phone call to encourage the citizen to send in the form. WVWV also closely studies results to determine when potential voters are most likely to register, and as one might expect people are most likely to respond when their interest is engaged, around an election. WVWV has registered or helped other groups register millions of new voters using these tested techniques, and it was on track to register millions more in this exciting election cycle.

Barack Obama and his lawyer Bob Bauer know all of this. Obama knows that WVWV was critical to registering new voters for him in Illinois in 2004, Bob Bauer knows the Bush administration's history of punishing groups like WVWV with frivolous lawsuits, they know that WVWV works closely with the NAACP and ACORN, they know that it is illegal for non-partisan (501(c)(3)s) to coordinate with candidates. And yet Barack Obama has decided that his political skin is more important than all of that work expanding the franchise, and if he can score some points against Hillary Clinton by characterizing a group that registers women as racist, then he will.

(Emphasis added.) Mike Lux at Open Left vouches for Page Gardner:

I have known Page Gardner for 16 years. She has dedicated her life to trying to get folks to register to vote, and would never do anything to deter anyone from voting.

The group did violate (accidentally, I am sure) a North Carolina law requiring "robo calls" to provide contact information. (See here.) The Obamabots have pounced on that mistake in order to create a fancifully paranoid scenario of Clintonian conspiracy. And just how is the lack of contact info supposed to benefit Hillary?

The acolytes of Mr. Wonderful have used bizarre and nonsensical arguments to create the false impression that a group which is trying to register millions of people -- a group which is trying to combat the vote-suppression measures recently sanctioned by the Supreme Court -- is actually in the business of disenfranchising voters.

Thus, the "progressive" left has joined forces with those Republicans who want to use any legal justification, however minor or inconsequential, in order to shut down a voter registration group.

The O-bots have gleefully pointed out that Secretaries of State and Attorneys General in other states have harrassed WVWV on various legalistic pretexts. To this charge, I say: Look at which states are involved. Is it a coincidence that Republican state functionaries have gone after the group -- in red states like Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Arkansas and Wisconsin?

Blue state governments have not complained about WVWV.

Everything is topsy turvy. A few short months ago, the left would have defended a group like WVWV against GOP harassers. Now, the Obamaphiles are applauding the pro-Bush forces.

(I must note that the State AG for North Carolina is a Democrat. For the most part, however, the forces arrayed against WVWV have been blood red.)

Think about it. Since the deadline for primary registration has passed, any new registrations among women, blacks and the unmarried will only increase the participation of those groups in the general election. Thus, the Obamabots are arguing for the suppression of the Democratic vote in November!

I am particularly disappointed in Brad Friedman, who allowed writer John Gideon to run the O-bot line on WVWV without double-checking the facts.

For the truth of the matter, see here and here and here. Here's a key excerpt:

Occasionally Republicans will harass voter registration organizations with legal actions in an attempt to force them to waste resources on legal bills rather than spending them registering new voters. This is a tactic often used against organizations like the NAACP and ACORN. It was one of the key components of the U.S. Attorney scandal, where U.S. Attorneys who refused to pursue politically motivated legal action against voter registration groups were fired.

In other words, WVWV is exactly the sort of voter registration group targeted by the notorious Thor Hearne.

So what's next, Brad? Thinking of growing long red hair and wielding a hammer called Mjolnir?