Ohio, bloody Ohio -- again

If I weren't doing this CIA thing, I'd have devoted more space to the outrageous statements made by DOJ voting official John Tanner. He'd have the country believe that black voters caused the insanely long lines at the election booths in Ohio's Democratic districts in 2004. Outrageous! It has been established beyond reasonable debate that the polling places in those areas were given an insufficient number of machines.

The best coverage of Tanner's inanity comes to us by way of Brad Friedman, who highlights the response of John Conyers. Go here. Also see his earlier work here, and the TPM story here.

I can't help repeating this section:

Only one official Congressional hearing was held to review voting disparities in the 2004 Presidential Election and that was in the House Administration Committee, at the time chaired by the now-jailed Ohio Republican, Bob Ney. At that hearing, the Bush/Cheney '04 national general counsel, Mark F. "Thor" Hearne, emerged for the first time as the co-founder of the "non-partisan" voting rights group, "American Center for Voting Rights." The group, ACVR, had been formed just three days earlier, and was the only "voting rights" group to testify at the hearing.

Hearne did not reveal his affiliation with Team Bush during the hearings, describing himself only as "longtime advocate of voter rights and an attorney experienced in election law." He then went on to admit that there was intimidation and voting disparities during the Ohio election. He testified they were caused by John Kerry and the Democrats.

Days later they would release a propaganda report claiming "Democrat Operatives Far More Involved In Voter Intimidation And Suppression In 2004, Thousands Of Americans Disenfranchised By Vote Fraud On Election Day."

The ACVR front-group has since "disappeared" in the wake of the U.S. Attorney purge scandal, and the outing of their questionable, and possibly illegal, methods.

How did the Mighty Thor become linked to the great attorney purge scandal? See my earlier piece here.

We need a nickname for the last presidential election. I submit "Filthy '04." The effects of that campaign are still being felt. Watch this space: We will soon present another tale from those days...