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To understand why the Tobin connection is so important to the crime committed to get Sununu elected in 2002, you need to look no further than the guy just below him on the totem pole, Allen Raymond. From his How to Rig an Election, this excerpt:
On October 18, [James] Tobin called me at RLC headquarters, saying, "I wanted to know if you'd be willing to do some work."
"Yeah, sure. What have you got?"
"Would it be possible to disrupt phone lines?"
"Well," I said, "What do you mean?"
"If I had a couple of phone numbers that I wanted to shut down on Election Day, could you do that?"
"Anything's possible," I said, giving Tobin the example that sometimes when we did automated phone calls into small towns the volume of calls going through the switch was so big that the switch couldn't handle it and ended up shutting down.
...To me it was amazing that an agent from the Republican National Committee [James Tobin] would call me on the phone and ask me to do it. But the fact that the call came from the RNC is the reason I didn't just dismiss the idea out of hand. The Bush White House had complete control of the RNC and there was no way someone like Tobin was going to try what he was proposing without first getting it vetted by his higher-ups. That's if Tobin, rather than one of his bosses, had even thought of the ploy himself - which seemed rather unlikely.
Bonus: here's a photo of Tobin chatting up Sununu senior advisor Julie Teer two years after the crime that helped her boss become senator, and while he was still being investigated:
And here's the Sprinter himself in 2003 with convicted phonejamming felon Chuck McGee:
U.S. District Court Judge Stephen McAuliffe who ruled that he had been "constrained" by a 2007 federal appeals court ruling "to conclude that Tobin is entitled to a judgment of acquittal."
The appeals court last year overturned Tobin's 2005 conviction and sent the case back to McAuliffe's trial court for review of whether Tobin's action had fit the crime with which he had been charged and convicted.
Tobin's attorneys moved for acquittal last September, but last month, McAuliffe issued an order setting out a schedule for a new trial but had not ruled specifically on the acquittal motion. Tobin's attorney appealed that pre-trial order last week.
Late this afternoon, McAuliffe acquitted Tobin, but said he believed that the case will ultimately be reviewed again by an appeals court.
I know there's no honor among theives, and all, but in reading through smaller fish phone jammer Allen Raymond's How to Rig an Election, it becomes pretty clear that Tobin is high enough on the GOP food chain that he needed to be protected. And since the DoJ slow-walked Tobin's prosecution in the first place, I'm suspicious of every chapter of Tobin's court story, including this one.
Morning Update: From the comments (Paul Twomey):
The statute is indeed a poor fit for the crime.
And it begs the question, which I asked the DOJ to no avail, of why Tobin wasnt simply charged with what he did--- a conspriacy to violate the constitutional right of speech and association of the victims.
They originally charged him with a conspiracy to interfer with the get out the rides program, which was thrown out at trial when Allen Raymond told the jury that he had never mentioned that the calls would go to the ride program, because Chuck Mcgee only came up with that idea later.
This charging decision, like that to allege harassment, is problematic. The DOJ had interviewed Raymond a year earlier and had to know that the charges either didnt fit or couldnt be proved.
The matter will now return to the court of appeals for resolution on the question of the charging decisions. For the truth we will have to wait upon the House Judidiary Committee hearings on the DOJ mishandling of the case.
Our favorite former GOP operative gives the background on what it will take to compete with the likely GOP nominee.
http://www.alternet.org/electi...
What Dems Need to Know About John McCain
By Allen Raymond, AlterNet. Posted February 11, 2008.
The adage in Republican presidential politics is to run right in the primary, then left into the general election. After Gov. Romney suspended his campaign, Sen. John McCain bolted off the line of scrimmage into an end zone post pattern. What Democrats need to know about Sen. McCain is that he is no easy pickings for the Democratic presidential nominee and that he has the record to compete heavily for the sweet center of the American electorate.
Democrats should keep in mind the fact Rush Limbaugh, Dr. James Dobson (founder of Focus on the Family) and a collective booing by attendees of this season's CPAC convention adds up to a Sister Souljah moment for Sen. McCain. Sen. McCain can't be a Bush Republican if all of those people despise him. No amount of ribald applause from that crowd is enough for Sen. McCain to want to emulate the Bush Administration, which is much like a wounded animal looking for a cool, shady place to die.
The most interesting part of Allen Raymond's visit to The Daily Show is around four minutes into the clip.
That's when Raymond explains that the phone jamming crime was ordered from on high, at the very least from the Republican National Committee through James Tobin. Stewart's reaction is instructive.
Perspective is important. We followers of Granite State politics know this stuff well. But most Granite State voters don't know the details of how corrupt the Republican party was in getting Sununu elected our Senator. And when they are reminded of it, campaigns, that's how they're going to react.
Back in 2006 I thought the phone-jamming story was already too old to be useful. But thanks to the intentional slow-walk at DoJ and Raymond's tell-all book (which in turn is thanks to his getting thrown under the bus by Tobin, et alii), this thing has long, long legs, stretching well into this November. If the GOP used crime to help John E. get elected, then I see no problem with mentioning that crime a few times to help him get defeated.
Allen Raymond, notorious executor of the 2002 New Hampshire phone jamming scandal, was on "A" Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight, promoting his new book, How to Rig an Election. It's actually a good interview, and will be re-played tomorrow (Friday) in the 8:00-8:30 PM rerun of tonight's episode.
We all know he did a terrible thing, but he's hard to hate, considering how willing he is to condemn the things for which he was so rightly punished. I know he's peddling a book that he wants to make money on, and probably trying to start a career as a talking head (and perhaps settle the score with some former co-workers who threw him under the bus), but he does seem worth listening to at this point.
PS: in case you didn't know, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" has re-branded itself "A Daily Show with Jon Stewart" for the remainder of the WGA strike; my understanding is that Stewart and Colbert, having shown support for the WGA, were forced to come back on the air without their writers or risk having their staff and crew members laid off. Many people are unwilling to appear on their shows (making money for Comedy Central and AMPTP member Viacom), but the WGA has essentially said it doesn't fault them for crossing the picket lines, since they were basically blackmailed. If anybody can explain the situation better in the comments, please feel free.
Sununu phone-jammer Allen Raymond is spending the week over at TPM's Table for One. Here's the essence of the Republican party straight from the horse's mouth:
As a Republican campaign operative at the Republican National Committee it was drilled into me that election law attorneys serve the purpose identifying the bright line of the law so it could be taunted but not crossed. Anybody who has a problem with that or doesn't get it doesn't understand America. America is about self interest, within the rule of law. That's where I erred.
Looking for that last minute Christmas present? Well, it's not out until primary day, but you could pre-order How to Rig an Election for the Dems in your family who think they are no longer capable of outrage.
Because this book is full of surprises. Here's one I just bumped into: forget McClatchy's investigative journalism, even phonejammer Allen Raymond thinks the Justice Department intentionally slow-walked Tobin's indictment (from an advance copy):
On the 13th [of October, 2004] the Dems were set to depose a New Hampshire Republican party official regarding the phonejamming. Twenty minutes before the scheduled start, the DOJ intervened with a court order stopping the deposition on the grounds that it would interfere with the ongoing criminal investigation. the Democrats screamed murder, which was a habit they were growing fond of.
Their play was "John Ashcroft's Department of Justice is interfering with this for political reasons!" Was that true? It may as well have been. [DoJ prosecutor] Hinnen himself had told my lawyer that the case was being run directly from Ashcroft's office. And three weeks before the election, just when the Democrats were about to put someone under oath who might be able to establish that Bush/Cheney's man in the region [James Tobin] had played a starring role, the DOJ rolled in and shut them down.
As someone who wasn't very focused on electoral politics in 2002, and focused mostly on national politics in 2004, this book is a revelation for me, as well as being a pretty good primer on this long and sordid tale to get Sununu installed as our senator by means of criminally repressing the vote.
* James Tobin gives not going to jail again for phone-jamming Sununu to victory the old college try. I dunno. I'm sure once he's locked up there will be plenty to read.
* A question for Blue Hamsters: is it late enough in the game at this point that we ought to start paying attention to primary polling? If so, then CNN/WMUR has Clinton with a commanding lead, but one that's shrunk significantly since September. Richardson also had a huge jump:
Sounds like a page-turner, out soon from Simon and Schuster--How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Law Breaker.
Allen Raymond was a Republican rising star in 2002, until "pushing the envelope" for his GOP clients landed him in a three-month sentence in jail. He has not been making his former colleagues happy since he got out--for example telling the Boston Globe that Republicans have turned so "ultra-aggressive" and "ruthless" that he feared saying no to James Tobin about jamming phones would shut him out of future business with the RNC.
The RNC, which paid millions in legal bills for Tobin, but nothing for Raymond, is no doubt regretting that decision as they wait for Raymond to publish a much longer version of his bitter memories...especially because Raymond's co-author is...
Looking for that last minute Christmas present? Well, it's not out until primary day, but you could pre-order How to Rig an Election for the Dems in your family who think they are no longer capable of outrage.
