Purge

Remember how we've talked about the US attorney purge being essentially a voter purge aimed at controlling elections? Greg Palast has some more evidence in the firing of Arkansas Attorney Bud Cummins (who says he was warned to keep quiet about it). Or more exactly, the replacing of Bud Cummins with Rove buddy Tim Griffin.

Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove’s assistant, the President’s pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.

[...]

In October 2004, our investigations team at BBC Newsnight received a series of astonishing emails from Mr. Griffin, then Research Director for the Republican National Committee. He didn’t mean to send them to us. They were highly confidential memos meant only for RNC honchos.

However, Griffin made a wee mistake. Instead of sending the emails — potential evidence of a crime — to email addresses ending with the domain name “@GeorgeWBush.com” he sent them to “@GeorgeWBush.ORG.” A website run by prankster John Wooden who owns “GeorgeWBush.org.” When Wooden got the treasure trove of Rove-ian ravings, he sent them to us.

And we dug in, decoding, and mapping the voters on what Griffin called, “Caging” lists, spreadsheets with 70,000 names of voters marked for challenge. Overwhelmingly, these were Black and Hispanic voters from Democratic precincts.

Palast also has an article on Harriet Miers' role in the attorney purge, plus some background on previous firing and hiring Harriet has done for Bush and why he needs to keep her on his good side, going back to the days when George was helped into the Texas Air National Guard.

[C]ontrol over a US Attorney and what is called their “prosecutorial discretion” is worth its weight in gold to politicians. They can provide protection for cronies and exact punishment on enemies. And no one knows that better than “Justice” Harriet Miers and her boss, fighter pilot George W. Bush.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Update: The Boston Globe today has more on this same theme, but dealing with Brad Schlozman in Missouri.

Schlozman is emerging as a focal point of the investigation into the firing of eight US attorneys last year -- and as a symbol of broader complaints that the Bush administration has misused its stewardship of law enforcement to give Republicans an electoral edge.

[...]

"Schlozman was reshaping the Civil Rights Division," said Joe Rich , who was chief of the voting rights section until taking a buyout in 2005, in an interview. "Schlozman didn't know anything about voting law. . . . All he knew is he wanted to be sure that the Republicans were going to win."

And TPM Muckraker talks about Schlozman's efforts as US Attorney in Missouri to file last minute voter fraud charges in the elections.

And now the Justice Department is inventing "unwritten exceptions" to its policies to cover for him.