GOP Vote Control

This Brad Friedman post recalls Clint Curtis' allegations that Florida Representative Tom Feeney asked him to create a vote-stealing touch screen program for the 2000 elections. While no legal charges have yet been brought against Representative Feeney with regard to the vote rigging scandal in Florida, it seems that he is receiving large donations to his defense fund in the Abramoff scandal from his old friends and partners in the voting systems companies. And, in case you were thinking that the "conspiracy theories" about the GOP putting the fix on U.S. elections is merely the product of paranoid minds, Friedman's post adds force to the Curtis claims by virtue of a new investigative report by Dan Rather. For the sake of getting these things into serious discussions, I'm sorry to say, I think Dan should allow other reporters who haven't been publicly tainted to take the catbird seat and the credit. At any rate, among the revelations in the Rather report:

Sequoia [Voting Systems] company whistleblowers reveal on camera that, despite their objections, they were forced to use poor quality paper for the punchcards to be used in Florida in 2000. They also revealed that they had been instructed to deliberately misalign the chads for ballots going to Palm Beach County, FL, only.

Now can we have some serious investigations?

Fulll Rather video report here. Summary of the Curtis/Feeney story here.

Abramoff Strikes Again

Convicted felon lobbyist Jack Abramoff's gifts keep on giving.

Florida Representative Tom Feeney regrets an "embarassing episode" in his career.

Federal agents also have asked the St. Petersburg Times for an email sent to the newspaper by Feeney's office describing a golfing trip the congressman took with Abramoff to Scotland in 2003.

Feeney did not return calls for comment Monday. But his Washington office released a statement to the Times late Monday.

"Rep. Feeney considers this an embarrassing episode in his 17-year career as an elected official and an expensive lesson for him as a public servant," according to the statement.

  St. Petersburg Times article

Yes, since his fellow golfers Bob Ney and Tom Delay are respectively in the slammer and under investigation, and John Doolittle (R-CA) just gave up his House seat after being raided by the FBI last week, Tommy is (at least pretending to be) contrite. (And pretending to be a public servant, as well.)

Not so much about the episode where he allegedly attempted to contract a man to rig voting machines. (You should know that he denies it, and that the man who claims he was approached switched parties and ran against Feeney in the 2006 election.)

Feeney's biggest expense this year: legal fees - $23,000. Oh, and he just recently gave $1,000 of his Abramoff donated money to charity. Perhaps $1,000 is all he had left.

Maybe you know Mr. Feeney by his other distinction: named by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress.