Rove Protege/Vote Suppressor/Former US Atty Tim Griffin Mulls Senate Bid

[mod mom]

Former US Attorney Tim Griffin Mulls Senate Bid
By The Associated Press
12/15/2008 2:52:01 PM



LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Tim Griffin, who resigned his post as interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock after serving six months under scrutiny, says he's thinking about running against U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln in 2010.

Griffin told The Associated Press on Monday that he hopes to make a decision by early or mid-summer on whether to run against Lincoln, a Democrat seeking her third term in the Senate.

"I am certainly thinking about it," Griffin said. "I'm going to spend some time going around the state and talking to folks and getting an idea of the interest level. ... I'm going to try and hit all 75 counties as soon as possible and I know that's a tall order trying to hit all of those in the next few months"

Griffin, a former aide to ex-presidential adviser Karl Rove, was appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas after Bud Cummins resigned his post. Cummins later said he was forced out by the U.S. Department of Justice, and his firing was one of several that prompted a congressional inquiry of the dismissals.

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http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aID=110858.54928.123000



IN CASE SOME OF YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN TIM GRIFFIN:



Well, let's start with the estimable J. Timothy Griffin, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas since December 20th.

If you hadn't heard about Griffin's appointment, don't feel bad, the guy he replaced hadn't either. Griffin's appointment was annouced on December 15th before the then-US Attorney Bud Cummins had even been given a chance to resign. Cummins got the call on his cell phone the same day while he was out hiking with his son. Cummins, who subsequently said he got forced out for political reasons, resigned on the 20th, the same day Griffin was sworn in.

So who's Griffin and what experience does he bring to the job?

Well, top of the list seems to be his stint at the White House where he worked for Karl Rove doing opposition research on Democrats. That was until late last year. According to this Arkansas Times report, for the last ten years -- with the exception of two one year stint -- he has always worked as a Republican party opposition researcher digging up dirt on Democrats. Deputy Research Director for the RNC from 1999-2000. Research Director for the RNC from 2002-2005. Oppo Research Director for Karl Rove 2005-2006. Prior to 1999? Well, he was associate independent counsel investigating Henry Cisneros from 1995-96. After that he went to work for Dan Burton on the Hill to investigate Asian money contributions to the DNC.

Back in 2000, when he was in charge of digging up dirt on Al Gore, he apparently had a poster hanging on the wall behind his desk which read: "On my command - unleash hell on Al."

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http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/011958.php




Griffin has a colorful past as the RNC's director of opposition research in 2004. Here's some video of Griffin in the RNC war room on the night of one of the Bush-Kerry debates. Griffin's memorable line that night was that his crew of oppo researchers created the ammunition for the Bush campaign to fire. "We make the bullets," Griffin is overheard saying.

But Griffin didn't achieve notoriety until his role in the U.S. attorney purge scandal was revealed. After leaving the RNC, Griffin went to work in the White House as an aide to Karl Rove. With help from Rove and White House Counsel Harriet Miers, the then-34-year-old Griffin was installedas the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas in December 2006.

A total of nine U.S. attorneys were ousted to make room for naked partisans like Griffin or to remove prosecutors considered too independent by the Republican political operatives in the White House and DOJ. As the extent of the purge became known and it became clear that unqualified Griffin would never be confirmed on a permanent basis by the Senate, he withdrew is nomination. Last June, he tearily declared that public service was "not worth it," sometimes crying as he said he had no plan to return to politics.

-SNIP

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/196459.php



What would suggest that vote caging is a big deal. Is it?

Vote caging is an illegal trick to suppress minority voters (who tend to vote Democrat) by getting them knocked off the voter rolls if they fail to answer registered mail sent to homes they aren't living at (because they are, say, at college or at war). The Republican National Committee reportedly stopped the practice following a consent decree in a 1986 case. Google the term and you'll quickly arrive at the Wizard of Oz of caging, Greg Palast, investigative reporter and author of the wickedly funny Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans—Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild. Palast started reporting allegations of Republican vote caging for the BBC's Newsnight in 2004. He's been almost alone on the story since then. Palast contends, both in Armed Madhouse and widely through the liberal blogosphere, that vote caging, an illegal voter-suppression scheme, happened in Florida in 2004 this way:

The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked "Do not forward" to voters' homes. Letters returned ("caged") were used as evidence to block these voters' right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and—you got to love this—American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.
Why weren't these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation—and the soldiers were overseas.

Palast supplies evidence linking Tim Griffin, then-research director for the RNC, to this caging plot; specifically, a series of confidential e-mails to Republican Party muckety-mucks with the suggestive heading "RE: caging." The e-mails were accidentally sent to a George Bush parody site. They also contained suggestively named spreadsheets, headed "caging" as well. The names on the lists are what Palast's researchers deemed to be homeless men and soldiers deployed in Iraq. Here are the e-mails.

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http://www.slate.com/id/2167284

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. How does Lincoln's chances look?

Is she a favorite in Ark?

'course, with Timmy's skill at stealing elections...