U.S. attorney was ‘cheerleading’ for GOP caging scheme

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/25/us-attorney-was-cheerleading-for-gop-caging-scheme/

U.S. attorney was ‘cheerleading’ for GOP caging scheme.

Just four days before the 2004 elections, Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta — who is now a U.S. attorney in Ohio — sent an “unusual letter” to a federal judge in Ohio who “was weighing whether to let Republicans challenge the credentials of 23,000 mostly African American voters” in a caging scheme. Acosta argued in favor of the Republican party. “Robert Kengle, former deputy chief of the department’s Voting Rights Section who served under Acosta, said the letter amounted to ‘cheerleading for the Republican defendants.’”

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/239832.html

'Vote caging' allegations arise in probe of U.S. attorney firings

Critics say top Justice official's '04 letter to Ohio judge was a partisan maneuver.
By Greg Gordon - McClatchy Washington Bureau

Last Updated 12:32 am PDT Monday, June 25, 2007


Four days before the 2004 election, the Justice Department's civil rights chief sent an unusual letter to a federal judge in Ohio who was weighing whether to let Republicans challenge the credentials of 23,000 mostly African American voters.

The case was triggered by allegations that Republicans had sent a mass mailing to mostly Democratic-leaning minorities and used undeliverable letters to compile a list of voters potentially vulnerable to eligibility challenges.

In his letter to U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott of Cincinnati, Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta argued that it would undermine the enforcement of state and federal election laws if citizens could not challenge voters' credentials.

Former Justice Department civil rights officials and election watchdog groups charge that his letter sided with Republicans engaging in an illegal, racially motivated tactic known as "vote-caging" in a state that would be pivotal in delivering President Bush a second term in the White House.

Acosta's letter is among a host of allegedly partisan Justice Department voting rights positions that could draw scrutiny on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks as congressional Democrats expand investigations sparked by the firing of at least nine U.S. attorneys.

more...

K & R

FOUR DAYS

Alex Acosta — U.S. Attorney, Ohio. One more pasty faced litle weasel.
Another Bradly Schlozeman

So the message was "get with the program" (use the Dept. of Justice for political purposes),
or get fired from the Department. So what are the rest of the U.S. attorneys who didn't
get fired like? Good little "party members."

I remember the day after the election..."Morality was the issue that won the day for the GOP!"

Their Morals are oral!