There have been some recent good pieces on the connection between the U.S. Attorney firings and the manufactured fear of voter fraud at the polls.
In yesterday's
Washington Post, Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt of the Brennan Center for Justice wrote:
Those investigating the U.S. attorney firings should ask what orders
went out to other prosecutors in the run-up to the 2006 election.
Prosecutors are not hired-gun lawyers on a party payroll. They have a
special duty to exercise their power responsibly, particularly in the
context of a heated election. Pressure on prosecutors to join a witch
hunt for individual voter fraud is a scandal, not just for the Justice
Department but for voters seeking to exercise their most basic right.
See also the Brennan Center's new Web site,
truthaboutfraud.org, debunking the myth of rampant voter fraud.
Yesterday's
LA Times had an OpEd, "Bush's long history of tilting Justice" by Joe Rich, who I mentioned in my earlier post on this subject. Rich had this to say:
Regardless of the administration, the political appointees had respect
for the experience and judgment of longtime civil servants.
Under the Bush administration, however, all that changed. Over the last
six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff
and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were
intended to influence the outcome of elections.
It
has notably shirked its legal responsibility to protect voting rights.
From 2001 to 2006, no voting discrimination cases were brought on
behalf of African American or Native American voters. U.S. attorneys
were told instead to give priority to voter fraud cases, which, when
coupled with the strong support for voter ID laws, indicated an intent
to depress voter turnout in minority and poor communities.
Today, in
Salon, Alia Malek has a similar take on the situation:
The Bush administration's actions over the past six years seem almost
prima facie evidence that it does view civil rights enforcement --
which had traditionally been on behalf of African-Americans, women and
other racial, ethnic and religious minorities -- as a partisan matter.
In perhaps a case of projection, it seems to have also expected career
people to abuse their power on behalf of partisan goals.
Finally, Jonah Goldman of the Lawyers' Committee and I wrote a piece, "Whose Election Fraud?" that appeared on Wednesday in
TomPaine.com. Here's our final paragraph:
Elections exist to determine the will of the voters. Although voters
are often partisans, they don't want partisan policies to skew the
results. While voter fraud should be deplored and prosecuted fully, the
cynical manipulation of elections for partisan gain is a crime far more
dangerous to our country, and one for which there should be zero
tolerance. Voter confidence that elections are fairly administered is
what gives our government legitimacy. If our elections are impeachable,
then so are our elected officials.
