Last week RNC chief Ken Mehlman was spotted grovelling at the feet of
the International Association of Fire Fighters, "a group that has long
been part of the Democrats' base: organized labor," according to the
New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/politics/21labor.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

Mehlman said, "We've sometimes disagreed, but we've always kept the
dialogue open. There are areas where we can work together over the
coming year."

Funny - the RNC didn't do such a good job of "keeping the dialogue
open" back in 2002.

Mike Gehrk of the Senate Majority Project noted last week
http://www.senatemajority.com/node/132 that the International
Association of Fire Fighters was one of the targets of James Tobin, a
regional director of the Republican National Committee who was
recently convicted of conspiring to jam the phone lines of a
get-out-the-vote operation run by New Hampshire Democrats during the
2002 elections.

According to the Bangor Daily News:
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=130740


Prosecutors argued that although the intent of the hundreds of
repeated hang-up calls on Election Day was not to inflict emotional
distress, they were intended to disrupt communication, harass workers,
and make their jobs more difficult.


"We've always kept the dialogue open," eh?

In a related story by the Associated Press, Ken Mehlman last week
"reiterated a 'zero-tolerance policy' for any GOP official caught
trying to block legitimate votes. 'The position of the Republican
National Committee is simple: We will not tolerate fraud; we will not
tolerate intimidation; we will not tolerate suppression. No employee,
associate or any person representing the Republican Party who engages
in these kinds of acts will remain in that position.'"
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/08/11/gop_paying_legal_bills_of_bush_campaign_official_accused_of_voter_suppression/

The Republican Party will, however, pay their legal bills.

The AP story reports that "Since charges were first filed in December,
the RNC has spent more than $722,000 to provide Tobin, who has pleaded
innocent, a team of lawyers from the high-powered Washington law firm
of Williams & Connolly."

And the Bangor Daily News notes that "Last month, a New Hampshire
newspaper reported that the most recent report filed with the Federal
Election Commission indicated the RNC may have paid as much as $2.5
million for Tobin's legal defense since his indictment two years ago."

Nice zero-tolerance policy you've got there, Mr. Mehlman.


From The Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Harry