GOP Phone-Jam Gate: What Did The White House Know?

Here's one you won't hear Bill O'Reilly and friends talk about: former Republican National Committee regional director James Tobin will be sentenced today in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire for his role in a Republican scheme to jam Democratic "get out the vote" phone lines on election day in New Hampshire in November, 2002.

The scheme may just have vaulted Republican John Sununu into the Senate--he won a closely contested race that day by less than 20,000 votes.

Was it worth it?

Perhaps--at the time, Democrats held a slim one-vote margin in the Senate; losing New Hampshire would have meant flipping a Republican seat to the Democrats. New Hampshire was as close as could be in the 2000 presidential election, so the GOP had good reason to worry.

So far, three GOP operatives--Tobin, Charles McGee (executive director of the NH Republican Party) and Allen Raymond (a political consultant) have been found guilty of criminally violating federal communications laws for their role in the scheme. That's serious business--this was not a silly little political prank.

This much is clear: the scheme, which involved hiring an Idaho telecommunications firm with GOP connections to (quite successfully) tie up the Democratic phone lines in New Hampshire, was sanctioned at the national level, as evidenced by Tobin's conviction.

But was the White House--i.e., uncle Karl--also plugged in to the dirty deed? Probably.

First off, phone records indicate 22 phone calls between Tobin and the White House on election day.

Second, after the election--but before the probe reached Tobin--he was made New England Chairman of the '04 Bush-Cheney campaign (later resigning).

Third, just look at the money trail. So far, the Republican National Committee has spent more than $3 million in legal fees to defend the criminal probes and related civil cases arising out of the plan. The NH Republican Party has also spent a bundle on the cases--so much so that it is broke, with less than $1000 in the bank.

Just think how this would have gone if the shoe had been on the other foot in the days of the Independent Persecutor.

Prosecutors are urging 18-24 months in prison for Tobin, while his lawyers say he's "suffered enough" (i.e., rich white family guys shouldn't have to go to prison because the humiliation and shame of being convicted is enough, by itself, to punish them).

What about deterrence? He should do time, not only for the crime, but because he's still protecting higher ups.