Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Diversity!

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1 comment:

Ghost Dansing said...

Oh, the Republican Party's political philosophy is plenty diverse. Why, it includes barely-legal gerrymandering to keep themselves in power, and any illegal activity that they can possibly get away with, to keep themselves in power.

Still crooks after Nixon, and all and after these years:

The door to Edmund A. Matricardi's office at the Republican Party of Virginia was shut. One of the small tape recorders on his desk was running. And his speakerphone was filling the room with a politically tantalizing argument between Democratic lawmakers and the state's Democratic governor, Mark R. Warner.

Over the next three days, the 33-year-old executive director of the state party shared the fruits of his eavesdropping with some of Virginia's most powerful Republicans. "You wouldn't believe what I just did. You wouldn't believe what I just heard," he told one, according to sworn testimony he later gave in a federal lawsuit.

In fact, what Matricardi had done was a federal crime, a felony. For more than 2 1/2 hours on March 22, 2002, and again during another conference call three days later, Matricardi violated wiretapping laws.

Matricardi's political chicanery brought him down, along with the party's chairman and two top legislative aides, and ensnared the party in two years of legal disputes and political embarrassments.

Tuesday, newly released transcripts of depositions in the case provide fresh details of how initial excitement among Republican politicians and operatives later turned to fear as they realized they'd been caught.

The conference calls that Matricardi intercepted involved Democratic lawmakers who were angry at Warner for allowing the state to appeal a court ruling striking down the Republican plan to redistrict the legislature. After recording the first call, according to depositions, Matricardi was eager to share what amounted to juicy political gossip.

My God! The Republican State Attory General had to bust his own State's Republican Headquarters for illegal wiretap! What does that say about the Republican Party? Certainly diverse.

One can only hope that Tom Delay's diverse political philosophy is investigated as well.

December 8, 2004 at 8:31 AM

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