The crucial vote on Hans von Spakovsky's FEC term.

Regarding "Tally Ho!: The GOP's Hounding of Voters" (September 27), which focused on GOP anti-Democratic, anti-democratic operative Hans von Spakovsky, the lawyers at NYU's Brennan Center for Justice gave me a heads-up on their mass mailing to senators about today's scheduled vote on von Spakovsky's confirmation for another FEC term. The letter, signed by Executive Director Michael Waldman, pulls no punches:

Read the whole letter (PDF), but forget about counting on today's hearing if you're planning on learning all about von Spakovsky's sordid history of partisan sabotage of voting rights when he worked for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and since his recess appointment by which George W. Bush's handlers sneaked him in at FEC headquarters. Members of the club known as the U.S. Senate have agreed to conduct only two hours of hearings about von Spakovsky before putting his name to a vote on the Senate floor. The Hill explains:

Will today's scheduled vote on the former GOP county chairman from Georgia rest on a simple majority in a Senate where the Democrats have a razor-thin handle on power? At this very minute, there's probably some pretty intense lobbying going on in the Senate cloakroom.

Too bad the hearing on von Spakovsky is being limited to two hours. That's not enough time for Americans to fully learn about his shenanigans in keeping citizens from voting. OK, so, unlike William Rehnquist, he hasn't personally stopped black people from voting on Election Day in 1964 before becoming chief justice of the United States. Von Spakovsky is more of a behind-the-scenes operative.

But leaving this guy on the FEC is absurd, not only for Democrats but for all voters. If he survives, our 2008 elections automatically become less democratic, and you'll have to rewrite your kids' civics textbooks.

Rehnquist is dead, but his spirit lives. The Supreme Court and Rove's man at the FEC pump life into "voter fraud" scheme.

A snapshot of current American electoral politics is one of the ugliest pictures of the year, now that the increasingly conservative Supreme Court has decided to hear a major voter-fraud/national photo ID case before next year's elections.

The GOP-engineered presidential-vote debacle in 2000 has developed into what may become a major scandal involving the use of photo IDs, which the GOP has been trying to engineer in time for next year.

"Voter fraud" — a purported invasion of polling places by illegitimate voters — is the battle cry of Republican officials hoping to stem turnout by likely Democratic voters in battleground states.

And "voter fraud" is right: The requirement that voters present photo IDs is their scheme, and Hans von Spakovsky is their standard-bearer at the Federal Election Commission. That uncomfortable sensation felt by small-d democrats is their cherished poll being shoved up a place where the sun don't shine.

Who said Karl Rove left the building? Coupled with the appointment of Michael Mukasey to oversee the Justice Department and its Civil Rights Division, the GOP is setting itself up well for '08, fighting a winnable war against U.S. voters while it fights an impossible war overseas. Rove's fingerprints are all over this, whether or not he's still using his White House keyboard.

Iraq has left the Republicans flaccid, but their "voter fraud" canard and accompanying strategy threaten to give the GOP yet another election.

Shades of Bill Rehnquist! Before he was chief justice of the U.S., Rehnquist personally blocked black people from voting in Phoenix in 1964, using "voter fraud" as his excuse. I wrote about that in September 2005 ("Rehnquist Death Gives Bush Chance to Deepen American Crisis"), recalling Dennis Roddy's riveting column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that itself recalled Rehnquist's totalitarian behavior in Arizona as a GOP operative.

Rehnquist died in September 2005, but that didn't help because John Roberts, who favors corporate citizens over human citizens, took his place. An event that may turn out to be equally vital to the GOP occurred three months later, when Bush made a recess appointment to the FEC of von Spakovsky, a former Republican county chairman in Georgia. Before his FEC appointment, von Spakovsky was the chief civil-rights violator in the Justice Department's civil-rights division, leading the move to suppress minority and poor voters.

Von Spakovsky is up for confirmation to another FEC term. And the Roberts Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will hear the issue involving national photo IDs and voting — just in time for next year's election. This is dangerous, because it will likely bollix up '08 voting in key states.

There's plenty to read on this topic. From Paul Kiel at Talking Points Memo this past June:

Kiel refers to a 2004 piece by Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker whose headline says it all: "Poll Position: Is the Justice Department poised to stop voter fraud — or to keep voters from voting?"

See Lou Dubose's 2006 account of how von Spakovsky collaborated with Rove to scheme Tom Delay's crooked redistricting in Texas earlier this century. More to the current point, Dubose noted at the time:

Dahlia Lithwick's piece two days ago in Slate is also vital for understanding the back story on von Spakovsky.

Legal beagles can parse Bob Bauer's analysis yesterday of the politics swirling around the vote case the Supreme Court has now agreed to hear.

For a very recent story hinting at the bad smell emanating from the Justice Department, see "The Stooge," by David Martin of Kansas City's The Pitch.

As for following this issue, though, nothing beats wonk lawyer Rick Hasen's Election Law site, though Hasen is perhaps too hopeful that the high court will protect the rights of voters.

As I've pointed out before, in a September 2004 piece about dubious electronic-voting machines, Hasen is always a captivating and current legal-news live wire.

Those who can't live without the New York Times can learn some things from an April 12 story, "In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud," co-bylined by Ian Urbina, whose copy I used to have the pleasure of editing.

But you must keep clicking on the excellent McClatchy home page (formerly the Knight-Ridder D.C. Bureau), and definitely read Greg Gordon's story last April, "Administration pursued aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout." Gordon noted:

Next year those of you who can vote might want to vote early and vote often.

Picking Mukasey as AG should help the GOP and Rudy and should scare civil libertarians.

The selection of terror-case judge Michael Mukasey, a pal of Rudy Giuliani's, as the next AG broadly hints at the GOP's strategy for next year's elections: Terror 24-7.

Mukasey's close ties to Rudy make him a simply fabulous choice as attorney general. He's practically a running mate for Giuliani during the next year of campaigning.

What about Mukasey and the rest of us? For the next year as lame-duck AG, Mukasey, who presided over the trial of the World Trade Center's 1993 bombers, will be a constant and sympathetic/heroic reminder of the "war on terror." Maybe that will stoke enough fear in us that we'll forget the war of terror we've created in Iraq.

This is a smart move by the GOP. It smacks of Karl Rove, but he supposedly left the building.

Here's the bad news: Mukasey is potentially far more hazardous to our civil liberties than Alberto Gonzales ever was. Gonzales was a dumb-ass, and Mukasey is very sharp. Mukasey thinks so highly of the Patriot Act that he felt compelled to defend it in a 2004 Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing:

Dispensing with the name, Mukasey proceeds to write a scary analysis, particularly his sneering at librarians' concerns and his strong implication that the Bill of Rights, because it was tacked onto the Constitution, has less heft.

His argument is that we ought to give the government the benefit of the doubt in its dealings with we the people. That's the same kind of reasoning that Chief Justice John Roberts uses to give corporations the benefit of the doubt over people, as I wrote in July 2005..

Here are Mukasey's concluding paragraphs from the WSJ op-ed:

Of course, it's the government that determines what measures are required to "keep us alive." This is one scary lawyer, or as Ben Franklin said:

But concerning the really important stuff — the '08 presidential campaign — Giuliani now has a security blanket. Mukasey is, in effect, his running mate. He'll get bipartisan support from the Senate — Chuck Schumer and other Democrats love him, and Mukasey's role as a judge intimately involved with World Trade Center and other terrorism cases while he was a federal judge in New York City will guarantee him a free pass during confirmation hearings.

You'll hear the word "terror" about a million times during those brief hearings, and the horror of the attacks will be brought up again and again.

As to Mukasey's connections with Giuliani? Forget this morning's papers if you want all the details. As Ron Mills pointed out yesterday in his cleverly named blog, Ron Mills — News And Commentary, Mukasey is a really close pal of Rudy's — he administered the oath of office to newly elected Mayor Giuliani twice in 1994 — once in Mukasey's apartment.

Mukasey was already a member of the Giuliani campaign's "Justice Advisory Committee", and Mukasey's son Marc is a partner in Rudy's law firm.

The apartment oath and the fact that Marc Mukasey is a law partner of Rudy's somehow didn't make it into this morning's New York Times story.

But if Rudy wins the '08 election, you can be sure of one detail: Mukasey will stay on as AG.

If you have some time on your hands, go to John Young's insane and great cryptome.org for the complete transcript of the trial stemming from the '93 bombing.

And what a trial that was. The prosecutor won the case, and you'd think that the GOP would love to give him a top job in the Bush administration — except for the fact that the prosecutor was Patrick Fitzgerald.

Zelikow's role in anti-Maliki agitprop raises 9/11 Commission questions

What else is embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supposed to do but counterattack the American politicians who are blasting him? He can't very well agree with their calls for his ouster. And he's already seen as a U.S. puppet by his own populace.

But Salon's Glenn Greenwald summarizes well the murky politics behind the attacks on Maliki by Hillary Clinton and other senators: Former 9/11 Commission executive director Philip Zelikow has been lobbying on behalf of Tony Soprano lookalike (and former CIA stooge) Ayad Allawi, who wants to seize the reins from Maliki.

Greenwald notes how this slimy episode destroys Zelikow's credibility, and after all, Zelikow directed the 9/11 Commission. Now Zelikow pulls strings for Allawi, and everybody dances on Maliki's grave.

So I have a related question, or questions: What happened to the numerous juicy tidbits the staff under Zelikow dug up about the Bush regime's machinations before 9/11? For instance, why were morsels about Brian Sheridan, the government's chief counterterrorist adviser, not being replaced until after 9/11 and related stuff about dual-disloyalist Doug Feith not included in the final commission report? I wrote about some key differences between the staff reports (prepared by Zelikow's underlings) and the final report in June 2004.

Now we have an idea why some of that good stuff was left out of the final report: Zelikow was, after all, running the commission staff and no doubt had a major hand in OK'ing the final version of the report.

And here's another question: Why was the commission report initially released without an index? Another nice piece of stonewalling. Zelikow got some 'splainin' to do. That will never happen, at least not in our lifetime.

Anyway, from Greenwald's continually updated piece:

Great stuff, as usual, from Greenwald, who notes:

Allawi was a U.S. stooge when he "ran" the Iraq government. We already know that Bush is a puppet whose strings are pulled by Karl Rove and whose role as commander-in-chief on 9-11 was taken over by Dick Cheney.

I guess it's not news that we're all being led. But just remember that the next time your buttons are pushed by something you read or hear about from your pols, someone like Zelikow may actually be pulling your strings.

George W. Bush nicknamed Karl Rove "The Architect," but the POTUS isn't much of a reader, so we need a better definition of the guy who always relished his role as Rasputin.

My dictionary says "rove" is the past tense of "rive":

(Yes, I know that "My dictionary says …" is a hackneyed device, but my dictionary is the OED on CD-ROM, and Rove himself is a hackneyed device, so do me a favor and keep reading.)

The fact is that Rove is definitely not past tense on Capitol Hill, as I noted early yesterday. Later in the day, New York senator Chuck Schumer spoke the obligatory words:

That ship has sailed. As a verb by its intransitive lonesome, "rove" takes on another meaning:

Unfortunately, this political plunderer's shredder is probably overheating right now. We already know that thousands of juicy e-mails describing his plots are out there. But shredding is Rove's name, if you believe the OED, and I do:

For the sake of history, though, Rove is "rove" in a broader sense:

What's the use. Rove's already in transit out of D.C. If issues make you reach for tissues, this definition (of "rive" and thus "rove") is for you:

Whether or not he's ever called back from Texas to testify — and it would probably take a stint at Gitmo to get him to do it — Rove could very well end up as a memorable, if improper, noun. This 15th century usage fits, but it's obsolete:

No, forget "architect," scabs, and all other nouns. To me, Rove will always be a verb, especially in this sense:

Kind of a Robin Hood, except that Rove, as I pointed out yesterday, robs the poor to give to the rich.

What a con he pulled on us marks. Yes, that is true "roving." The OED elaborates:

Weekly report: There's no fuel, but flames intensify.

We're probably too busy getting killed, but couldn't we spare the time to drag ex-SecDef Don Rumsfeld back up to Capitol Hill to answer more questions about Iraq?

We certainly can't wait for General David Petraeus to file his progress report next month with Congress — the "coalition" commander promises he won't "pull any punches." But the current Iraq Weekly Status Report — reports prepared by the State Department that I've written about many times and that try to put the best possible light on the situation — already contains some staggering blows. Especially to Iraqis.

Keep in mind that an increasing number of Iraqis are getting blown up or otherwise killed. The Washington Post's Meg Greenwell rounded up those figures in her August 6 story, "Spike in Mass Bombings Against Civilians." My favorite paragraph of spin — not by Greenwell but by the Pentagon:

The news for Iraqis who are still alive is almost as bad. Why the press — especially in the U.S. — ignores the State Department's own weekly reports is beyond me. From the August 8 status report:

• Fuel: The bad news is that oil production is falling. The good news is that we've lowered the target for oil production. Oil-rich Iraq imports 58 percent of its gasoline, 27 percent of its natural gas, and 26 percent of its diesel.

Current fuel supplies? The target is 15 days' worth of fuels. Diesel supplies have fallen from 3 days' worth in June and July to only 2 days' worth in August, kerosene from 4 days' worth previously to 3, and gasoline from 3 days' worth in June to 2 days' worth in July to 1 day's worth of gasoline on hand right now. Thankfully, supplies of LPG (natural gas) have held steady: There was 1 day's supply in June, 1 in July, and 1 in August.

• Electricity: The August 1-7 daily demand is 20 percent higher than during the same period last year. The daily supply is 12 percent lower. 43 percent of the total electricity demand is being met this year, compared with 58 percent last year. While temperatures are triple digit, Baghdad residents have only 4.9 hours of electricity a day right now, compared with a whopping 6.3 hours a day last August. Nationwide, Iraqis get 9.3 hours of power a day, compared with 10.7 last year.

Imagine the political hell that's raised in this country when the trains stop running, the bridges fall down, or the power goes out. Multiply that by a thousand and you'll understand why outside of Baghdad, major trouble is brewing, especially in the Shi'ite stronghold of Najaf. Even the U.S. State Department's deliberately sunny weekly reports can't put a smile on what's going in northern and southern Iraq, where all the oil fields are. Quoting from the August 8 report:

What about north of Baghdad, in the supposedly more stable Kurdish areas? More from the report:

The power outages and oil struggles are helping cause Iraq's government to short out. Once upon a time, Iraq's central government officials in Baghdad were firing subordinates. Now they're firing themselves.

• Government: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is grinding to a halt. It can't even summon a minyan. Ayad Allawi, the ex-prime minister, announced August 7 that three of his party's cabinet ministers would no longer attend meetings. From our own State Department's August 8 report:

We've spent $450 billion on the Iraq Debacle — wait a sec, it's closer to $451 billion.

Now climb aboard the Wayback Machine and go back just before the invasion of Iraq. These are the first two paragraphs of a February 28, 2003, New York Times story by Eric Schmitt:

In those heady days, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld displayed hubris that took your breath away. Now it's taken thousands of lives away. Neither would brook any criticism:

Now, however, it's useful.

Until last week, Florida legislator Bob Allen's big number was 92.3, his approval rating from the Christian Coalition of Florida.

But then, as Bob Norman of the Broward/Palm Beach New Times wrote on July 12, the conservative Republican lawmaker tried to give away the wrong kind of hummer.

Allen's luck changed forever on 7/11/07. At 3:33 p.m. that day, authorities say, he was arrested by a cop at a Titusville, Florida, park for allegedly offering to blow the cop for $20. OK, so it's also funny that the park is at 10 Broad Street. But what's really rich is Allen's website banner (above), which features his smiling face squeezed between a big ol' rocket blasting off and a man who's simply in orbit.

Norman pointed out that Allen has campaigned against public masturbation. But for those (like me) who can't get enough of exposing conservative Republican moralists who do more on their knees than just pray, here's the cop's semi-literate account of what went down in that Florida park's bathroom between the lawmaker and the lawman:

Obviously forsaking his own staff, Allen had just rolled one-eyed-snake eyes.

Regarding "McCain: Between Iraq and a Hard Place" (June 18), Chris O'Malley writes:

I enjoy your column. I thought you might enjoy this:

John McCain & George W. Bush...So Sweet

Dear Chris: Thanks for reading, and, yes, your YouTube video of Bush and McCain, their relationship set to the stylings of Nat King Cole, is really sweet. Highly recommended.