“There isn’t a single Democratic official that will do anything other than obstruct any investigation of voter fraud and issue constant public announcements criticizing the commission and what it is doing, making claims that it is engaged in voter suppression,”
Well, that may be enough internet for me today.
So my argument is that they were acting as members before they were “officially” appointed and therefore should be considered members the entire time.
That does make it a little tricky…if they were still private citizens then the rules about releasing their emails change, and the judge has to weigh that against the need to see the emails and understand how the commission worked. It is, however, obvious that the intent behind the commission was to undermine voting rights…the attitude of all three towards the Democrats was that they would “interfere” with the investigation, which basically means bring up evidence that doesn’t agree with what Kobach et al wanted to ram through as a pretext to legislation. Fortunately, it failed, as badly as the court case Kobach was involved in, and for the same reasons: their concept of voter fraud is BS.
I really wonder what historians are going to think looking back at the current Republicans and their efforts to undermine our democracy…the amount of shock they will feel should be really huge.
Just to be clear: This doesn’t make what they did any more proper, but it might mean that under the terms of Dunlap’s discovery request the communications are outside it’s scope.
running the place without even being appointed
All the judge needs to do is ask when they were notified they would be on the panel. From that point on, all communications pursuant to the panel itself should be considered “official”.
The nerve of them. It’s not like they’re Mar-a-Lago members.
There is no bottom.
…and Kobach is an utter moron.
Off topic:
Everything old is new again? See the President is into saving the World, he recycles.
If von Spakovsky and Adams were communicating with Pence and Kobach who were already appointed to the commission then why wouldn’t their communication be included in discovery?
If a group, or reporter FOIA communications during the sketchy voter fraud commission would they have to turn over all communications, whether they were from commissioners or private citizens? Didn’t Jeb get in trouble during the 2016 campaign by releasing all his communications while FL governor? Even left in the phone numbers, email addresses, and social security numbers of FL residents that communicated with him.
Just as Russia’s witless Agent Orange likes acting secretaries and other high officials because it gives him more flexibility (read he’s less accountable) if he prevails in this instance he will probably see it as yet another path to skirt accountability.
That’s not right. Time to impeach, using Laurence Tribe’s gambit to impeach but not submit to Senate because McConnell has already indicated his conclusions on any and all possible offenses by Agent Orange (hey, we get our judges and tax cuts for the rich, the rest is immaterial, right?)
That Kobach and Von Spakovsky were even empanelled in any 'investigation of ANY variety delegitimzes the administration, the GOP, Pence, and any possible results. Like calling in Mengele to review autopsy reports from Auschwicz.
“There isn’t a single Democratic official that will do anything other
than obstruct any investigation of voter fraud and issue constant public
announcements criticizing the commission and what it is doing, making
claims that it is engaged in voter suppression.” Thus spake Von Spakovsky,
who also said the proposal to broaden the commission was “disturbing,” and
showed “how little the WHouse understands this issue.”
Which alone says the commission was fraudulently conceived as a tool of
partisan politics. So Mr. Dunlap of Maine has truly done his duty by
going to court.
I haven’t seen a post on TPM today about Pompeo announcing that Iran attacked the Japanese ships. Has anyone else. I think this is an important story as it is filled with rich, deep, ironic, trumpiness and lies.
The Republican Party is the Taliban, armed with sophisticated science.
Remember, they knew to get the best and financed the Steele Dossier. This episode began a long time ago, and the Republican plan to turn America into a One-Party, Communist State longer than that.
Climate denial? Nah. Republicans love science. Just like they love Big Government.
I just wanna know if the Prince of Whales is a Blue Whale, a Sperm Whale, or an Orca, or something else entirely?