Former Rove-Protege Tim Griffin Joining RNC Opposition Research Shop To Help McCain ‘Turn His Fire’ On Obama
Former Rove-Protege Tim Griffin Joining RNC Opposition Research Shop To Help McCain ‘Turn His Fire’ On Obama
Last year, in the middle of the U.S. attorney scandal, former Karl Rove protege Tim Griffin resigned as the interim Eastern District U.S. attorney in Arkansas. Griffin had become the poster boy for the politicization of the U.S. attorney process after the Justice Department fired Bud Cummins to make way for him.
Now, Robert Novak reports that Griffin will be returning to his roots as a member of the RNC’s opposition research team. According to Novak, Griffin is being brought in as part of “the McCain campaign’s plan” to “turn his fire against [Sen. Barack] Obama“:
McCain, however, is not prepared to disarm himself unilaterally. Tim Griffin, the crack opposition research operative, is about to move into the Republican National Committee to turn his fire against Obama. McCain strategists see their only hope is to focus on the real Barack Obama.
But Griffin may do more than just “digging up of derogatory information” on Obama.
As RNC research director in 2004, Griffin reportedly led a “caging” scheme to suppress the votes of likely Democratic voters, including African-American service members in Florida. (Here’s an e-mail written by Griffin in August 2004 with the subject line “caging.”)
In March 2007, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) explained what happens in this “nefarious voter suppression tactic“:
First, a campaign identifies a geographic area with a disproportionate number of registered voters who belong to the opposite party — sometimes, but not always, taking the ethnic or racial makeup of that area into account. Second, the campaign sends “do not forward/return to sender” letters to voters in that area.
Third, the campaign challenges the right to vote of those citizens whose mail was returned “undelivered” — on the grounds that the voter does not live at the registered address. Of course, there are many reasons why a piece of mail might be “returned to sender” that have nothing whatsoever to do with a voter’s eligibility.
Last year, Whitehouse and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) introduced legislation to ban “caging,” but neither bill has been voted on.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
To start with, never trust a ‘man’ whose glasses are smaller than his eyeballs.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:24 amGood to see that the Repugs are into recycling of their own feces matter. Shows their environmental awareness.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:24 amWow! He’s even got Rove’s pasty whiteness down pat. Shouldn’t this guy be in jail by now?
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 amwhy bother with research? you just know they will swiftboat Obama- facts be damned!
No need to check facts, especially when smears, innuendo, and outright lies will do the trick.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 amWell this just makes plain what anybody with half a brain could see… The Republicans don’t stand a chance in this election -without some kind of cheating and they know it; however, it’s tactics like these that have brought their party down to the state that it’s in, so it’s also kind of a self-propelling cycle.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:38 amWhy did he resign as Eastern District U.S. attorney? Did he get tired of pleasuring the President? Gonzo would be so disappointed in him.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:38 amWhen you consider what they did to Max Cleland, John Kerry and, yes, John McCain you can imagine what they’ll try with Obama.
Is Griffin a part of the Rove / Seigelman story?
How would you like to be known as a ‘Rove protege’?
I’m looking forward to Obama dishing back some of the shit thrown at him while he was busy dueling with Hillary.
It’s time for all Americans to call this ‘Potemkin Village’ what it is…a cheap, fabricated script with nobody minding the store.
Rove & Griffin belong in jail, not in the news…
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:39 amHey, wait a second, his name is John Timothy Griffin. Wasn’t Timothy Leary a druggie?
Doesn’t that mean that Tim Griffin supports the use of psychodelic drugs!!!
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:43 amHere is where I worry. Obama will try to run a clean campaign and we have seen how that has really succeeded with past candidates. This year we will once again have a press corps fawning over McCain and turning every trivial item into a major press story on Obama.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 amOh, and “timothy” is the name of a type of grass as well.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:46 amThis is just another of the gooper Nazis that should be in jail. He is simply a guy willing to commit crimes for the cause.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:48 amJMOHR, I agree with your concern. For what it’s worth, I think the Obama campaign needs to get out in front of this with a very particular tactic – bring up the issues first with an Obama ad that specifically states how the Republicans are probably going to try to paint him unfairly (Muslim, unpatriotic, etc) and to challenge the Republicans to run on truth rather than falsehood.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 amBring it on, lil’ Timmy.
The wingnut attacks are going to be very interesting – laughable, too.
If there were anything out there to use against Obama, does the GOP believe Hillary would not have found it and used it already? Please.
Obama has gotten this far on integrity, character and “fighting” clean – the GOP is confused as hell on how to proceed and answer this. Resorting to the ol’ Rove playbook will not work this time – but we all know it’s all they have. They are dependent (and counting) on Obama joining the fray – don’t bet on it.
Their problem is that Obama is what he says he is – there is no mystery here, no “dark secrets” to be found.
Can’t wait to refer to Obama as “Mr. President”.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 pmPatrioticLiberalChristian Says:
“…and to challenge the Republicans to run on truth rather than falsehood.”
And McCant will agree wholeheartedly while at the same time all his RNC scumbags will be feeding their sh1t to the media. This is how McLameass works. He’s all peaches and smiles while his minions do all the dirty work for him. He’ll make a public statement asking them not to run some such ad, then the ad runs and McInsane will act as though it’s all out of his direct control. This way he can look all righteous and pious while at the same time he is just another Repub scumbucket trying to claw his way into power for noones benefit but his and his own.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 pmGriffin should be in jail for subverting the will of the people with his “caging”.
Griffin, and many other GOP/neocon/republicans, who twisted election results should have the ever-lovin shit kicked out of them on a daily basis.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:19 pmGOP 2008 strategy: Have McCain run his clean campaign, as he personally declared, and have stooges — appointed and unappointed — do the dirty work on Obama.
Thus far, I like Obama’s handling of McCain. He looks strong.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pmOpposition research is something we can all do for the Obama campaign. If you sign up to volunteer it asks if you have any special talents. I didn’t think of opposition research when I did unfortunately. We all know more dirt on McCain than is necessary. All we need to do is put fliers on cars with the fact like Karl Rove always suggests.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 pmIs it a requirement that all of the strategists, advisors, etc., that the repukes bring into their campaigns look like poster children for the Hitler Youth or Aryan Nation? Put this guy’s picture next to one of Heinrich Himmler and you won’t be able to see the difference (other than the pasty moustache on Herr Himmler, of course) — and probably no difference in their political views either.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pmJust another talking head spin master that will do his best in discrediting Barack Oabama and his record and will do everything and anything to steal this election for the Reich.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:00 pmWhy is it that Tim Griffin, who is in the Army Reserve, has only done one tour of duty, ever?
This when other Reservists are on their 3rd 4th or 5th tours?
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:02 pmHere is where I worry. Obama will try to run a clean campaign and we have seen how that has really succeeded with past candidates. This year we will once again have a press corps fawning over McCain and turning every trivial item into a major press story on Obama.
Don’t forget the 90+ US Attorneys who were NOT fired during the loyalist purge of ‘06, and who are now in place to do whatsoever mischief for which they were hired in the first place.
Does anyone wanna bet that Gruppenfuhrer/Gauleiter Griffin has devoted a substantial amount of the resources at his disposal as a US ATTY to gathering ‘oppo’ research already, and is now turning private to spread the shyte so it doesn’t incriminate DoJ?
I’d give odds…
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pmRemember, it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.
What matters is that it’s “OUT THERE.”
Where they gotta deny it!
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 pmtokin librul Says:
Remember, it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.
What matters is that it’s “OUT THERE.”
Where they gotta deny it!
that can work both ways – except OBAMA has the TRUTH on his side.
what’s different with the OBAMA campaign is the IMMEDIATE RESPONSE to the fright-wing bullshite…
and shayne came up with an important answer:
Opposition research is something we can all do for the Obama campaign.
you don’t even have to sign up – just get the TRUTH out there.
… any way you can, that’s legal, of course…
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:26 pmTPM’s Greg Sargent confirms with “a senior Republican operative” that Griffin is being brought in “to do to Obama what folks successfully did with John Kerry.”
Some editing would tighten that up a bit:
“Griffin is being brought in to Swift-Boat Obama.”
Much better.
Cheers,
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 pmExcuse me, but these aren’t just ‘folks’ doing this crap…it’s illegal bullshit and should be called such. Why Tim Griffin isn’t in jail with the rest of these retardedly myopic idiots is beyond me. They may think they are strengthening their supposed ‘party,’ but at what price? I think they all need to talk to Dr. Faustus and see what he says about making deals with the devil.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:16 pmJust like Obama fired back at McCain and Bush and the Tn Repugnants he’ll do the same here. It’s obvious that they just don’t get it; that Obama will not be swiftboated out of the race so I say bring it on; the truth always prevails.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:50 pmI see McCain has no problem putting the fox in charge of the hen house either. McCain has George W. Bush’s ethics and that doesn’t sell in America any longer. You need to be part of the solution and not continue to be part of the problem.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 pmAn open memo to Mr. Griffin:
Bring it on little man. Mr. Obama has more than what it takes to deal with you.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 pmSmear tactics were well-placed when gas was about $1.25 in 2000, healthcare was much less, college was up, the economy was up, and people were generally secure. Now us and our oil-based economy are in tough times.
2004 was tough because they did cheat, but for a lot of people there wasn’t enough change (Kerry is Yale, yes on the war originally, a bit stiff) and a lot of people didn’t want change (too risky during war). Blogs and podcasts were also nascent at best, no Youtube.
But now we’re on a train going off a cliff and changing engineers from Bush to McCain won’t help, we have to get off the train.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 pm