Goodling Dismisses Voter Supression Tactic Of ‘Caging’ As Just ‘A Direct-Mail Term’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/23/goodling-caging-griffin/

Goodling Dismisses Voter Supression Tactic Of ‘Caging’ As Just ‘A Direct-Mail Term’

As research director at the Republican National Committee, U.S. attorney Tim Griffin was involved in a plan to suppress Florida votes — primarily those of African-American servicemembers — in the 2004 election. From the LA Times, 10/28/04:

The Bush campaign is planning an election day effort to disrupt ballot casting by African Americans by challenging voters whose names are on a “caging list,” according to a British news report.

Citing an internal GOP e-mail with the subject line “caging,” the BBC reported Tuesday that Florida Republicans had a list of 1,886 names and addresses of voters in largely black and traditionally Democratic areas of Jacksonville. …

But African American leaders Wednesday called the list another “shameful” Republican effort to keep blacks from voting.

In her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee today, Monica Goodling — the Justice Department’s former White House liaison — tried to dismiss the voter suppression allegations against Griffin, a protege of Karl Rove, by calling caging just “a direct-mail term.” Watch it at link~

Caging is not just a “direct mail term.” Suppressing votes on the basis of race is illegal under the federal Voting Rights Act.

Congressional sources told ThinkProgress that the White House decided to not put Griffin before the Senate Judiciary Committee for approval because it would bring up questions about the 2004 caging scheme.

Transcript:

GOODLING: Ok, and the last thing was the voter — the caging issue, which was a reference to Tim Griffin.

SANCHEZ: Can you explain what “caging” is? I’m not familiar with that term.

GOODLING: My understanding — and I don’t actually know a lot about it — is that it’s a direct-mail term, that people who do direct mail, when they separate addresses that may be good versus addresses that may be bad. That’s the best information that I have, is that it’s a direct mail term used by vendors in that circumstance.

[Donnachaidh]

1. IIRC Dkos has a video of Goodling and Griffin at a meeting to work on those lists

Minimize, misdirect, obfuscate a crime scene Monica.

[helderheid]

3. get it to Keith

[Donnachaidh]

6. I'm pretty sure I did send it to KO

I'll dig it out again.

[helderheid]

11. Good on ya!

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Yea, and "opposition research" has gotten a bad rap, too

It just 'sounds so negative!'.

[blogslut]

4. She sure did

Also, she brought it up as a possible problem...

[librechik]

5. That's what they told her and she did as she was told

like the good little girl she is.

[mod mom]

7. Was Sanchez kidding? "I’m not familiar with that term"

[global1]

8. Caging - From Wikipedia.......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caging_list

[babylonsister]

9. She must have looked it up, too, so knows there are two meanings, and

knows the context. Disingenuous at best.

[BurtWorm]

10. The historical examples seem to be all...Republican. Hmmm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caging_list#Examples_of_political_caging

Examples of political caging

From the Washington Post: "In 1981, the Republican National Committee sent letters to predominantly black neighborhoods in New Jersey, and when 45,000 letters were returned as undeliverable, the committee compiled a challenge list to remove those voters from the rolls. The RNC sent off-duty law enforcement officials to the polls and hung posters in heavily black neighborhoods warning that violating election laws is a crime.

The Washington Post continues: "In 1986, the RNC tried to have 31,000 voters, most of them black, removed from the rolls in Louisiana when a party mailer was returned. The consent decrees that resulted prohibited the party from engaging in anti-fraud initiatives that target minorities or conduct mail campaigns to 'compile voter challenge lists.'"

In October 2004, the BBC Newsnight program reported on an alleged so-called "caging list" maintained by the George W. Bush campaign that suggested that they may be planning possibly illegal disruption of African American voting in Jacksonville, Florida.

The BBC reports that it has obtained a document from George W. Bush's Florida campaign headquarters, inadvertently e-mailed to the parody website GeorgeWBush.org, containing a list of 1,886 names and addresses of voters in largely African-American and Democratic areas of Jacksonville. Democratic Party officials allege that the document is a "caging list" that the Bush campaign intends to use to issue mass challenges to African-American voters, in violation of federal law.

While Florida statutory law allows the parties to challenge voters at the polls, this practice is not allowed if the challenges appear to be race-based.

The list appears to have come to light because of what appear to be e-mails accidentally addressed by Republican campaigners to the georgewbush.org anti-Bush site instead of the georgewbush.com Bush campaign site. The e-mails had the subject line "Re: Caging" and contained Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file attachments called "Caging.xls" and "Caging-1.xls".<1><2[br />