They Think They Are Geniuses - #138

#138 - TAN NGUYEN
FORMER CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE FOR THE CALIFORNIA 47TH

GOP cocksuckers have this thing where they think they are really smart and think they are the only sources of information on things. Sometimes that's true but a lot of the time they find out that's just not the case

Take Tam Nguyen

Nguyen was running against a democratic opponent, Loretta Sanchez, who took the district as part of The Thumpin' of 2006. Sanchez took on 'B-1 Bob' Dornan and got his ass thrown out of Congress. Since Latino voters were a big part of her victory, and the Republicans knew she was strong there, they tried to suppress the Latino vote. They tried sending around a letter to people with Latino surnames telling them in part that 'immigrants can't vote' and that they faced jail time if they did it. Furthermore, the government had a computer system capable of tracking such people down.

None of these things are true but the arch-conservative Orange County, which is in this district, has a history of dirty shit like this. Seriously. Twenty years ago the local GOP had to settle a lawsuit when it hired uniformed guards to stand in Latino neighborhoods outside of polling places with signs that read "Non-Citizens Can't Vote" and challenged people to produce identification. They claimed they were worried that the Democrats would drive in busloads of illegal immigrants to the polls. They also claimed they didn't do anything wrong.

Which must have been why they paid $400k to settle the suit against them. Yeah, they didn't do ANYTHING wrong. They just felt like forking over $400,000 to strangers for no reason. Happens all the time.

And the busloads of illegal immigrants? Well, that never appeared.

Anyway, back to 2008. The letter was traced back to Nguyen's office. Nguyen claimed that a staffer than he'd fired had written it and when investigators tried to probe further, Nguyen allegedly tried to stifle any further communication as to his involvement in the letter.

Well, now his Vietnamese ass has been indicted and faces up to 10 years in the slammer, a $250,000 fine and three years of probation if convicted.

[UPDATE: Nguyen lost to Sanchez. Big time. The Department of Justice concluded that the Nguyen Campaign had no intent to intimidate those legally entitled to vote.]

S. Olson