Trying to Use the Law For Political Gain - #417

#417 J.B. VAN HOLLEN
WISCONSIN ATTORNEY GENERAL AND FORMER STATE CO-CHAIR FOR THE LOSING McCAIN CAMPAIGN

Taking a look at the poll numbers and knowing at the time that if nothing was done,
Senator Barack Obama would beat their brains out in the upcoming election, Van Hollen tried playing the 'voter fraud' card, which is a favorite of GOP Cocksuckers. They still bitch about it being prevalent in the election of '08 because they cannot accept the fact that they were creamed at the ballot box in the last two election cycles; especially in 2006. A few weeks before the election of '08, the voter suppression tactic was not being tried in just Wisconsin. It was all over the country, as efforts popped up in Florida, New Mexico, Montana, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, Michigan and Indiana. Only the Florida one was successful.

But back to 2008 before a BLACK man got into the WHITE House. Van Hollen first tried to sue the Government Accountability Board in Wisconsin to get them to use a brand-new database in order to scrub the voter rolls and make it as difficult as possible for Democrats to vote. He said this was all on his own and that he had not met with the GOP on this at all. The next day, the state chairman of the GOP came forward and
said yes, he'd had multiple conversations on the topic with Van Hollen's DEPUTY AG. About two weeks later, Wispolitics.com discovered audio of Van Hollen promising the RNC action on voter fraud a week before filing the suit.

The next day, Van Hollen came out with a statement denying that his suit against the
GAB was political. No one believes him. Seventeen days later, a county court throws out Van Hollen's lawsuit.

Six days later, Van Hollen announces he will be sending more than 50 state attorneys and agents to the polling places to "guard against election fraud." (This is a common tactic of the GOP.) The same day, the Governor of the state of Wisconsin calls this move "an obvious Republican strategy." The day after that, Wisconsin's junior senator says roughly in the same thing. A frustrated Van Hollen tells chief
district court judges to alert him on Election Day of any funny business. In a very
nicely-worded "aw, fuck you," one of them tells Van Hollen judges don't belong anywhere near politics.

A couple of days later, the vote begins. Kevin Kennedy, Wisconsin's top elections official, says everything goes smoothly.

A year and a half later, e-mails surfaced that show Van Hollen trying to get advice from a GOP consultant about filing a lawsuit against health-care reform. It is a "legal issue" Van Hollen claims. However, the e-mails, which the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel got its hands on, show that Van Hollen was interested in the politics of opposing health care-reform.

With thanks to TPM Muckraker, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and WisPolitics.com.

S. Olson