Conspiracy theory fact: Bush’s New England campaign chairman indicted

"tricky dicky", that’s what they used to call Nixon because of his infamous "dirty tricks". Bush’s New England campaign chairman, James Tobin, was indicted for just these types of "tricks". He now faces 5 years.

CONCORD, N.H. DEC. 3

James Tobin was indicted for taking part in "jamming" the democrat GOTV phone lines in the election of 2002. He is also the former New England campaign chairman for President Bush.(as of Oct.15, 2004). "Dirty tricks" seem to be the only way to win elections in the US these days.

It seems James Tobin is aware of these dirty tricks and now he has been caught, dare I say, "red handed"...there seems to be allot of "red" hands in the votes these days. He cried "foul", which is part of the dirty trick playbook...but stated it more eloquently. When accused by the democrats, he called the allegations, "without merit".

800 computer-generated hang up calls tied up the six phone lines run by Democrats and the Manchester fire-fighters’ union for 1 1/2 hours in 2002. Federal prosecutors said Tobin and other Republicans hired the company to make the calls to disrupt the GOTV effort.

Tobin was charged with conspiracy to commit telephone harassment and aiding and abetting of telephone harassment. He faces up to five years in prison, which is not a theory, much to Tobin’s dismay I’m sure.

Did this jamming effect the election?

Tobin was Northeast political director for the Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the Senate. One of the races affected was the Senate contest between Dem. Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. John E. Sununu, he won by 20,000 votes.

"Over the summer, Chuck McGee, former executive director of the state GOP, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and admitted paying $15,600 to a Virginia telemarketing company that hired another business to make the calls. A Republican consultant with the telemarketing company also pleaded guilty." - AP