Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Bit Player

... but a key component of the Goodling initiative (from ThinkProgress):

Von Spakovsky and the ‘vote-suppression agenda.’


McClatchy ran a detailed profile today on Hans von Spakovsky, the top Bush administration official who many in Congress believe is “a key player in a Republican campaign to hang onto power in Washington by suppressing the votes of minority voters.”

“Mr. von Spakovsky was central to the administration’s pursuit of strategies that had the effect of suppressing the minority vote,” charged Joseph Rich, a former Justice Department voting rights chief who worked under him.

He and other former career department lawyers say that von Spakovsky steered the agency toward voting rights policies not seen before, pushing to curb minor instances of election fraud by imposing sweeping restrictions that would make it harder, not easier, for Democratic-leaning poor and minority voters to cast ballots.

Von Spakovsky, who was recess-appointed to the Federal Election Commission in December 2005, is scheduled to appear at a June 13 Senate confirmation hearing. Much more on his record at Mahablog, TPMMuckraker, and Hullabaloo.

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