Political Skullduggery

More possible White House skullduggery:

Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and the Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 -- as the phone-jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly ended.

Nearly all the calls to the White House went to the same number, which currently rings inside the political affairs office. In 2002, White House political affairs was led by Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee. The White House declined to say which staffer was assigned that phone number in 2002.

Mehlman didn't get promoted to RNC head for being a choirboy.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, said the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

Just like it's "preposterous" to ever suggest that this administration engages in dirty political ploys. Right?

Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which Republican John E. Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 to 46 percent, on Nov. 5, 2002.

The only thing that suggests that this was not an administration op is that it involved such wimpy measures.

If the White House had come up with this, there would have been much more treachery involved.