CIVIL RIGHTS
John Tanner's Erosion Of Voting Rights

John K. Tanner, head of the Voting Rights Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, will testify this morning before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties about the erosion of civil rights and the politicization of justice that has marked the division during the Bush administration. Tanner, whose testimony was originally blocked by the Justice Department, will enter the hearing room under a cloud of controversy. Earlier this month, while speaking to National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, Tanner infuriated progressives and civil rights activists by claiming that voter ID laws actually discriminate against whites because "minorities...die first." Veteran career attorneys from the voting rights section, including Tanner's predecessor Joe Rich, disputed Tanner's analysis, calling it "ludicrous" and "false." Now several members of Congress, including subcommittee chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), are calling on the Justice Department to consider disciplinary action against Tanner, which could include firing him. Tanner apologized for his comments recently, saying that his "explanation of the data came across in a hurtful way," but he refused to recant his claim that voter ID laws actually discriminate against whites. During today's hearing, Tanner will be forced to explain himself and defend his department's diminished credibility over the past six years.

POLITICS OVER JUSTICE IN OHIO: On election day 2004, "5,000 to 15,000 frustrated voters" in mostly African-American precincts were estimated to have been "turned away" from voting centers in Ohio's Franklin County "without casting ballots" because of lines that lasted up to seven hours. The main reason for the long lines was a shortage of voting machines, a phenomenon that appeared to heavily benefit President Bush as "27 of the 30 wards with the most machines per registered voter showed majorities for Bush" while "six of the seven wards with the fewest machines delivered large margins for Kerry." John Tanner was tasked with investigating the matter, but conducted it in a manner that appeared to intentionally "hamper future lawsuits or investigations concerning the problems" in Ohio. After concluding that "Franklin County assigned voting machines in a non-discriminatory manner" and the extended waits at predominantly African-American polling places were a result of "the tendency...for black voters to cast ballots in the afternoon (i.e., after work)," Tanner wrote a detailed letter to Columbus, OH officials to inform them of his conclusion. Career voting rights section attorneys told TPM Muckraker that not only was Tanner's analysis faulty, but such a letter was an "unprecedented" move that would "poison the well" for future investigations. "Tanner bent over backwards to rule that black voters did not have a right to the same number of machines as white registered voters, and then went out of his way to make that ruling public," said David Becker, a former attorney with the section.

APPROVING A 'MODERN DAY POLL TAX': In 2005, a team of Justice Department lawyers and analysts who reviewed a Georgia voter-identification law recommended rejecting it because it was likely to discriminate against black voters. Critics of the law called it "a modern day poll tax." One of the reasons cited for recommending rejection of the law was that Georgia state Rep. Sue Burmeister (R), the sponsor of the bill, appeared to have racially-tinged motivations, telling the section staff that "if there are fewer black voters because of this bill, it will only be because there is less opportunity for fraud," and that "when black voters in her black precincts are not paid to vote, they do not go to the polls." But the career attorneys were overruled by political appointees, including John Tanner, and the law was approved the next day. A few weeks after the decision was made, the four attorneys who had argued against the law "were called in one by one to speak" to Tanner, who subsequently criticized them for their work on the Georgia ID memo. They were also criticized for disagreeing with the fresh-out-of-law-school Republican-hired attorney who worked with them. Instead of meeting with Tanner, the conservative lawyer, Joshua Rogers, was "called over to main Justice and commended for his work on the case." The career attorneys' analysis of the law was vindicated, however, when a federal appeals court judge eventually issued an injunction against the law, likening it to a Jim Crow-era poll tax.

THE NEED FOR ACCOUNTABILITY: Today's hearing is a first step towards righting the wrongs that have occurred in the Justice Department's Voting Rights Section under John Tanner, but more is needed. In written questions to attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey last week, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) asked Mukasey to review Tanner's record and to consider whether he should continue in his position. Kennedy said that Tanner's remarks -- "minorities don't become elderly the way white people do" -- "display a shameful lack of understanding and sensitivity that is unacceptable in the person charged with enforcing the nation's laws against voting discrimination." Though Mukasey said in his confirmation hearing "that career attorneys in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will know their job is to enforce anti-discrimination laws designed to overcome past injustices," his answers to Kennedy's concerns about Tanner will be another important factor in considering whether he should ultimately be confirmed.

Under the Radar

IRAQ -- STATE DEPT. GRANTED DISGRACED BLACKWATER GUARDS IMMUNITY AFTER SHOOTOUT: Following the deadly September shootout in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA, the Bush administration rushed to the security firm's defense and even awarded the firm a new $92 million contract. Yesterday, the AP reported that the State Department "promised" legal immunity to Blackwater guards after the shooting incident. The administration's efforts to protect Blackwater are hampering the investigations into the shootings. Earlier this month, the FBI took over the case after Justice Department prosecutors realized they "could not bring charges against Blackwater guards based on their statements to the Diplomatic Security investigators." Prosecutors now "will have to prove that any evidence they use in bringing charges against Blackwater employees was uncovered without using the guards' statements to State Department investigators." The revelations occur as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently revoked an order granting "immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts." In her recent congressional testimony, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice neglected to mention that she granted the Blackwater guards prosecutorial immunity after the shootings.

ADMINISTRATION -- BUSH MAY RECESS-APPOINT HOMOPHOBIC SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: President Bush's Surgeon General nominee James Holsinger appeared before the Senate health committee on July 12, forced to defend his controversial positions on homosexuality. Yet three months later, Holsinger has still not responded to a follow-up questionnaire the committee sent, raising the possibility that "Holsinger will either have to wait until next year for a confirmation vote or get the job through a 'recess appointment' by Bush." Bush has been more than willing to use this executive power to avoid or delay battles over divisive nominees such as former U.N. ambassador John Bolton and Swift Boat-funder Sam Fox. In June, the Washington Post reported that Bush had filled 105 full-time positions with recess appointments, compared to just 42 such appointments under President Clinton at the same point in his presidency. Holsinger has come under intense criticism for founding a church that "ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian" and opposing "a decision to allow a practicing lesbian to be an associate pastor" in the United Methodist Church. In 1991, he also authored a graphic document arguing that gay sex is "intuitively" unnatural and can lead to "lacerations, perforations and deaths." 

ADMINISTRATION -- CHAIR OF CONSUMER SAFETY COMMISSION OPPOSES SAFETY REGULATIONS: Today, the Senate Commerce Committee is set to vote on legislation that would strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) by raising its budget, increasing its staff, and granting it "broad new powers to police the marketplace" in the name of consumer safety. The CPSC's acting chairman, Nancy Nord, however, wrote to lawmakers yesterday to oppose the bill. Nord "opposes provisions that would increase the maximum penalties for safety violations and make it easier for the government to make public reports of faulty products, protect industry whistleblowers and prosecute executives of companies that willfully violate laws." Last month, during a congressional hearing looking into safety concerns surrounding toys from China, Nord was similarly contrarian. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote that "instead of showing contrition, Nord treated the lawmakers as if they were impertinent children." 

Think Fast

Director of National Intelligence Adm. Mike McConnell will today disclose "that national intelligence activities amounting to roughly 80 percent of all U.S. intelligence spending for the year cost more than $40 billion. ... The disclosure means that when military spending is added, aggregate U.S. intelligence spending for fiscal 2007 exceeded $50 billion."

"The editor of a Baghdad weekly newspaper was murdered" this weekend. "At least 122 journalists and 41 media support staff have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003." Nearly 85 percent of those killed were Iraqis.

The U.N.investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism, "said in a report released Monday that he's concerned about U.S. detention practices, military courts and interrogation techniques." He urged the United States to end extraordinary rendition and close Guantanamo.

"Six years after the Bush administration embraced harsh physical tactics for interrogating terrorism suspects, and two years after it reportedly dropped the most extreme of those techniques, the taint of torture clings to American counterterrorism efforts," writes The New York Times.

"The growing numbers of foreign fighters in Afghanistan are more violent and extreme than their local allies" and are "helping to change the face of the Taliban from a movement of hard-line Afghan religious students" into a broader network of foreign militants, "disgruntled Afghans," and drug traffickers. 

The largest dam in Iraq is "in serious danger of an imminent collapse" that could lead to "as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water." A "U.S. reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement."

"Despite declining violence in Iraq, the shaky state of security is still impeding the nation's $100 billion recovery and rebuilding effort," according to a report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Warren Buffett yesterday told CNBC that he believes there is a "fairly significant" chance that the United States is headed toward a recession.

And finally: Alex Seropian, the co-creator of the video game franchise Halo, is releasing a new game -- Hail to the Chimp, a "metaphorical look at the election with 10 animals standing in for the candidates." A spokeswoman for Seropian said that the game is "nonpartisan," but has "all the elements of our current administration." The Washington Examiner notes that one chimp also "looks suspiciously like a caricature of President Bush."

Good News

Legislation that "would substantially boost fines, add staffers and increase transparency at the embattled Consumer Product Safety Commission is moving through the Senate."

State Watch

CALIFORNIA: Environmental organizations sue in federal court "to force the U.S. Maritime Administration to dispose of" toxic ships in the Suisun Bay.

ALASKA: U.S. Supreme Court announces it will review the Exxon-Valdez oil spill case to decide whether the punishment was "excessive."

EDUCATION: More than one in 10 high schools across America are considered "dropout factories."

Blog Watch

THINK PROGRESS: Afghan President Hamid Karzai to President Bush: 'roll back' the use of airstrikes in Afghanistan.

NO COMMENT: Career prosecutors in the Justice Department opposed pursuing the case against former Alabama Democratic governor Don Siegelman.

EDITOR & PUBLISHER: As he did with Salon's Glenn Greenwald, Gen. David Petraeus's spokesman also had bizarre, heated e-mail exchanges with Editor & Publisher's Greg Mitchell.

EZRA KLEIN: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani misrepresents the facts in order to attack universal health care.

Daily Grill

"He's not the type to dis the press."
-- Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, 10/28/07, on President Bush

VERSUS

"Bush has three enemies: foreign adversaries, the Democrat Congress and the mainstream media."
-- Washington Examiner's Bill Sammon, in his new biography of Bush