Christie must have gloating rights

New Jersey's U.S. attorney Christopher Christie must be saying, "I told you so," today in his inner circle, perhaps especially to Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck.

Tim Griffin, the GOP oppo research guy who got Arkansas in the "U.S. attorney replacement program," has hightailed as U.S. attorney there in reaction to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers obtaining the BBC reporter's evidence of Griffin's role in voter caging -- illegal -- in the 2004 general election. Griffin had replaced H.E. "Bud" Cummins III, who failed to comply with White House orders to file "voter fraud" charges against Democrats regardless of lack of evidence any Dems voted fraudulently. Conyers came out last night and finally said what most of us already had put together: that he thought it unlikely Griffin could carry out this massive "caging" operation without at least the knowledge of Karl Rove. Again, illegal.

Christie didn't dutifully accuse "voter fraud" of Democrats in 2005, so Beck (left) did that dirty work in September 2005 and implied in her press release that Christie was missing his cue, er, slacking on the job. No surprise, then, that Christie ended up on the firing list in January 2006, but he proved his Bushie loyalty in other ways in the Menedez scheme and came off the list in November 2006. Our posts on those are here and here and here. Phew, that was a close call, Mr. Christie, but you can gloat to Beck now, by golly.

The last proved voter scandal I remember in New Jersey was the race that won Gov. Christine Todd Whitman her first term in 1992. Remember her campaign mastermind, Ed Rollins, paying bribes to black ministers to discourage (caging) congregants from voting? I think that would be an early application of the RNC's now keystone path to office: voter suppression and the abra cadabra magic act of turning Democratic votes into Republican wins on electronic voting machines. Rollins' last job was with U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., who was key to the 2000 election frauds and other controversies there.

Extra credit: Slate answers, "What the heck is vote caging, and why should we care?"