Gonzo's testimony was great entertainment, but to me it was a disappointment in one respect: I thought there was far too little about the motivation behind the purge, about the way they used the DOJ to suppress minority turnout and perpetuate Republican rule. That's a first impression, and maybe a fuller reading of the transcript will correct it; but for now, at least: disappointed.
Happily, McClatchy has a must-read article that gets the big picture behind the prosecutor purge better than anything else I've read in the mainstream press. Here's the first sentence:
For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.And about halfway through, there's this:
On virtually every significant decision affecting election balloting since 2001, the division's Voting Rights Section has come down on the side of Republicans, notably in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Washington and other states where recent elections have been decided by narrow margins.This is the essential background for everything, the story to cite when Republican hacks try to disconnect the dots. Read. The. Whole. Thing.
(Hat tip: Josh Marshall)
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