Flashback, Nov. '06: DoJ sends small army to polls to "protect election-related civil rights"

We know now that the real story of the fired US Attorneys is not who got fired, but who stayed on -- and what they did while in office. For example, we know now that they prosecuted Democrats more than Republicans by a ratio of four to one.

Karl Rove was famous for doing this sort of thing on a retail basis in Texas during the 80's and 90's. He'd cozy up to the local FBI officials then feed them disinformation about his political opponents. Every time he did this, his candidate won.

Since taking over the Justice Department, Alberto Gonzalez has implemented this sort of practice on an unprecedented level, bring charges of "voter fraud," a virtually non-existent crime, on a wholesale level. As noted by others, "stopping voter fraud" is simply code for suppressing the minority vote -- most of whom vote Democratic.

That said, it puts a whole new light on this story from last November:

The Justice Department had dispatched 500 federal elections observers and 350 agency personnel to 69 cities and counties in 22 states. Department officials said the staff was deployed to "protect election-related civil rights."

The observers were ensuring that all eligible voters were able to cast a ballot and that they weren't challenged improperly on the "basis of their race, color, language or membership in a minority group," officials said.

This kind of thing gives the phrase "transparency in government" a whole new meaning.