NH Phone Jam Convict out of Jail, Back to Advising GOP
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James Joyner | Tuesday, May 30, 2006 |
Charles McGee, who went to jail for his role in masterminding the jamming of Democratic phone lines on Election Day 2002, is out of jail and back to advising GOP operatives.
A major figure in the Election Day phone-jamming scandal that embarrassed and nearly bankrupted the New Hampshire GOP is out of prison and back in the political game. Charles McGee, the former executive director of the state Republican Party, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served seven months for his part in the scheme to have a telemarketer tie up Democratic and union phone lines in 2002.
He’s back at his old job with a Republican political marketing firm, Spectrum Monthly & Printing Inc., and will be helping out at the firm’s “GOP campaign school” for candidates. Richard Pease, the firm’s co-president, said McGee would be available to advise candidates at the two-day event, planned for next weekend in Manchester. McGee’s role at the school was reported Thursday by the New Hampshire Union Leader. “Chuck will work with the candidates in any way they want,” Pease said. “If they want his advice, if they want his . . . experience, it’s there for them to take or leave.”
Pease said he had no problem with McGee, who is a vice president in the firm, returning to advise politicians. “He made a mistake. He admitted to it. He served his time,” Pease said. “He’s certainly not going to be standing there and advocating breaking the law,” Pease said. He said McGee declined to comment about his role at the school.
In court, McGee acknowledged that the phone-jamming of get-out-the-vote drives by Democrats and organized labor was his idea, inspired by a lesson he learned in the Marine Corps: cut off your opponent’s communications. The calls had the desired effect for two hours the morning of Election Day, but then the scheme began to unravel. Two other people have been sentenced to prison in the phone jamming.
Amazing. If we could only harness the power of Republican stupidity these days, we could solve our energy problems for all eternity.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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The trouble with harnessing Republican stupidity is that you have to keep it hermetically sealed off from its antiparticle, Democratic stupidity.
Combine the two, and there are explosive results, like foolish wars of choice in conflict-ridden Middle Eastern nations.
I didn't know the Balkans were in the Middle East. ;-p
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