The Tide Laps Higher

And it this time it's not global warming. This tide is getting right up to the highest ground of all--the White House. The AP is reporting that the people who ran a call-jamming scheme against New Hampshire Democrats on Election Day 2002 were in regular contact with the White House in the days leading up to the operation, which saw Republican operatives placing a blizzard of bogus calls to the Democrats' get-out-the-vote operation. (Alert Democrats managed to get the telephone company to shut down the attacks within a couple of hours.)

According to AP, James Tobin, a former Bush operative who was recently convicted in the phone-jamming plot, placed two-dozen calls to the White House during a three-day period around Election Day. The GOP, which paid millions in legal fees for Tobin's defense, claims that the calls were routine political business. Presumably, then, the Republicans will not object when Democrats go into court tomorrow to ask a federal judge to order party and White House officials to answer questions as part of a civil suit arising out of the phone jamming.

I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of evidence of White House involvement in all kinds of nefarious political doings. Remember: it's the cover-up that does them in. Stay tuned.