Blogged by Brad from somewhere near the Kansas/Colorado border…
Not only is John Tanner confused about whose right to vote he’s supposed to be protecting (everybody’s, even elderly minorities’) as head of the DoJ Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, he’s also apparently under the impression that the U.S. Government is his personal sponsor for high-flying trips to vacation hotspots like Hawaii and elsewhere for himself and his deputy, Susana Lorenzo-Giguere.
Paul Kiel has a complete, detailed, and highly-recommended investigative report over at TPM Muck, as Tanner could even be facing felony charges, should several current DoJ Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigations into his activities pan out. Kiel’s report begins this way…
He even managed to make taxpayer-funded trips to Hawaii in three consecutive years, two of them a week long. One Department lawyer who accompanied Tanner on his first trip took the earliest available flight back after having completed all necessary work in just two business days. But Tanner insisted on staying a full week, despite the lack of apparent Department business. It’s a crime for government officials to use public funds for personal travel.
A review of Justice Department documents obtained by TPMmuckraker shows just how extensive Tanner’s travel has been. From May of 2005 when Tanner became chief of the section through the end of 2006, he took 36 trips, traveling 97 days over those 19 months. By comparison, Tanner’s predecessor Joe Rich took only two trips from 2003 through his retirement in April 2005, a total of six days of taxpayer funded travel over those 28 month
The BRAD BLOG helped kick off a firestorm surrounding the DoJ’s voting rights chief Tanner last September when we video-taped and reported on his astounding statement that “minorities don’t become elderly, the way white people do. They die first.”
Those comments, “highlights” of which are at right, helped lead to calls for his firing and Congressional hearings for the not-yet-fired-or-resigned Tanner.
Former prosecutor Melanie Sloan, of ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), says, in response to the litany of latest allegations, that if new AG Michael Mukasey was “serious about cleaning up the Department, he’d just get rid of Tanner.”
We’ll see if he does. Please leave your guesses in comments about the exact date on which Tanner will either be fired or suddenly discover that he needs to spend more time with his family. We’ll announce the name of whoever is closest when (and if) it actually happens.
Fuck this racist pig.
I say he goes down during the Christmas holidays!
By 2008 he’s gone!
Remember me if I call it…
More specific? OK. Dec. 28.
shw
Perhaps he could replace Trent Lott. We now know that Lott quit under strange circumstances … because he was forewarned that his criminal in law was being indicted for bribery?
Perhaps he agreed to resign in lieu of being indicted himself?
At any rate the racist pig Tanner would be a good replacement for Lott. Everyone would understand. 😉
I predict he’ll continue on never being held responsible, and then later on he will still manage to weasel his way back into government, or the private sector in relation to government. All the while continuing to do the damage, and jamming the wrenches into the gears of our constitution as much he and his minions possibly can.
Sorry to be so dark, but the simple fact is there are no ethics in this current administration. What there is instead of ethics are loyalist appointees, and a complicit corporate media that does a deliberate blackout, or allow for a sufficient cooling period for the story to go away, if or when forced to expose the truth.
If not for real journalists, and journalist bloggers this would have been long forgotten, except for the American Citizens he originally pissed off, who are left powerless.
Our voting rights problem is one of future national security for all people vs. destructive domestic attacks on the constitution by those in power–to remove civil rights and reap sick profits in the safety of darkness where the media never shines a light.
Any help by the legal system, will be delayed to the point where crime and bad ethics are mute points.
When your above the law of the land, there is no justice.
But hey, I would love to be wrong.
OK, we’re talking about the Bush administration.
Tanner is doing the kind of job that could earn him a long overdue promotion, and that’s the only way he leaves his post. The Bush Administration is all about failing upwards.
By the end of the year. Put money on it.
No idea, well but this is quite different post from others but can agree or support to dredd’s opinion…