Blogged by Brad Friedman from Boulder, CO…<\/i><\/p>\n
Just as I went off the grid late last week, this news came in, so some of you may be ahead of me on this one. In either case, it’s still worth noting that GOP\/DoJ vote suppressor, Hans von Spakovsky was secretly hired by Bush’s bad joke of a “Commission on Civil Rights” to oversee the ’08 elections, as reported by TPMMuckraker’s Kate Klonick<\/a> late last week.<\/p>\n While the story is mindblowing, it’s not all together surprising given the CCR’s embarrassing track record under Bush. See the amazing flashback video of the CCR’s Peter Kirsanow testifying to Congress in 2007, as posted below after Klonick’s lede, and everything will likely make “sense”…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If Spakovsky’s history of backing efforts to make voting more difficult strikes you as a poor fit with the Commission’s mission<\/a> of defending voter rights, consider that of the eight current commissioners<\/a> at the agency, only two<\/a> are registered Democrats<\/a>, a politicization that the New York Times’<\/em> Charlie Savage<\/a> brought to light last year.<\/p>\n Among Spakovsky’s duties will be overseeing the USCCR’s report on the Justice Department’s monitoring of the 2008 presidential elections<\/a>, a source inside the USCCR told TPMmuckraker.<\/p>\n Spakovsky’s hiring is at the request of Commissioner Todd Gaziano<\/a>, who works for the conservative Heritage Foundation on FEC issues and has defended Spakovsky in the press before<\/a>. According to a federal government source, Gaziano has recommended Spakovsky at the government’s highest payscale<\/a> — which would work out to about $124,010 annually if Spakovsky was to stay for an entire year.<\/div>\n