By Patrick Hynes on 4.1.05 @ 12:03AM
The rare political trickster who got caught. Naturally, he's a Republican.
I first met Chuck McGee on the campus of the University of New
Hampshire. I was a washed up Division III football player just
transferred in from Pennsylvania and nurturing a severe drinking
problem that would plague me for the next decade. He was a surly,
burly Marine with a hard edge and cynical worldview. We became fast
friends.
Chuck and I shared an interest in Republican politics. We ran
the College Republicans together, volunteered on campaigns
together, held signs that said mean things about Bill Clinton
together.
Chuck hadn't had much of a religious upbringing. I recall
thinking how much more conservative I was than he. If memory
serves, he was even pro-choice back then. He was a blood 'n' guts
conservative, as so many military men are, with a kill 'em all, let
God sort 'em out mentality.
Over time, that would change. Chuck met a woman in Colorado who
set him straight. She helped bring him close to Jesus. And now,
still, Chuck can be seen at Catholic prayer groups all around the
greater Concord, New Hampshire, area.
Throughout his brief career in Republican politics, Chuck earned
a reputation for an absolutely Herculean work ethic. Chuck got jobs
done. Not often the most politic of politicians, and even he would
say he's no brain surgeon (though no dummy either), Chuck just
seemed to make things happen.
I mentioned Chuck's cynical outlook. It only grew more cynical
as the years went on. It's impossible to spend any length of time
in the political businesses and not have your ideals grow moldy
from lack of application and your sensibilities grow calloused from
constant offense. In Chuck McGee's case it manifested in a
shortsighted, stupid decision, for which he is paying dearly.
During the closing days of the 2002 election, Chuck hired a
phone vendor to flood the firefighters union and the Democratic
Party headquarters with thousands of phone calls, thereby jamming
their phone lines and rendering their get-out-the-vote operation
useless. It was a clever scheme. It also, apparently, was illegal.
And Chuck has been sentenced to seven months in a federal prison
for this ill-conceived scheme.
It would be nice to think that Chuck McGee's swift and
aggressive prosecution is the result of a new level of seriousness
on the part of those authorities responsible for policing political
shenanigans. Enforcing existing laws has always been a better
deterrent than passing new ones. Look no further than the
ridiculous McCain-Feingold campaign finance law to judge the
efficacy of that statement.
And yet, a paranoid devil on my shoulder is whispering into my
ear. He tells me that there exists a double standard on these
matters; one that grants special dispensation to Democrats and
Democrat-affiliated groups. For example, we now know with certainty
that Democrat politicians benefited mightily from Election Day
malfeasance last November. According to a report issued last week
by the American Center for Voting Rights:
... ACT, ACORN and the NAACP Project Vote, were engaged
in a coordinated "Get Out the Vote" effort. A significant component
of this effort appears to be registering individuals who would cast
ballots for the candidate supported by these organizations. This
voter registration effort was not limited to the registration of
legal voters but, criminal investigations and news reports suggest,
that the voter registration effort also involved the registration
of thousands of fictional voters such as the now infamous Jive F.
Turkey, Sr., Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins. Those individuals
registering these fictional voters were reportedly paid not just
money to do so but were, in at least one instance, paid in crack
cocaine.
Despite the chilling revelations in the report, not a single
network news program has bothered to cover it. Nor has the
Washington Post, the New York Times or any other
major paper.
Moreover, a modest level of outrage greeted the unimaginative
thuggery of two Democratic Party goons who slashed the tires on
over twenty GOP get-out-the-vote vans on election eve, 2004, in
Wisconsin. The outrage, sadly, has abated.
Meanwhile, all the action in Washington seems to focus on the
subject of tightening so-called loopholes in the McCain-Feingold
law, the question of restricting free speech on the Internet and
legislative measures to grant convicted felons the right to vote.
Perhaps former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State
James Baker, who have been tapped to co-chair a task force of
American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management,
can repair our elections. Upon the announcement of their project to
make recommendations on how to fix voting in America, President
Carter said, "We will try to define an electoral system for the
21st century that will make Americans proud again." But then, half
a breath later, he started in with the well-worn talking points
about waiting lines in black voting precincts. Serious election
reformers should look away.
I have a nagging feeling that my friend will be a lonely name on
the list of political operatives convicted for breaking the
law.
topics:
Bill Clinton, Business, Law, Military
