Bush DOJ to Repeat Pre-Election ACORN Mugging?

The other day I wrote that Republican attacks on ACORN had two purposes. On second thought I believe it has a third: to begin the Republican post-election campaign to cripple Obama's West Wing should he win on Nov. 4. The Clinton years showed that Republicans are not above using any means necessary to hog tie a Democratic President.

Having said that, it is worth noting that George Bush may be moving to assist the McCain campaign by using the Department of Justice for partisan ends:

So now we hear leaked word that the FBI is beginning an investigation into whether ACORN "helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election" and where there is "any evidence of a coordinated national scam."

Let's note a few points. DC Republicans have been aggressively lobbying the DOJ to open an investigation into ACORN in advance of the election. And leaking word of such an investigation (possibly starting the investigation at all) most likely violates DOJ guidelines about DOJ/FBI actions which can end up interfering with or manipulating an election.

But, remember, this is right out of the book of the Bush Justice Department's efforts to assist in GOP voter suppression efforts in the 2004 and 2006 elections (part and parcel of the US Attorney firing story). This is the same scam US Attorney firing player Bradley Schlozman got in trouble for pulling with ACORN just before the 2006 election. And before he got canned, Gonzales helped revise and soften the departmental prohibition on DOJ announcements, thus making it easier to play these kinds of games.

This is a big deal. It may be their last gasp to use the DOJ to help mitigate the scale of Republican defeat on November 4th.

TPM posted footage of telling 2007 testimony by a Bush DOJ official who prosecuted ACORN workers just before the 2006 elections even though his department's manual directs otherwise: