Again we have Dave Kranz writing an Op-ed attacking John Thune that involves Judge Larry Piersol, but fails to disclose the longtime friendship of Piersol and Tom Daschle:
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid teed off on a number of Republican colleagues last week in a memo, saying they were trying to "provide cover from their culture of corruption."
Reid likened Republicans reforming themselves to asking John Gotti to clean up organized crime.
But a day later, Reid did an about-face on his harsh memo that included Sen. John Thune.
The Washington Post reported that he sent a letter to the Republicans and apologized for his remarks.
In reference to Thune, Reid mentioned legal maneuverings by the Daschle campaign against the Thune campaign. They charged that Republican poll workers in Lake Andes were intimidating Native American voters.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol ruled that Republicans could not write down license plate numbers or follow Native Americans from polling places on Election Day.
Here is what the Reid memo described as an Abuse of Power:
Judge ruled that Thune's campaign workers were intimidating Native American voters. "Republican poll workers in Lake Andes were intimidating Native American voters on Monday, a federal judge ruled . . . Republicans may not write down license plate numbers or follow Native Americans from polling places during today's election, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol ruled in a temporary restraining order. The ruling comes after Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle sued his opponent, John Thune, and the GOP in federal court in Sioux Falls on Monday, asking Piersol to stop what Democrats say was intimidation of voters. [Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), 11/2/04]
Note that Reid used the Argus Leader as a source for his false attack on John Thune. As Kyle Downey pointed out earlier this week, "It is troubling that the Argus Leader refuses to present both sides of the story to its readers." And today Kranz did not provide his readers with what he knew as far back as 2001…Tom Daschle and Larry Piersol are longtime friends. As I pointed out in an earlier post, this friendship was relevant on the US Attorney issue that Kranz opined on. In my post I provided this:
The issue of Piersol’s bias was ruled on by James B. Loken, Chief Judge of the Eight Circuit US Court of Appeals on August 22, 2005. Excerpt:
The complaint and its attachments confirm that, before coming to the bench, the judge [Piersol] was a long-time personal friend and political ally of one of the candidate litigants, the incumbent office holder [Daschle].
I also provided a point made by Joseph Bottom:
LAST NIGHT, Tom Daschle threw his campaign into the shredder. What is it that makes South Dakota politicians do this kind of thing? There must be something in that Missouri River water that makes even the best of political pros tuck their thumbs into their armpits and squawk like demented chickens.
Daschle's new outbreak of ornithological lunacy started yesterday, when he requested from federal circuit-court judge a temporary restraining order banning Republican--and only Republican--poll watchers from all election sites on Indian reservations or majority Indian districts.
What Kranz refused to provide his readers was the facts that show the scandal Reid used was not John Thune’s, but actually was on the part of Tom Daschle who abused the power of his longtime friend in a desperate attempt to win re-election. And Tom Daschle must of known that he could depend on Piersol, based on what he said at the American Trial Lawyers Association convention on July 20, 2003:
In 1978, I won my first election to the House by 14 votes. Don’t laugh, in South Dakota, that’s 60 percent of the vote. Apparently undaunted by that landslide of support, my opponent sued to contest the election. I was fortunate to be represented by a great lawyer and a dear friend, Larry Piersol.
And know you know the rest of the story. The part that the Argus Leader refuses to print.
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