Attorney seeks probe of electoral vote plan

Attorney Bernie Fadem has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information about contacts between the White House, the RNC, and those behind the California Dirty Tricks Initiative.

A Lafayette attorney who specializes in election law is seeking a Congressional investigation into whether the White House was involved in pushing a California ballot initiative to change the way the state allocates its electoral votes.

Barry Fadem, who is working for the group opposed to the initiative, also made a Freedom of Information Act request with the White House on Friday to reveal all contacts between Bush Administration officials, the Republican National Committee and other political operatives discussing potential changes to the state's electoral college laws.

"We want to know if the White House improperly discussed this on taxpayer time," said Fadem, a Democrat. "But we also want to make people aware that this is not some new idea, not some good public policy that proponents keep claiming. This is truly only about one thing: stealing the presidency."

According to Chris Lehane, political consultant and spokesperson for Californians for Fair Election Reform, "The public has a strong interest in knowing if this was cooked up by the Bush White House."

Agreed. Especially since they're playing dumb about it. It's kind of amazing/amusing to watch them act like no one knows anything about this, as if it's all the work of one loose cannon RNC attorney. The RNC says they're not involved. The governor claims he doesn't know enough to comment on it. Riiiiight.

Note: when you act like you're hiding something, people will naturally want to know what you're hiding.