Promoting democracy in Iraq & undermining it in New Hampshire?

Has King George struck again? Our beloved president claims to be promoting democracy in Iraq. Even though there is some question about whether he is actually doing that or simply putting on a show, I will give him some benefit of the doubt in that area.

However, it looks like he and/or his minions might have been working hard to undermine the most basic tools of American democracy -- fair elections.

AP reports today on phone calls the White House received from a GOP operative who ran an operation designed to keep Democrats from voting. Note who's paying for this operative's legal bills.

Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

Preposterous?

Perhaps.