By Brad Friedman on 6/11/2008, 3:05pm PT  

Looks like we're coming into rewards season at the White House for longtime Bush loyalists. Of course, we thought that's what the last seven year were about, but we digress.

Apparently, being named as a criminal co-conspirator in Articles of Impeachment is worthy of a prize from this particular White House, as Bush/Cheney '04 Inc.'s self-proclaimed "non-partisan" "longtime voting rights advocate" --- and not-self-proclaimed national champion GOP vote-suppressor Thor Hearne --- received yet another thank you gift from the White House today: A non-partisan appointment to a "non-partisan Commission" (according to the nationally renowned liar Thor) by George W. Bush.

Jo Mannies of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one of the few reporters Thor will answer the phone for (other than those at "liberal media" outlets such as NYTimes, NPR, USA Today and again at USA Today) writes today, while failing to note Hearne's infamous entry into the history books on the floor of the U.S. House this week...

Bush names Hearne to White House panel

President George W. Bush on Tuesday announced that he was naming St. Louis lawyer Mark F. Hearne II --- more commonly known in these parts as "Thor Hearne" -- to the Commission on White House Fellows.

The commission selects the dozen or so fellows, who according to the White House Web site "typically spend a year working as full-time, paid special assistants" to top government officials.

Hearne said in an e-mail this afternoon, "It is a great opportunity to serve on a non-partisan Commission with a number of great national business and political leaders."

Hearne, a lawyer, is a prominent Republican activist who has used his legal expertise to assist the Bush administration and to press for state and federal election-related legislation --- such as photo ID requirements --- that Republicans say would prevent fraud.

In 2000, for example, he was involved in the successful GOP court fight to counter Democratic legal efforts to keep the polls open in the city of St. Louis for an additional three hours.

For those unfamiliar with the snake-oil peddler Hearne --- who has pushed disenfranchising Photo ID polling place restrictions across the country, via his now-defunct "non-partisan" criminal GOP front-group "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR) --- you can see an index of The BRAD BLOG's years-long outing and reporting on his anti-American, anti-democracy activities right here.

Hearne also made news this week, though Mannies did not report it, by being named in one of Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) 35 Articles of Impeachment filed against George W. Bush on Monday. Finally receiving the infamous recognition that Hearne so richly deserves, his name and his ACVR outfit were ignominiously included in Article 29, "Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965" as follows:

G. Agents of George W. Bush, including Mark F. "Thor'" Hearne, the national general counsel of Bush/Cheney '04, Inc., did, at the behest of George W. Bush, as members of a criminal front group, distribute known false information and propaganda in the hopes of forwarding legislation and other actions that would result in the disenfranchisement of Democratic voters for partisan purposes. The scheme, run under the auspices of an organization known as "The American Center for Voting Rights'' (ACVR), was funded by agents of George W. Bush in violation of laws governing tax exempt 501(c)3 organizations and in violation of federal laws forbidding the distribution of such propaganda by the federal government and agents working on its behalf.

DISCLOSURE: The BRAD BLOG was consulted by Kucinich concerning Bush's various High Crimes and Misdemeanors having to do with elections prior to his filing of the articles. The material in Article 29, and also Article 28, "Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice," was based in part on the material we submitted to the Ohio Congressman who, almost alone in Congress (along with Robert Wexler of Florida), seems to understand his conservative sworn duty to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. That would include both Bush and Hearne, of course.

The BRAD BLOG congratulates Thor on both of his two infamous points of recognition this week, as well as spending yet another week not yet in federal prison!

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Article Categories: ACVR, Election Fraud, Photo ID Laws, Impeachment, Vote Caging/Intimidation/Suppression