{"id":7460,"date":"2006-05-19T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2006-05-19T17:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7460"},"modified":"2006-05-19T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2006-05-19T17:54:15","slug":"rnc-kept-white-house-informed-about-payments-for-tobin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/rnc-kept-white-house-informed-about-payments-for-tobin\/","title":{"rendered":"RNC kept White House informed about payments for Tobin"},"content":{"rendered":"

I continue to believe, perhaps mistakenly, that the GOP [tag]phone-jamming[\/tag] [tag]scandal[\/tag] in [tag]New Hampshire[\/tag] is a bigger deal than the attention it’s been getting. Today, there’s some follow-up regarding the [tag]White House[\/tag]’s connection to the controversy.<\/p>\n

Of course, the White House already has some ambiguous ties to this mess. For example, on Election Day 2002, while [tag]James Tobin[\/tag], the regional chairman of [tag]Bush[\/tag]’s presidential campaign, was criminally interfering with the election process, he called the White House<\/a> 12 times<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Today, however, the Union Leader adds to the story by noting that the-then RNC chairman talked to the White House<\/a> about paying Tobin’s legal bills after he was busted for his scheme.<\/p>\n

The former chairman of the Republican National Committee remembers telling someone at the White House that he had decided to have the [tag]RNC[\/tag] pay the legal defense bills for convicted phone-jamming conspirator James [tag]Tobin[\/tag], but he can’t remember who.<\/p>\n

[tag]Ed Gillespie[\/tag] told the New Hampshire Union Leader yesterday he informed the White House after he decided to authorize payment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

24 hours prior, however, Gillespie told the WaPo<\/a> that he had “informed the White House, without seeking formal approval, before<\/i> authorizing the payments.” Inconsistent? Not according to Gillespie, who told the Union Leader that he decided to authorize the payments “before telling the White House and actually authorized the payments after telling the White House.”<\/p>\n

Something doesn’t quite add up.
\n
\nPaul Keil summarized<\/a> the story thusly:<\/p>\n

So here’s the whole story as Gillespie tells it. He made an arbitrary decision that the RNC would cover Tobin’s legal bills. Why? Because “it’s the custom, not written anywhere, that you covered your people.” … Having made that decision, he then informed someone at the White House, he can’t remember who, that he was going to abide by this unwritten rule. But this was just a heads up, a courtesy, not a dialogue. It was non-negotiable.<\/p>\n

Sound funny to you?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, yes, especially in light of the current RNC policy that explains “consulting contracts now explicitly declare that independent contractors must be prepared to pay their own legal costs in civil and criminal cases.”<\/p>\n

Maybe something will come of this, maybe not, but it’d be nice if some enterprising reporters in the White House press corps did a little digging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I continue to believe, perhaps mistakenly, that the GOP [tag]phone-jamming[\/tag] [tag]scandal[\/tag] in [tag]New Hampshire[\/tag] is a bigger deal than the attention it’s been getting. Today, there’s some follow-up regarding the [tag]White House[\/tag]’s connection to the controversy. Of course, the White House already has some ambiguous ties to this mess. For example, on Election Day 2002, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}