Posted on 09/24/2002 5:29:11 AM PDT by Iowa Granny
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's campaign manager admitted Monday night that the campaign had obtained a transcript of a secretly taped meeting of Greg Ganske and his supporters, then passed it along to a journalist.
"We made a mistake, and we're sorry," said Jeff Link, who previously had denied knowing where the journalist, Kathie Obradovich, had gotten the transcript.
"We take full responsibility for releasing it to the press," Link said.
He said a "junior staffer," whom he would not identify, had obtained the material from a person who was promised confidentiality by the staffer.
The revelations capped a day of complaints about skulduggery in the U.S. Senate race pitting Harkin, the Democratic incumbent, against Ganske, a Republican congressman.
Iowa GOP leaders said that despite Link's apology, they intended to proceed with their written request Monday that state and federal authorities investigate to determine whether the taping violated any laws.
"We will continue to pursue legal remedies," said Ganske campaign spokesman Ann Warren. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."
Obradovich said in a newspaper column that she had obtained a recording of the Sept. 3 meeting from "Democratic sources." Party leaders initially disavowed any knowledge of the taping, which has created a national stir. CNN and the New York Times reported on the electronic snooping charges, along with the Drudge Report and other Internet news outlets.
State Republican Chairman Charles Larson Jr. and William Armistead, Ganske's campaign manager, requested the criminal probe. They asked both Darwin Chapman, director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and Steve Colloton, U.S. attorney for the state's Southern District, to mount investigations. Authorities said they would review that request.
"Clearly, a very serious breach of privacy has occurred," Larson said at a Statehouse news conference. "Without doubt, someone was either wearing a wire (microphone) in the room, or the room had been bugged. There's no other way that kind of information could have been leaked outside of the room."
Link said Monday night that he didn't know who taped the meeting or how it was done, but he said it was ludicrous of Republicans to suggest that the meeting room had been bugged.
"My guess is somebody in that room recorded it. My guess is it was somebody invited to the meeting," he said.
About 24 people attended the meeting, described as a campaign update for some of Ganske's Des Moines-area donors, at the Hotel Savery. The participants included former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray and Ken Mehlman, White House political director, who took part in the meeting by telephone.
Ray said "it wasn't on anyone's mind" that someone might be secretly taping the meeting. "It's illegal, and it's stooping to a new low."
Democrats previously had suggested that a disgruntled Republican or the Ganske campaign itself could have been the source of the tape and the 11-page transcript that surfaced over the weekend. GOP leaders said Ganske's campaign staff did not record the meeting, and they are confident that the other meeting participants didn't, either.
"Everyone in the room was a supporter of Congressman Ganske," Larson said. "We have not talked to every single person, (but) everyone we have been able to get hold of has denied any involvement whatsoever. "
The Ganske campaign said it learned about the tape recording from Obradovich, a political and state government reporter for Lee Enterprises, which publishes the Quad-City Times and several other Iowa newspapers.
Obradovich said in a newspaper column that Democratic sources had given her a transcript of the Ganske meeting on the condition that they not be identified. She also quoted from the 11-page transcript. The Ganske campaign distributed copies of the transcript it had obtained from Obradovich to reporters over the weekend.
"I can't say anything more about it," Obradovich said Monday. Her husband, Jim, is a Statehouse lobbyist.
Earlier in the day, Rob Tully, the Iowa Democratic Party's vice chairman, issued a blanket denial that Democratic operatives had eavesdropped on the Ganske meeting.
"No staff of the Iowa Democratic Party or Citizens for Harkin attended or recorded private political meetings of the Ganske for Senate campaign, including Congressman Ganske's meeting at the Savery Hotel earlier this month. Any assertion of illegal activity here is completely ludicrous," Tully said.
Armistead said the transcript pointed to the opposing camp because it appears to have been professionally prepared and because it highlighted a passage quoting Ganske on attacking Harkin.
(Excerpt) Read more at dmregister.com ...
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm
sick as hell of that "I'm sorry, let's move on"
crap. You do the crime; you do the time.
GRRRRRR &^%%^$#@#@
Not if the probe takes 6 weeks to execute.
Never let it be said that 'Rats don't play dirty. Of course, when you're dirt, that comes naturally.
I think Ganske should run commercials referring to Harkin as: "Senator Nixon from Iowa."
That'll keep it in the news.
Ganske should be making this point into everyone's ear at every opportunity in a not to subtle way.
jriemer
Like a pile of dung?
Back in the 90s we had a similar case here in NC. Former GUV4LIFE Jim Hunt had one of his cronies tape a cell call, similar to the Florida deal. It was years later when someone finally got their hand slapped. Of course, that was Reno Justice.
Betcha absolutely nothing will be said on the nightly network news.
You have two options: (1) Rush (at least that gets a few millions in the know, even if it is preaching to the choir); and (2) O'Reilly (he's very useful in that the "uncommitted" often tune him in).
This is a good analogy, in that the cover-up was NOTHING compared to some of the Dems' horrid crimes.
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