The Washington Times -- not exactly a liberal rag -- has a headline today that I'm sure the Kilgore campaign thought it would never see: "Records sought in spying scandal." Unfortunately for Jerry Kilgore, his past has caught up with him thanks to the Republican Party of Virginia's (RPV's) greed and stupidity:
An attorney for an insurance company being sued by the state Republican Party sent subpoenas yesterday to several high-ranking Republicans seeking a broad range of records related to a political eavesdropping scandal.Among those subpoenaed were gubernatorial candidate and former Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, several members of Congress, House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell and the campaign committees of U.S. Sens. George Allen and John W. Warner, attorney Christopher C. Spencer said in a telephone interview.
Union Insurance Co. refused to cover the $750,000 the Republican Party paid to settle a lawsuit filed by Democrats after the eavesdropping. The Republican Party is suing the company for nearly $1 million -- the cost of the settlement and attorney fees.
[...]
...the records could provide some new insight into the March 2002 political espionage that resulted in criminal convictions against the state Republican Party's two former top officers -- Edmund A. Matricardi, who was executive director, and Gary R. Thomson, who was chairman.
What's so funny about all this is that the eavesdropping scandal had largely faded from public attention until the Republicans brought it up again! Now, it's back in the news, even in the right-wing Washington Times, with Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bergman quoted as as saying that now, "the facts are finally going to come to light and we're going to find out what Jerry Kilgore knew and when he knew it."
The issue is whether or not Jerry Kilgore responded appropriately to the case when he was attorney general.
What?s totally, totally nuts about this is that Kilgore is running for office right now Kilgore is heavily implicated in this scandal, though has never been caught. The last thing that his campaign wants is this eavesdropping scandal being brought to the public?s attention right now.When this was brought up in late 2003, Kilgore uttered those famous lines ("I have no duty to you Mister Lieutenant Governor?), offering the weak-kneed defense that nobody ?in that room? met with RPV executive director Ed Matricardi, blaming newspapers for writing terrible things about him that just aren?t true.
...Jerry Kilgore?s campaign manager, Ken Hutcheson, knew about the eavesdropping, but didn?t know it was illegal to eavesdrop on private telephone conversations with the governor. And it came out that Kilgore?s chief of staff, Anne Petera, listened to a tape recording made of the conversation. Yet, still, Kilgore just didn?t know anything about it.
That?s right: the attorney general didn?t even know about the crimes going on in his own office. That?s a hell of an excuse.
Anyway, thanks to the greed and stupidity of the RPV, this issue is back on the front burner, with "A hearing... set in federal court in Richmond on Sept. 8 to set a trial date for the lawsuit against Union." Just what Jerry Kilgore needs coming down the homestretch of this campaign, an eavesdropping scandal in which he almost certainly had to be involved, or clueless about the goings-on in his own office (which is not good either).
So here's where we stand on the legal front vis-a-vis the Kilgores at this point: 1) subpoenas issued against Jerry Kilgore and other Virginia Republicans; 2) felony indictments handed down in the Gate City mayoral election vote fraud scandal, where Willie Mae Kilgore serves as Scott County Registrar of Voters; and 3) possibly more indictments in Gate City/Scott County on the way. Please remind me, what was Jerry Kilgore saying the other day about a "cesspool of corruption?" Was he referring to Richmond or to himself? I'm confused.