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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Monday, May 28, 2007

Did Sara Taylor resign over "caging?"

Sara Taylor's sudden departure (another Rove aid,) is getting a fair amount of blogger ink today with the news that "Taylor cleared out her office early last week."

There are alot of reasons she could have left. She was a figure in the Republican strategy of the 2006 elections. She might be cashing in while she still can. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees have approved subpoenas for her testimony.

But I want to offer one other speculative possibility, "caging" which involves removing specific voters from voter roles by race, income, or whatever. (I'm not a big Greg Palast linker as he's often hyperbolic, but this is a decent, if stilted, description of caging charges against the Bush administration in 2004.)

Now, take a look at this section of Monica Goodling's testimony just this week.
GOODLING: Ok, and the last thing was the voter — the caging issue, which was a reference to Tim Griffin.

SANCHEZ: Can you explain what “caging” is? I’m not familiar with that term.


GOODLING: My understanding — and I don’t actually know a lot about it — is that it’s a direct-mail term, that people who do direct mail, when they separate addresses that may be good versus addresses that may be bad. That’s the best information that I have, is that it’s a direct mail term used by vendors in that circumstance.

Remembering that Karl Rove came out of direct mail, and Monica Goodling is implicating top Rove aide Tim Griffin in what may be illegal "caging," I find myself wondering about this,
Sara M. Taylor, the White House political director and microtargeting guru who has been with George W. Bush from the outset of his first presidential campaign, is the latest staff member to leave the president's employ.

If there was "caging" going on at Tim Griffin's level, wouldn't you expect the "White House political director and microtargeting guru" to be deeply involved?

Just speculation. Odds are it's the imminent subpoena in the US Attorneys case, but something about this just popped out at me.

2 Comments:

  • Excellent Point! Microtargeting and Caging are in the same category. As a matter of fact, "voter fraud" prosecution is in that category. Such a wealth of reasons to resign...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:06 AM  

  • Yeah. No concrete backing for my theory, but caging is slowly creeping into the broader charges.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 5:55 PM  

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