Barack Obama's campaign is accusing Republicans of enlisting law enforcement officials in a "frenzied and pathetic" attempt to turn the allegations of voter fraud surrounding a low-income advocacy group into a political football.
The campaign complained Friday in a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey that Republican operatives were "fomenting specious vote fraud allegations" and urged any investigation of such fraud to be put under the purview of the special prosecutor who was looking into the firings of U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration.
Bob Bauer, the campaign's general counsel, said on a conference call that it seemed law enforcement officials were in cahoots with the Republican operatives.
"It appears that political people and the senior officials in law enforcement are working hand-in-glove again," he said. "They are collaborating in this anti-fraud circus to create an environment of fear and intimidation."
Bauer referred to the Associated Press report Thursday that quoted officials as saying the FBI had opened an investigation into ACORN. The report said the FBI was looking at recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for evidence of a national scam.
The campaign's letter to Mukasey suggested the "leaks" were allowed as part of a Justice Department "collusion."
ACORN fired off its own statement supporting the claim Friday.
"We call on the McCain campaign to directly answer whether they, the Republican Party or their operatives have been conspiring with the Bush Administration to misuse the Justice Department in order to suppress voter turnout in 2008," ACORN president Maude Hurd said in a statement.
John McCain's campaign has drawn increased attention to the ACORN probes in recent days, noting that Obama once did legal work for the group, was endorsed by them and years ago provided training to the group's members.
"We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy," McCain said at Wednesday's presidential debate.
His running mate Sarah Palin stood by the campaign's criticisms Friday.
"I think voters are very concerned about voter fraud and as more and more revelation comes in these 13 states that are now under investigation for potential voter fraud, I think that more American voters are becoming very, very concerned," she told reporters.
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Obama has continued to "create a fog around the issue."
"We believe that these issues are important in a close election. We believe that many of these states that are under investigation have had historical close elections and could be very close again and that we should do nothing in this campaign or in the press to do anything other than to ensure that there's a total confidence level that on Election Day," he said.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/17/obama-gop-conspiracy/
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