Well, well, well. Karl Rove's American Crossroads and "fired" voter registration fraudster Nathan Sproul seem to share far, far more than a party affiliation.
Via Salon, the beginning of the trail:
So what does Sproul have to do with Karl Rove? According to a report by Brad Friedman that appeared in Salon and on his own site, BradBlog, American Crossroads has paid at least $750,000 for Sproul’s services. On October 9, Representative Gonzalez’s letter to Rove inquired about American Crossroads’ relationship to Sproul and his companies in the past and whether Crossroads has ongoing ties with Sproul during the current election cycle. Among other questions, Gonzalez asked Rove what services Sproul provided for American Crossroads, why he was hired, why Rove would associate with someone who had a reputation for participating in voter fraud, whether Crossroads has severed its relationship with Sproul, and whether it has worked with him under other names. Gonzalez urged Rove to respond by October 23.
Brad Friedman picks it up from there with even more juicy details:
It now appears that Strategic Allied Consulting has the same corporate mailing address in Virginia as Rove's American Crossroads PAC. Imagine that...
Late last week, the state of Florida released the original election fraud complaint [PDF] filed against Strategic last month. That complaint eventually led to the full-blown criminal investigation by the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement said to now be underway.
As sharp-eyed BRAD BLOG commenter "Citizen92" noticed in those newly released documents, the "Key takeaway from this is that Strategic Allied Consulting has a business address of 45 North Hill Drive, Suite 100, Warrenton, VA."
"Who else has a business address at 45 North Hill Drive?," Citizen92 asked rhetorically, "American Crossroads, Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie's 527 group."
Indeed our good Citizen92 is correct, according to the IRS 527 filing for American Crossroads [PDF], the mailing address for Rove's outfit is also 45 North Hill Drive, Suite 100, in Warrenton, VA.
Gosh, who would have imagined such a thing? That Karl Rove and Nathan Sproul might share the same business address? Surely Rove wouldn't have his hands in something that shady, would he?
That was sarcasm, in case it failed to shine through. You should really read Brad's full post, because it leads back to the 2000 Florida recount debacle, the Koch brothers, and more. It's a little snapshot of corrupt Republican politics in one neat little package.
Karl Rove could possibly be one of the most evil men in politics. Salon's article has more about him:
As I report in Boss Rove, in many ways Rove is the father of the voter suppression movement, and his attempt to gin up a massive campaign against voter fraud, a phenomenon that is largely nonexistent, was a major factor behind the U.S. Attorneys scandal in which Rove was a prime figure.
Yes, indeed. You might recall that the primary reason they canned the 8 US Attorneys was because they refused to engage in voter suppression activities on behalf of George W. Bush. US Attorney David Iglesias was a prime target:
Thanks to what he called “Karl Rove’s obsession with voter fraud issues throughout the country,” New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias, a Bush appointee, spent more than two months probing claims of voter fraud in his state in 2004 and found no cases worth prosecuting. Nor was he alone in finding scant evidence of such crimes. According to the New York Times, between October 2002 and September 2005, the federal government convicted a grand total of eighteen people for the crime of voting while ineligible—out of more than 120 million votes in the 2004 presidential election, and another 80 million who voted in the 2002 midterms.
Go read both articles. They're chock full of facts about Rove, Sproul, and how Republicans intend to steal and continue to steal elections. Then VOTE.