During the long dark night of the struggle for Civil Rights, poet Langston Hughes asked, “What happens to a dream deferred?”

Today Pat Rogers could be asking this very question because yesterday we learned that Bush White House operatives also had a dream.  And he was it.

In late 2008, their reveries were dancing with visions of Pat Rogers replacing the then recently fired David Iglesias as U.S. Attorney in New Mexico.

In the yesterday’s document release by the House Judiciary Committee, there was an email to Karl Rove from his top deputy, Scott Jennings. It assessed the four candidates for Iglesias’ job:

Domenici wants Peifer.

Our political team wants Bibb, but Domenici doesn’t like him for some reason.

Rogers would be the dream, but won’t do it.

Who is Pat Rogers? He’s a long-time activist and leader in New Mexico’s Republican Party, serving as its general counsel and as its representative on the RNC. Recently, he was rewarded for his efforts with an appointment to the RNC’s Executive Committee by Chairman Michael Steele.

So why did the Rovians like Rogers so much?  It was because he shared their dream.

But it wasn’t the dream of civil rights and equal justice under the law that animated Pat.  Just the opposite.

In Rovian eyes, Rogers’ top qualification for the job was his  determination to see the resources of the Justice Department fully deployed for partisan political combat.

“Undeniable Proof”

Rogers’ specialty was the manufacture of claims about Democratic voter fraud. This fraud was “rampant”, he insisted, and you could find it if you just looked hard enough.  That was Pat’s game.  His aim was voter suppression and intimidation.

Rogers’ complaints to Senator Domenici and Iglesias’s subsequent failure to accomplish the suppression agenda helped grease the skids for the U.S. Attorney’s exit.

In 2008, after years of beating the “voter fraud” drum, Rogers finally stepped forward with evidence of wrongdoing. He had the goods, by golly.

At a press conference engineered by Rogers for maximum media fanfare, it was announced that “we are presenting undeniable proof that there was voter fraud in the June election.” Indeed, deeply disturbing allegations were made that 28 people had voted fraudulently in the Democratic primary. Documentary proof was brandished. Blown-up copies of voter registration forms were on display for the camera.

Then it all fell apart.

Upon subsequent examination, his documentation collapsed and the claims proved to be utterly false.

But that wasn’t all. Rogers even went so far as to hire a “private detective” to harass Hispanic voters at their homes  and question the validity of their voter registrations and even their personal identities.

Rogers’ obsession about using Democratic “voter fraud” for electoral gain was evident in his 2006 email to Iglesias and the New Mexico’s Republican congressional delegation. Slipping out of his attorney mode and putting on his political consultant’s hat, Rogers advised, “This is the single best wedge issue.”

And so this is why Patrick Rogers was the Rovian dreamboat candidate for federal prosecutor. Because you see, for Pat, the fierce pursuit of partisan political advantage trumped everything — including the fair and impartial administration of justice.  Especially that.

The proof is undeniable.

(see also NMFBIHOP)

UPDATE:  And this at NMI:  Rogers was White House aide’s ‘dream’ pick to replace Iglesias

Filed under: civil rights, clean elections