Reporting to date has long been conclusive enough. Florida Republicans have taken extensive steps, at least since the Supreme Court-thrown election of 20004, to suppress the black vote in Florida to increase Republican presidential election chances. Voter purges that target legitimate voters from suspected Democratically friendly niches are routine.

U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, a Karl Rove acolyte in the Bush White House and oppo research gunslinger before moving home to run for Congress, was implicated long ago in voter caging and, for good measure later, in political manipulation of the Justice Department.

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But now there is swearing to the practice under oath by former Florida Republican Chair Jim Greer.

In a 630-page deposition recorded over two days in late May, Greer, who is on trial for corruption charges, unloaded a litany of charges against the “whack-a-do, right-wing crazies” in his party, including the effort to suppress the black vote.

In the deposition, released to the press yesterday, Greer mentioned a December 2009 meeting with party officials. “I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting,” he said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. He also said party officials discussed how “minority outreach programs were not fit for the Republican Party,” according to the AP.

The local angle is only the lingering stench that clings to the Republican congressman from Arkansas like the nearly palpable odor of rotting fish. Speaking of dead fish: We confess that Tim Griffin might have an alibi for 2009 vote suppression skulduggery in Florida. He was busy in Alaska that year, working to give a mining company leeway to trash the environment..

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