DNC Attorneys Send Cease and Desist Letter to Free Republic

Posted by Noel Sheppard on May 13, 2007 - 02:09.

The Howard Dean-Kathleen Sebelius-Kansas tornado story has taken an interesting turn.

Scott Johnson at Power Line reported Saturday that attorneys representing the Democratic National Committee have sent a cease and desist letter to Free Republic due to a post at its website concerning allegations made on the “Quinn & Rose” XM Satellite radio show Thursday (h/t Glenn Reynolds).

Howard Dean appears to be doing another “I Have a Scream” speech, only this time through his attorneys.

Isn’t that special?

The letter stated:

A post by “coffee260” on “Freerepublic.com” today states that this morning, on the “Quinn & Rose” show on XM, co-host Jim Quinn stated that DNC Chairman Governor Howard Dean had called Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.) “around 5:00 a.m. one morning after a tornado had destroyed the town of Greensburg, Kansas and discussed with her what to say about the tornado and how to blame the war in Iraq and the Bush administration on a slow response to the aftermath.”

The statement made by Mr. Quinn, repeated on FreeRepublic.com, is demonstrably, unequivocally and absolutely false. Governor Dean had no such conversation with Governor Sebelius, ever.

Power Line’s Johnson was duly unimpressed (emphasis added throughout):

The attorney who sent the letter on behalf of the DNC is attorney Joseph Sandler, representing the Democratic National Committee. In my view, Sandler is a thug representing a bunch of reprobates and bullies. Here's why.

Under the First Amendment, as construed by the Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan, citizens are protected from defamation claim by public figures so long as the statements in issue are lacking in "actual malice," i.e, knowledge of their falsehood or reckless disregard as to whether they are false or not.

After concluding that Sandler’s letter “incorporates no element of ‘actual malice,’" and that “it does not even allege that Jim Quinn had knowledge of the statements' falsity or made them with reckless disregard of their truth or falsity,” Johnson upped the ante:

We therefore associate ourselves with our reader's statements regarding Governor Dean and invite Mr. Sandler to sue us for defamation as he threatens to sue Free Republic. This is to put him and his client on notice, however, that we intend to seek our attorney's fees under federal law for the assertion of a frivolous claim if he does so.

How delicious.

As an interesting sidebar, the folks at Free Republic don't seem too concerned with Sandler's letter, for the post in question is still available. It is also interesting that another Freep post was made on this subject before the one in question. Yet, the DNC didn't ask for its removal.

NANCY PIGLOSI SHOULD BE CHARGED WITH TREASON - IN VIOLATION OF THE LOGAN ACT

Tue 1 May 2007

Intelligence, Negligence, or Both?

Posted by The Bear under Global War on Terrorism

If you’re not familiar with Dave Gaubatz and his intelligence about WMD, you’re not alone? Apparently no one on the Right or Wrong political fronts wants to know either. This article by Melanie Phillips provides some interesting insight that would likely enlighten all of us. It is very possible that the only ones that have listened to the intelligence are the Iranians, Syrians, Russians, and Chinese. (See related below).

Speaking of Syrians…

Although not surprising, it was still mind-boggling to watch the American MSM give their blessing to the recent Syrian visit by America’s Queen of Treason, Nancy Pelosi. And if that wasn’t enough, the trip was capped off by a well-orchestrated publicity stunt on the Tonight Show. Normally, I wouldn’t waste my time watching what amounts to a nightly parade of America’s Most Wanted Idiots, but the closing comments on the NBC news indicated that Pelosi was going to be a guest (she certainly met the guest criteria, but the timing was intriguing). Piquing my interest, I was curious if and how this was going to portray our unelected shadow president. Instead of introducing her to a rousing rendition of Elton John’s ‘The Bitch is Back’, lapdog Jay fed her a steady stream of lobbed pitches. In one of his lobs, Jay asked the Speaker (paraphrased), “So Ms. Speaker, it seems like you and the President do not see eye to eye – how do you really get along?” At this juncture, Pelosi could have garnered at least a few smiles from those on the Right with a little Team America humor and responded with a round of “Durka, Durka, Mohammed Jihad”. Choosing lies over humor, Pelosi responded with a charming smile saying “Well Jay, I really like and respect him as a person.” Now on a taped show, it’s difficult to imagine what actually is and isn’t shown, but I can only imagine that a 30-minute extended break was required immediately thereafter to clean up the mounds of vomit as well as to silence the hysterical laughter in response to that lie. Please Ms. Speaker, if you truly respected him has a person, there is no way you could so blatantly deny and defy the integrity, honor, and conviction with which this President lives and breathes. With all of her treason and affronts to the Israelis aside, this visit to the Tonight Show was a well-crafted marketing ploy to portray a trip designed and executed as political sabotage (arguably treason) to be one of heart-felt compassion for her country. Once again, thank you NBC for your continued excellence in irresponsibility and political bias.

By Rick who is On The Right Side of the Issues

Related

‘I found Saddam’s WMD bunkers’

Spectator, 20 April 2007. It’s a fair bet that you have never heard of a guy called Dave Gaubatz. It’s also a fair bet that you think the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found absolutely nothing, nada, zilch; and that therefore there never were any WMD programmes in Saddam’s Iraq to justify the war ostensibly waged to protect the world from Saddam’s use of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Dave Gaubatz, however, says you could not be more wrong. Saddam’s WMD did exist.

More from a previous post….

And also in this article by Melanie Phillips