AIRC Update: Are Nixon's Plumbers back in business?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I don't know . . . the cops may want to interview G. Gordon Liddy to see if he alibis out. This sounds an awful lot like Nixon's White House Plumbers. I wouldn't put anything past the Tea-Publican operatives who are behind the effort to destroy the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC). Thieves steal computers from redistricting panel:

Burglars hit the offices of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission over the weekend, stealing portable computers, paperwork and a staffer’s personal effects.

Ray Bladine, the commission’s executive director, said staffers discovered the burglary Monday morning, when they arrived at work. The burglar or burglars entered through a ground-floor sash window on the north side of the commission’s office, which is in a 120-year-old Queen Anne-style building. An alarm system apparently did not work.

“Some of the files were turned over on the floor,” Bladine said. “All of the portable computers but one were stolen.”

He said he didn’t suspect any political motivation for the break-in, although the commission has been at the center of heated partisan debate for more than two years and is the subject of three ongoing lawsuits challenging the new political boundaries it drew for Congress and the Legislature. The state Department of Public Safety’s major-crimes unit is investigating.

Bladine said the break-in appeared to be an opportunistic attempt to find goods that could be sold for quick money. The burglars left behind a crack pipe.

One of staffers whose personal papers and state-issued computer were taken got a voice-mail message from an unidentified person whose message suggested he was looking for money. The number was traced to a disposable cellphone.

In addition to the computers, the burglars took three pages of a lengthy log listing appropriations requests to the Legislature, as well as a folder with active invoices for attorneys’ fees, Bladine said.

Sorry, but if this was just some crack-heads looking for things to steal for money, they would have no interest in taking "a lengthy log listing appropriations requests to the Legislature, as well as a folder with active invoices for attorneys’ fees." McGruff the Crime Dog needs to sniff this one out.

The Arizona Legislature has kept the commission on a short financial leash as it works to defend itself against the lawsuits, and Bladine estimated the commission will run out of money to pay its attorneys by month’s end. There may be extra strain on the budget as the staff replaces the stolen computers, although some of that cost should be covered through the state’s insurance policy.

Too bad we don't have any Woodward and Bernstein types working in the Arizona media. If we did, this might lead to an investigation. Don't hold your breath.

Comments

[J C Higgins]

Sounds like a John Mills operation to me!

[AZ BlueMeanie]

He is awaiting sentencing the last time I checked.

[Jana]

"left behind a crack pipe"? Are you kidding me? What crack heads don't hold tight to their paraphernalia? Or just happen to "drop" it in the worst possible place. (See sign left on desk, "Crack Addicts Were Here"). In the realm of drug-fueled property crime, aren't we more likely to be the victims of meth-heads? And what about the loaded political history of crack? This sounds ludicrous. The White House Plumbers were brilliant compared to these fools.

But, yeah, I guess it could have been a cracked up addict who dropped his pipe. Sure, that could happen.

[Arizona Eagletarian]

You do know that G. Gordon's son Tom works for Bill Montgomery these days, don't you?

[AZ BlueMeanie]

A lead the cops should follow up on.