National Review Online's Kathryn Jean Lopez updated yesterday's story on Patrick Leahy pushing for a Justice Department probe of Laura Ingraham with MP-3 audio. (She joked, "Good luck with that, man. Oh, maybe this Democrat Congress thing could be a wee bit fun to watch.") Here's the transcript of Senator Leahy's inquiry to Wan J. Kim, the assistant attorney general for civil rights. Leahy's asking about a show he clearly hasn't listened to, since he couldn't accurately pronounce the host's name:
According to press accounts, right-wing radio host Laura Ingray-ham, or In-gramm, or Ingra-ham, had urged her listeners to jam a phone line set up by Democrats to investigate alleged voter irregularities. She said, uh, she told her listeners everybody call that voting line at the same time and basically, mark it inoperative. Is that something, that, um, that your division investigates?
Mr. Kim eagerly agreed with Leahy about the need for full and fair elections, but he politely explained that the Justice Department's civil-rights division investigates voter access problems, and the criminal division investigates voter-fraud schemes. Leahy wondered if "But, voter access, if you’re jamming the things that enable voter access, does that come into your [purview]?" Kim said no.
Somehow this exchange didn't make it into a tilted Boston Globe account of the hearing, which seems most devoted to following up how the Justice Department is responding to the entreaties of the Boston Globe.
Clintonistas put up the actual Ingraham transcript here.
