Meet Mickey Dee Barnett:  GOP lawyer, lobbyist, member of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, all-around Bush fixer, and one architect of Iglesias’s ouster.

Mickey’s been a major player in NM GOP politics for years.  He’s a native of Clovis, New Mexico, a little podunk GOP town on the east side of the state, just west of the Texas border.   I mentioned here that Southeastern New Mexico is known as "Little Texas." Clovis (and Portales, just a few miles south) are barely within the southeast quadrant, but they’re as much a part of "Little Texas" - politically, philosophically, and in appearance and accent - as any town in the state.

The Early Years:  Mickey made his first appearance on the state’s political scene in 1972, when he went to work as a legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Pete Domenici in his D.C. office.  After four years on Domenici’s staff, Mickey (to use the ghastly neologism so common to this administration) "transitioned" into the policy world in 1976, becoming staff attorney for right-wing nutjob tank The Heritage Foundation.  At the same time, he became a director if Heritage’s "Resource Bank," which is a stable of like-minded power brokers.

Consolidating Power:  Upon returning to New Mexico, Mickey did what so many lawyers in this state do:  He launched a private law practice, and ran for the state Lege.  He was only a state senator from 1980 to 1984, but he was already working to become a power player in the state GOP.  During this period, he also reportedly helped found the "Oliver North Defense Fund."  Throughout the ’90s, he worked systematically to consolidate his power in the "new GOP" (read:  the wing-nut Gingrichite version), becoming the RNC national committeeman from New Mexico (2000-2004); a member of the NM Republican State Executive Committee; a high-powered, highly connected lawyer for the state party and the Bush campaign; and a state  GOP "kingmaker."

Lobbying Interests:  Much has been made of Mickey’s lobbying interests and activities by partisans on all sides - but not necessarily along usual partisan lines.  At various times, he’s been reviled by factions within his own party for representing the interests of certain lobbying clients.  One glaring example was drug legalization:  In 1999, NM’s then-Guv Gary Johnson stepped in it on the national stage when he announced his support for halting the "war on drugs."  Johnson, a Republican with libertarian rather than fundy leanings, admitted to having tried drugs in his youth, openly opposed the nation’s draconian drug laws and "lock ‘em up" approach, and supported legalizing and regulating the hell out of drugs while investing in treatment.  Mickey and Gary were already BFFs, and Mickey lobbied the state Lege on behalf Johnson’s drug reform package as the hired lobbyist of the pro-legalization Lindesmith Foundation/Drug Policy Center - until some of his GOP buddies reportedly advised him to drop the elgalization issue or risk his political future with the GOP. 

Mickey’s also known (and criticized by his own party) for allegedly being "an ardent backer of Indian gaming."  This, of course, is unmitigated bullshit (and yet another example of Monahan’s MSM tendencies.).  Mickey is an ardent backer of lining his own pockets, and like fellow Bush BFF Jack Abramoff, he’s perfectly happy to induce state tribes to part with their money to pay his lobbying fees.  Santa Ana Pueblo is one of his current clients.  There is also this notion floating around the state that Mickey represented O’ke Owingeh (still incorrectly known by most of New Mexico as San Juan Pueblo) in an anti-labor case.  First, the case involved yet another example of the government’s refuse to recognize tribal sovereignty; I don’t have to agree with the Pueblo’s stance or the case outcome to understand why its Council took the position it did.  Second, Mickey did not represent the Pueblo.  Rather, he and another lawyer filed an amicus brief on behalf of a Virginia-based anti-labor lobbying group with a vested interest in the case’s outcome:  The National Right to Work Foundation.  (Take a look at their roster of staff attorneys here - white males, one and all.)  And, in fact, Mickey’s got a long history of lobbying on behalf of so-called "right to work" (read:  anti-union) initiatives, and against state attempts to raise the minimum wage.

Mickey’s list of corporate lobbying clients reads like a roster of member of the Big Business Bad Actors Guild.  One is El Paso Electric; in 2005, FERC fined Enron to the tune of $32 mil for allegedly maintaining an "improper business relationship" with El Paso Electric from 1997 to 2003.  EPE was found to have colluded with Enron to manipulate prices, and to have inflated energy prices during California’s power blackouts in 2002 (at the link source, scroll to page 45 for the summary).  Ultimately, EPE settled several lawsuits, paying $10 million to its own shareholders; $14 million to regulators; and $1.5 billion to consumer groups in a class-action settlement.

In 1999, a Texas firm called Waste Control Specialists (WCS) sought to sell land it owned in southeastern NM (in Lea County, to be exact, which is as "Little Texas" as it gets) to USEC, described as "the world leader in enriching uranium fuel for nuclear power plants."  USEC wanted to put an enrichment plant in Lea County.  To that end, WCS lobbied then-Guv Gary Johnson and U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (both of whom were already solidly "on board"), as well as members of the state Lege and local officials, through a combination of nearly $50 grand in contributions to state and local pols, the two major parties, and various political cmmittees and groups.  Another $35 grand in a single-source contribution found its way into Johnson’s campaign coffers by way of a Waste Control Specialists subsidiary, Contran Corp.  (WCS’s owner also gave $10,000 to George W. Bush.)  And who, pray tell, was WCS’s lobbyist?  Why, that’s right:  none other than Mickey Barnett.  And, yes, WCS got its way - and now locals are fighting a proposal to put a new uranium processing facility in the same area.

But perhaps the most venal of Mickey’s corporate clients is the so-called "payday loan" industry, which labors diligently to keep the working class head over heels in debt.  The industry’s market share in this state is enormous; in some towns’ business districts, there are multiple loan shark joints per block.  When it became obvious that then-AG Patricia Madrid was going to get her way and that some form of payday loan regulation would be enacted, Mickey and his compas went to work on behalf of a watered-down version that permitted such companies to continue such egregious practices as the charging of triple-digit interest rates.

Bush 2000:  And then, of course, there are Mickey’s ties to the Bush campaign, dating all the way back to the 2000 "election."  While serving as RNC committeeman, he was also one of the state lawyers for the Bush campaign, and proved his loyalty by doing his part by laying the groundwork for the coming hype over alleged "voter fraud."  While the nation was consumed with the mess in Florida, Mickey was busy getting judges to order New Mexico State Police to impound all paper ballots statewide.  While the "loyal Bushies" in Florida were deriding the notion that the numerous undervotes on that state’s ballots in the presidential race were anything other than real undervotes, Mickey was arguing the exact opposite over the 10% of the votes in dinky, heavily Republican Roosevelt County (i.e., Mickey’s former home) that showed undervotes - and demanding the hand recount that the Florida Bushies wanted to avoid at all costs.  However, the 115 votes that the Roosevelt County recount threw to Bush weren’t enough to make up for Gore’s statewide edge of 368 votes.  And predictably (why will become clear in an upcoming post), Mickey wanted a full recount in Chaves County - where local GOP apparatchiks began their own "informal recount."  Mickey’s efforts in the service of the Bush campaign machine were repeated in 2004, to much more insidious effect, as he and his cronies turned from allegations of machine error to trumping up hysteria over nonexistent voter fraud and working actively to suppress the vote.

The Interregnum:  Between the 2000 and 2004 elections, Mickey’s star rose and fell drastically.  As a new RNC committeeman in 2000 (having forced out long-time GOP stalwart Manny Lujan), he and his pals worked aggressively to consolidate their power, launching an all-out intraparty war in the process.  Now, before we get into who dissed whom, it’s important to understand one fact:  These folks are all about ideological purity - for others.  For themselves, they’re all about power, period.  Which makes them perfect "loyal Bushies" - the rules were made for everyone else. There are two reasons this is so crucial.  First, it explains the motivations and tactics used against David Iglesias (and others).  But, more fundamentally, it explains why these folks were so willing to eat their own, despite the fact that their targets often seemed to have more in common philosophically with the modern GOP.  Here’s what I mean.

Mickey, as we’ve seen, has been more than willing to jump on bandwagons that are traditionally anathema to the GOP, such as drug legalization and Native American casino gaming.  And what you don’t hear about or from Mickey is a lot of fundy-speak; he’s not particularly known for ranting against the evils of abortion or homosexuality, except insofar as it might suit his immediate political purposes at a given moment.   The same is true of his buddy John Dendahl.  Now, Dendahl grew into the role a bit during his years as NM GOP chair (during Mickey’s tenure as NM’s RNC committeeman); he loves to slam public education, labor, immigration, and non-English-firsters.  But he’s got a decidedly libertarian bent, and took a lot of flak for supporting drug legalization.

Other members of the Barnett faction, however, include Rod Adair and Dan Foley, state legislators from Chaves County.  Both are, likewise, obsessed with grabbing and keeping power, but they both consistently make all the right noises with regard to fundy talking points.  Both make great hay out of their "Christianity" - and both are classic bullies in the Bush/Cheney mode.  But, as with Bush and Cheney, power is key, and they long ago allied themselves with the Barnett/Dendahl wing of the wingnut party.  And by 2000, part of what that meant was fealty to Bush and Cheney and Rove.

By contrast, the intraparty opponents of Barnett’s faction were often ideological conservatives, both in terms of religious and cultural issues and on fiscal, foreign, and domestic policy.  Unlike Barnett’s Boys, however, they tended not be "bombthrowers" - i.e., they toed the basic party line and worked hard on behalf of Christian conservative candidates, but weren’t necessarily about public muscle-flexing displays of raw power.  And by 2003, these traditional NM Republicans were fed to the teeth with the headline-whoring antics of Mickey’s crowd.  At that year’s convention of the GOP state central committee, they fielded an opponent to Dendahl:  Ramsay Gorham of Bernalillo County, wife of wealthy GOP businessman Frank Gorham, who had impeccable conservative credentials.  Gorham was no shrinking violet, either; she and her backers fought hard, and ultimately deposed Dendahl as state party chair.  And to Barnett’s Boys, this was a dissing that had to be answered - with, as "loyal Bushies" might put it, "overwhelming force."

Barnett’s Boys responded immediately, waging an all-out war against Gorham and her supporters.  The bloodletting was profligate; no issue was too small or petty to be used against her, and they declined to confine themselves to the issues.  Gorham’s backers accused their opponents of attempting to destroy Gorham personally and entirely, smearing her reputation, and state ops and pundits seem to agree.  More, this was done with the backing of the Bush campaign:  During the ‘04 race, Rove and Co. openly dissed Gorham by refusing to invite her to a campaign strategy meeting held in Albuquerque by Bush campaign manager Marc Racicot.

A year or so later, Barnett and his boys engineered Gorham’s ouster, and at the behest of Domenici and his protege, Heather Wilson, Allen Weh (he of anti-Iglesias jaw-flapping fame) was installed in her place.  But in 2004, Gorham’s faction hit back hard, running 75-year-old George Buffet for RNC committeeman and ousting Mickey, during a Bush election campaign, from his plummy and powerful RNC seat.  At that point, the battle was wholly joined, and both factions spent their time overtly working to defeat the others’ candidates. In 2004, Mickey’s personal secretary, 24-year-old Justine Fox-Young, challenged state rep Bob White in the GOP primary in a typically brutal campaign - and won.  Barnett’s Boys, led by Adair, fought successfully to defeat long-time GOP rep Earlene Roberts in a vitriolic race (which, come 2006, Roberts would not forget).

2004 Presidential Race:  Mickey and his minions reprised their 2000 roles on behalf of the Bush campaign, but with a few changes.  Thanks to their performance in 2000, Barnett’s Boys were firmly institutionalized in the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign this time around:  Mickey himself was the state campaign’s counsel, and his BFF Rod Adair was one of the state campaign’s co-chairs, giving them ready access to Karl Rove’s ear.   In retrospect, however, it’s interesting how seldom Mickey’s name arose in coverage of the 2004 campaign; the public heavy lifting was done primarily by Pat Rogers, John Dendahl, Rod Adair, and Allen Weh.  (That "heavy lifting" - involving an all-out attempt to suppress the Democratic vote, under the guise of trumped-up "voter fraud" hysteria - will be the subject of upcoming posts.)  If the last six+ years have demonstrated anything with regard to Bush and his loyalists, it’s that any course of action (or inaction) occurs with specific and malign purpose, so I find it unlikely in the extreme that Mickey was off the radar only incidentally.

2006:  Fast-forward to last year.  Below the radar, Barnett’s Boys were busy once again, opposing insufficiently pure GOP primary candidates and flogging the races of those in their own corner.  The big story, however, occurred post-primary, when Mickey, Dendahl, Weh, and a few others in their play group ambushed GOP gubernatorial candidate J.R. Damron, forcing him to "withdraw voluntarily" from the race to make way for "a more aggressive candidate" who supposedly stood a chance of beating Bill Richardson. 

And who might such a candidate be?

In a move worthy of Dick Cheney circa 1999, Dendahl became the anointed.  To give you some idea of the shamelessness of this crowd, Dendahl apparently managed to keep a straight face as he told the Santa Fe New Mexican that

"he had been hearing talk among Republicans in recent weeks about the possibility of Damron withdrawing.  He said Barnett had called him recently saying there was a ‘groundswell of support’ to field a new candidate - someone like Dendahl.  Last Tuesday, Dendahl said, he got a call from U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici’s chief of staff, Steve Bell, who said Barnett and Domenici had discussed replacing Damron with Dendahl. Bell told Dendahl that Domenici liked the idea."

"Groundswell of support" <snort>.  My ass.  This was a put-up job from start to finish.  Damron was never more than a stalking horse - and the poor schlub didn’t even know it.  Damron played the good soldier, but his wife, Barbara, didn’t go quite as quietly:

"I kept hearing all this talk that he wasn’t being aggressive enough, but when it came to actually challenging Bill Richardson, nobody stepped up to the plate but my husband," Barbara Damron said. "Others were slinking off and hiding under their chairs. I told them, either come do it better yourself, give us money or shut up."

And I imagine they’ll be made to pay for that comment, somewhere down the line. 

In addition to the Barnett-Dendahl-Weh troika, Pete Domenici and his chief of staff, Steve Bell, were intimately involved in ousting Damron and replacing him with Dendahl. News reports at the time made oblique yet pointed references to certain facts:  1) that Mickey allegedly broached the subject of the switch with Pete; 2) that Mickey was already Bush’s nominee for the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors; and 3) that Pete was Mickey’s Senate "sponsor" for the appointment.  Knowing what we now know, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find Rove’s greasy fingerprints all over this operation, too.  Particularly since then-RNC chair Ken Mehlman felt compelled to weigh in approvingly on the switch via an official RN press release, on the same day that Damron bowed out - a Saturday.

Two months later, in the dogs days of summer, the Senate held its confirmation hearing for Bush’s nominees for the USPS Board of Governors - including our Mickey, who now holds the office until December 8, 2013.  However, Mickey’s road to confirmation was not without a few bumps:  Ron Godbey, a former GOP state rep whose ouster Mickey engineered, lobbied the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers to oppose Mickey’s nomination.  After pointing out Mickey’s anti-union efforts and his lobbying on behalf of the payday loan industry, Godbey concluded: 

"Given Mr. Barnett’s past record, and controversial deportment, I can’t believe he would or could be fair-minded with your initiatives, programs and ideas."

Godbey wasn’t the only one.  Earlene Roberts (remember her - also ousted at Mickey’s behest?) wrote a letter to U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to protest Mickey’s nomination and asking persmission to testify at the confirmation hearing.  Before launching into a laundry list of Mickey’s ties to lobbyists and his penchant for targeting fellow Republicans, Roberts leads with this: 

"I can tell you in no uncertain terms that Mr. Barnett does not hold the qualifications or the person [sic] qualities that a Postal Governor should possess."

Of course, we now know that by the time Mickey was confirmed to his new patronage position, he’d already set in motion the process for ousting Iglesias.  As The New York Times reported last month:

The focus on Mr. Iglesias intensified in June 2006, when Mickey Barnett, a Republican Party activist in New Mexico, requested “a meeting with someone at DOJ to discuss the USATTY situation there.”

The e-mail message alerting Justice Department officials, sent by a senior official in the White House Office of Political Affairs, noted that Mr. Barnett is “the president’s nominee for the US Postal Board of Governors. He was heavily involved in the president’s campaign’s legal team.” The next day, Mr. Barnett and Patrick Rogers, a New Mexico lawyer who has led a campaign against voter fraud, met with Justice Department officials. 

Local blog New Mexico FBIHOP lays it out in greater - and better - detail:

On page four, William Moschella writes the following:

Sen. Domenici called for the AG because he wants to discuss the criminal "docket and caseload" in New Mexico.  Sen. Domenici offered to come here, talk on the phone, or we could stop in on the Senator.
Fast forward to page 50.  There, an e-mail from "SJennings@GWB43.com" to Monica Goodling on June 20, 2006.  J Scott Jennings is the Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Political Director
I have a person from New Mexico coming to town this week - he is the President’s nominee for US Postal Board of Governors.  He was heavily involved in the President’s campaign’s legal team.

His name is Mickey Barnett, and he has requested a meeting with someone at DOJ to discuss the USATTY situation there.

Will someone in EOUSA or you or Kyle be available?

The next page shows a meeting with Barnett and Patrick Rogers scheduled at 5:30 on June 21 in a planner.

And unbeknownst to Iglesias (is this sounding like a familiar refrain?) his fate was presumably sealed - nearly six months before his actual dismissal.

I’m waiting to see what comes out of the hearings; while hauling Gonzo and Rove and all of their apparatchiks before Congress to testify on the record and under oath, they should drag Mickey and his minions along, too.

Of course, Barnett’s Boys are making great hay, at least locally, of last Thursday’s indictment of Manny Aragon and three others in the courthouse case that’s been giving local Rethugs wet dreams for years.  This was the corruption case that Iglesias should have brought, so the story goes, and the fact that his successor brought it now just demonstrates that Iglesias was fired for cause.

Bullshit.

But even if you believe that, why don’t you ask Mickey this question:

Mickey, why did you give $1,000 in $100 bills to Walter Cristobal of Santa Ana Pueblo (your lobbying client) to give as a campaign contribution to Manny Aragon in 2001, in violation of state law - and then not report it?

Because, seriously - the "explanations" won’t wash. l