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The general media view of Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor who has indicted “Scooter” Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and false statements in the Plame leak investigation is that he is an incorruptible “prosecutor’s prosecutor.” A closer look at an earlier communications interception case involving Senator Tom Harkin (D, Iowa) and the Libby case, a curious recommendation for him made by Representative Gerald Nadler (D, NY), and his own background all suggest something far different and more sinister. I. THE TWO CASES According to an October 22, 2005 NewsMax article, http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/10/22/142646.shtml Fitzgerald. was the U.S. Attorney assigned to investigate...

A little more than a year before he was tapped to head the special counsel probe into allegations that the Bush administration "outed" CIA employee Valerie Plame, then-U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald abruptly dropped a wiretapping probe into Sen. Tom Harkin's campaign, saying no laws had been broken. On Sept. 3, 2002, Harkin operatives arranged to secretly tape a strategy meeting by his then-Republican opponent, Rep. Greg Ganske. Brian Conley, a former aide to the Iowa Democrat, made a digital recording while attending the meeting at the request of Harkin staff member Rafael Ruthchild, according to the Des Moines Register. Conley...

<p>Tuesday's election could pack more suspense than some people expected. The governor's race and Iowa's U.S. Senate race have tightened, with the Republican challengers gaining ground on the Democratic incumbents.</p> <p>The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll shows Des Moines lawyer Doug Gross has drawn within 12 percentage points of Gov. Tom Vilsack after trailing by 18 points in September.</p>

Poll: Vilsack, Harkin in lead By Kathie Obradovich . DES MOINES — Incumbents hold the edge going into the homestretch of the campaign, a statewide poll of Iowa voters shows, including a comfortable, 22-point lead for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and a 13-point advantage for Gov. Tom Vilsack. . The telephone poll of likely voters shows Republican Rep. Jim Nussle holding a lead over Democrat Ann Hutchinson in the 1st Congressional District race. . Incumbent Congressmen Jim Leach, Tom Latham and Leonard Boswell hold statistically significant leads over their opponents, but high number of undecided voters still could make a...

Gazette-TV9 Poll: Harkin Likely Will Get Reelected Saturday, November 02, 2002, 10:08:07 PM A new Gazette/KCRG-TV9 Poll shows Tom Harkin may keep his job as one of Iowa’s U.S. Senators. Gazette Communications randomly called a little more than 1,000 registered voters. In the U.S. Senate race, 47 percent said they’d vote for Tom Harkin. 30 percent said they’d support republican challenger Greg Ganske. Although the undecided voters make up nearly 16 percent of those responding, the poll concludes it’s not likely to be enough for Ganske to close the gap. Political Analyst Peverill Squire agrees, “Ganske's a credible challenger who's...

Survey Iowa 13: The U.S. Senate Race Des Moines, October 23, 2002 - A number of prominent leaders have visited Iowa to campaign for Greg Ganske. But the visits have apparently given no lingering boost to Ganske's senate campaign against democrat Tom Harkin. Survey Iowa 13 data shows Harkin extending his lead to 17 percent over his challenger. Four percent of respondents have shifted from Ganske to Harkin in the last two weeks. Harkin has gained with men. He's up four percent since October ninth, while Ganske has lost five percent. Harkin has also improved his standing with female voters....

Harkin opens up sizable lead over Ganske By JONATHAN ROOS Register Staff Writer 09/28/2002 U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has widened his lead over Republican opponent Greg Ganske over the past three months, according to a Des Moines Register poll that was taken this week as Iowans were learning details of an unfolding campaign controversy. The Democratic incumbent has opened a 20-percentage-point lead over Ganske, a congressman from Des Moines, in the latest Iowa Poll of likely voters. His lead in late June was 9 points. Among adults who say they definitely will vote in the Nov. 5 election, 54 percent...

<p>Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin announced Thursday night that his re-election campaign had hired a lawyer to investigate what the attorney considered the legal but "unacceptable" conduct of Harkin's campaign staff.</p> <p>The move came just hours after a former Harkin congressional aide emerged as the person suspected of recording a meeting between Greg Ganske, Harkin's Republican opponent, and two dozen of Ganske's supporters.</p>

DES MOINES – Congressman Greg Ganske, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, announced today that he has accepted an invitation to debate Tom Harkin on an upcoming edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert. “Meet the Press” is inviting candidates from what it says are “some of the most interesting and competitive races” to debate on the highly-rated Sunday morning news show. The NBC debate series will be moderated by “Meet the Press” host, Tim Russert. To date, Congressman Ganske has accepted five media-sponsored invitations to debate. However, the Harkin campaign has not publicly accepted these invitations. The...

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's campaign manager admitted Monday night that the campaign had obtained a transcript of a secretly taped meeting of Greg Ganske and his supporters, then passed it along to a journalist. "We made a mistake, and we're sorry," said Jeff Link, who previously had denied knowing where the journalist, Kathie Obradovich, had gotten the transcript. "We take full responsibility for releasing it to the press," Link said. He said a "junior staffer," whom he would not identify, had obtained the material from a person who was promised confidentiality by the staffer. The revelations capped a day of...

Filed at 11:46 p.m. ET DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin's re-election campaign admitted Monday it somehow obtained a transcript from one of his Republican challenger's private strategy meetings -- and later leaked the document to a reporter. Jeff Link, Harkin's campaign manager, apologized after earlier suggesting that GOP Rep. Greg Ganske might have leaked the material himself in a bid to tar Harkin. The eight-page transcript is from a Sept. 3 meeting between Ganske and about two dozen supporters. Link denied that someone from the Harkin campaign had slipped into the meeting and taped it. State...

Ganske campaign officials and state Republican leaders are calling for a state and federal investigation into the apparent taping of a campaign strategy session. GOP Chairman Chuck Larson said the taping is a "serious breach of privacy." In letters to a U.S. Attorney and the Iowa Division of Criminal investigation, campaign officials said someone at the September 3rd meeting either was wearing a wire or illegally taped the conversation. A lawyer for the Ganske campaign said it is illegal to tape a meeting without the consent of those being taped. Ganske's campaign officials said they were made aware of the...

<p>Democrat Tom Vilsack holds a 5 percentage point lead over Republican Doug Gross in a new statewide poll on the governor's race.</p> <p>The poll, sponsored by KCCI-TV in Des Moines, shows Vilsack winning the support of 48 percent of likely voters and Gross getting 43 percent. Another 3 percent prefer other candidates, and 6 percent are undecided.</p>

Ganske: ethics violation claims bogus By:Jason Kristufek August 22, 2002 Republican Congressman Greg Ganske said claims he committed an ethics violation are bogus, politically inspired attacks. Ganske, who has taken on the task of trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, made an unscheduled stop at the Memorial Union on the campus of Iowa State University Wednesday. It was his first campaign stop in Ames. Pundits have called the Iowa race for Senate one of the top three races in the country that will help decide the majority party come next year. "This is typical of the Tom Harkin campaign,"...

<p>Democrat Tom Harkin holds a 9-percentage-point lead over Republican Greg Ganske in his quest to win a fourth U.S. Senate term, but the race is tightening, a new Iowa Poll shows.</p> <p>Harkin is the choice of 50 percent of Iowans who say they definitely will vote in the Nov. 5 election. Ganske, a congressman from Des Moines, wins the backing of 41 percent of likely voters. The other 9 percent are unsure whom they'd support.</p>

<p>The Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate is tighter than expected with the emergence of Bill Salier as a strong candidate against Rep. Greg Ganske, according to GOP political observers around Iowa.</p> <p>Salier, a Nora Springs farmer and first-time political candidate, is attracting support with a conservative message that includes staunch opposition to abortion, Republicans say. Ganske, a Des Moines physician who also opposes abortion rights, has been tied down since Easter by an eight-week congressional session in Washington, campaigning only on the weekends.</p>

<p>In some of these contests, the question is whether the party should nominate a centrist candidate or one from its more activist wing. The activists argue it's important for a party to offer voters a clear choice. The centrists argue the party should nominate candidates who can appeal to independents. Primaries are for settling arguments like this.</p>

Primary voters will make first decision A funny thing is happening on the way to the Republican primary June 4. Interestingly, U.S. Rep. Greg Ganske, a Des Moines physician, is squared off against little-known Bill Salier, a farmer near Mason City and former Marine, for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Whoever wins the race will face incumbent Sen. Tom Harkin in November. When Ganske first announced, and for a long time after, he squared off as if he were running now against Harkin. But he's now begun paying attention to Salier. Considering that Ganske has tons of money for...