Robert B. Bluey, CNSNews.com
Friday, April 9, 2004

Mary Beth Cahill, a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., left her Senate job last November to become Kerry's campaign manager. But in April 2002 when Cahill worked for Kennedy, her name was attached to a controversial memo spelling out a plan to delay the confirmation of Julia Smith Gibbons to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Washington Times reported Thursday.

Cahill was reportedly one of five Kennedy aides carbon copied on the April 17, 2002, memo, which recommended Kennedy delay Gibbons' confirmation to influence a racial case pending before the 6th Circuit.

The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF), which has pursued a Senate investigation into the matter, called for Cahill's resignation Thursday if she was in any way involved with the plot.

"John Kerry, as the standard bearer of his party seeking the highest and most respected office in the land, has an obligation to the American people to reveal Cahill's involvement in this matter," said Jeffrey Mazzella, executive director of CFIF.

Kerry's campaign spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, did not return a call seeking comment.

At issue in the Gibbons' memo is whether Kennedy's former Judiciary Committee attorney, Olati Johnson, inappropriately asked the senator to delay Gibbons' confirmation hearing to prevent her from joining the 6th Circuit in time to rule on the case on universities' racial set-asides.

Prior to joining Kennedy's office, Johnson had worked as an attorney at NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which was a defendant-intervenor in the case involving the University of Michigan and before the 6th Circuit Court.

Johnson wrote the memo after receiving the request from Elaine R. Jones, her former boss at NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, according to CFIF. Kennedy's chief counsel, Melody Barnes, also allegedly approved the memo, CFIF reported.

At the time the memo was written on April 17, 2002, the racial case was pending before the court. But by the time Gibbons was confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 2002, the appeals court had already issued its ruling.

A copy of the controversial memo is posted on CFIF's website. But the Washington Times obtained a second page that listed the people to whom it was carbon copied.

In a story that ran in Thursday's paper, Times writer Charles Hurt reported that one of the five Kennedy aides who received the memo was named "Mary Beth." According to Senate financial records, Hurt reported, the only "Mary Beth" on Kennedy's staff at that time was Cahill.

Kennedy and his aides have tried to dismiss the issue. At a Wednesday press conference, when CNSNews.com asked the senator about the memo, Kennedy was quickly escorted from the room by his staff.

"No. I'm not gonna, uh, re, uh," Kennedy muttered.

Hurt cornered the senator as he made his way back to his office, but Kennedy shifted the topic away from the alleged conspiracy to block Gibbons' confirmation and toward allegations that Republican staff members on the Senate Judiciary Committee had read Democrat strategy memos.

"I am so troubled, as other members of the Judiciary are, in the fact that Republican staffers would burglarize this confidential material in the Judiciary Committee. ... We can't have staffers - in this case, Republican staffers - believing they can basically commit criminal crimes in order to advance a political agenda," Kennedy said, according to the Times.

'Cloud of Corruption'

Mazzella said the revelation that Kennedy's aides recommended delaying a confirmation hearing solely to influence the court's decision should trigger an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee.

"This scandal is quickly evolving into one of the most egregious in the history of the United States Senate," Mazzella said. "Given Senator Kennedy's active involvement in the Kerry campaign and Cahill's knowledge and possible involvement in 'Memogate,' Kerry should immediately and publicly address this issue."

Mazzella added, "What was yesterday a dark cloud of corruption hanging over Senator Kennedy's office is today raining on John Kerry's campaign."

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