And lyin’: Former White House communications deputy Tim Griffin was caught on tape earlier this month crying about the sudden collapse of his career and then, with all faux outrage he could muster, denying he suppressed votes in the 2004 presidential election of African-American troops serving overseas — despite hard-copy evidence to the contrary.

Griffin’s remarks were made at the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas soon after he’d stepped down as U.S. Attorney (USA) in Little Rock. The tears came as he thanked everyone who’d ever been nice to him along his career route from RNC operative to White House Communications deputy to Republican operative posing as a federal prosecutor.

The denial came in an answer to a question from the audience about reports of his involvement in caging activities in 2004. Griffin rambled a bit as he responded to charges made by BBC investigator Greg Palast dating back to October 2004, just days before the presidential elections, that Griffin and others had used “caging” to suppress Democratic votes in Florida.

Despite the fact that Palast has possession of emails sent by Griffin for which the subject was “Re. caging,” and that have caging lists — names of voters targeted for suppression — attached to them, Griffin said:

First of all, the allegations that are on the Internet and have spread through the tabloids are completely and absolutely false, number one. And ridiculous. Caging, as you may know, I had it looked up, is a direct-mail term for basically organizing returned mail. … And I’ll just say that it’s so untrue. … This is all made up and faux pas. I didn’t cage votes, I didn’t cage mail, I didn’t cage animals, I’m not a zookeeper.

From the outset in 2004, corporate media has ignored Palast’s findings on the GOP’s voter suppression activities. In May, however, their studied ambivalence was challenged — but not broached, apparently — when another White House operative, Monica Goodling, mentioned Griffin’s involvement in the caging enterprise during sworn testimony before the House Justice committee:

Despite my and others’ best efforts, [Deputy Attorney General, Paul McNulty]’s public testimony was incomplete or inaccurate in a number of respects. … I believe that the Deputy was not fully candid about his knowledge of White House involvement in the replacement decision … and failed to disclose that he had some knowledge of allegations that Tim Griffin had been involved in vote “caging” during his work on the President’s 2004 campaign.

(During the 2000 election, Goodling and Griffin worked together as opposition researchers at the Republican National Committee.)

After Goodling’s testimony, big media’s efforts to avoid this story were challenged again when Palast granted House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers’ request to see Griffin’s emails about the caging lists. The meeting between Palast and Conyers on May 31 did not go unnoticed by Griffin, however — nor perhaps did Conyer’s statement, “We’re not through with Griffin by any means.” Within hours of the meeting, Griffin resigned as the Arkansas USA.

The particulars of Griffin’s appointment last December came to light during the investigation into the unprecedented firing of USAs by the Bush Dept. of Justice when it was revealed that his predecessor, Bud Cummins, had been fired in order to install Griffin in Little Rock, apparently as a plant to oversee voter suppression in Arkansas.

Compounding the scandal, it was also revealed that Griffin was put in place under a provision the Bushies slipped into the Patriot Act that allowed the president to appoint federal prosecutors with Senate approval. (The provision has since been over-ridden.)