On the surface, the NH 2002 election phone-jamming scandal (background here) is, as emptywheel suggests, nothing more than a "third-rate crank phone call".

So why is the GOP spending so much money trying to defend what should be viewed as the acts of a few GOP rogues?  Is it because it wasn’t the act of a few rogues, and the trail goes all the way to the White House?  Is is because the NH Dems are sniffing someplace that makes the GOP uncomfortable?

I think so, and so do many others.