Oh Please ....
You can't always say this, but at this moment, Kerry should follow the Gore model:Armey said GOP leaders had received assurances by Wednesday that there would be no serious objection to the count. House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), whose aides consulted with Gore's staff, urged the Black Caucus members not to raise an objection because the vice president did not support such a move.Let Maxine Waters make a fool of herself, it's her profession. Goodness knows Senate Dems are going to demagogue full-time to come. Kerry'd look like a good loser if he'd urge his colleagues to get on with the business of the Senate.
Yes, yes ... PLEASE lecture us on what it means to be a good loser.
UPDATE: Minor alteration to the above as Austin-based State Rep. Jack Stick has apparently withdrawn his challenge.
Comments
I have mixed feelings about all of this, now that the mini-debate in the House and Senate over Ohio is over and done with.
I generally agree with you. Maybe the Democrats should have sought another forum for focusing attention on the irregularies and chicanery in Ohio. The Congressional debate probably simply made Democrats' look like sore losers, especially the way the whole thing was framed in the press the following day.
Having said that, there were some real problems in Ohio. Democrats needed to focus attention on them somehow. The Republicans are right that no number of recounts could have ever tipped Ohio to Kerry, no matter the criteria used in examining ballots. However, Republican Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and Republican Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro did do things that may have swayed the election, although we have no way of knowing just how important their actions were in tilting the playing field in the direction of George W. Bush.
The decision of Republican Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who oversees statewide voting, to serve simultaneously as Chairman of the Ohio Bush campaign was unethical and posed conflicts of interest. This should be illegal and one wonders if Blackwell used personnel and resources of the Secretary of State's office in support of the Bush campaign. Likewise, the Republican Attorney General's accusation before any votes were even cast that the Democrats were stealing the elections was an egregiously unethical act by a man who is supposed to be Ohio's top legal official. Shades of Katherine Harris! This was only the beginning. Blackwell used every trick in the book to throw out voter registration forms and absentee ballot applications from Democratic voters. The most scandalous thing, however, was the 4-7 hour lines in many Ohio Democratic precincts, both White and Black. Republican precincts had adequate numbers of voting machines and Democratic precincts did not. I have nine relatives in Ohio. All but one voted for Kerry, and all waited in lines for hours. The situation was even worse in Black precincts. We will never know how many Democratic voters left these ghastly lines without voting. Thus, we will never know whether Kerry would have won Ohio if the playing field had been level, which it was not thanks to the Republican Secretary of State and Attorney General.
Posted by: Scoop Jackson Democrat | January 9, 2005 11:11 AM