Dino Rossi's invitation to Christine Gregoire to join him in asking for a revote was a brilliant move and may well be remembered as the tipping point of this contest.
The smart thing for Gregoire to have done would have been to acknowledge that there are serious flaws in the elections system while asserting that she can prevail against Rossi in any fair contest. She should have thanked him for his offer, damned him with faint praise, and then taken the lead to present herself as the best and most experienced person to lead the state -- and to clean up the elections meltdown that everybody with a brain realizes that we've experienced. Had she done that, she would still have a competitive chance of becoming governor.
But Gregoire ran a stupid campaign, a stupid post-election game and is now taking the stupidest possible post-"certification" tack. By pretending she earned a legitimate mandate, she is insulting the intelligence of the millions of Washington voters who agree with Dino Rossi that this election was a "total mess".
Instead, she invited Rossi to pursue an election contest, which may well spur the unraveling of an astonishing web of distributed voting fraud that leads to (a) the prosecution of dozens of Gregoire supporters for election fraud, (b) severe and lasting damage to the King County governing machine and to the reputation of the state Democratic Party, (c) wholesale election reforms that prevent the sort of widespread cheating that has greased the wheels of Democratic election "victories" for far too long, and of course (d) Dino Rossi's legitimate election and the end of Gregoire's political career.
So thank you, Governor-pretend Fraudoire, for you and your talentless advisers have given the people of Washington state a greater holiday gift than you are capable of imagining.
Another tipping point
This week may also be a tipping point in the slow and painful decline in our local newspapers as useful civic institutions. Now there should be no doubt that they do more to muddy our understanding of important issues than they do to inform us.
Today's Seattle Times editorial: "State can't handle a new election"
Republicans are running out of options. They have the right to contest the election and seek additional information from King County or other counties if that will make the election process more clear. But the request feels like a fishing expedition.A fishing expedition? I've already reported on thousands of voter database errors; hundreds, perhaps thousands, of illegally registered voters identified so far; strongly suspicious signs of double voting (yes, I've found some); elections departments that can't reconcile the number of voters to the number of ballots. And I'm neither being paid to do this, nor working full time on it, unlike the investigative reporters that a newspaper is supposed to have on its staff for doing such projects. Where have they been?
It is a damning indictment on the Seattle Times that it is being driven by people who are as lazy and credulous as editorial writer Kate Riley:
the system -- including first recount, the hand recount and the disagreements that have gone all the way to the state Supreme Court -- seems to be working just fine.It's this sort of insipid garbage that make you wonder why anybody pays to read the Seattle Times anymore.Leaders of both parties have suggested the public's lost faith in the system. If that's true, it's because of their fiery and infuriating spin.
...
Bless the elections workers, all of them, from the counters across the state to the besieged King County elections official, a Democrat, and the Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed. At least some people are keeping their heads.
Oh, wait.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 30, 2004 02:48 PM | Email ThisI know.. you want a column in the Times, don't you buddy?
Posted by: bmvaughn on December 30, 2004 03:18 PMMy only regret is that I had but one subscription to cancel for my country.
Posted by: South County on December 30, 2004 03:20 PMThey surely won't risk another election after this near-death experience.
Posted by: Kevin Sq on December 30, 2004 03:23 PM way to go shark you did it again.
you really have dems back peddling.
keep after them.FYI the state GOP chair
race is not anywhere near as clearcut
as it seems.Oh boy its not and for
thats how i will leave it.
Didn't call for it after 1st recount allowed by law or 2nd recount allowed by law...just after 3rd recount allowed by law.
Hmmmmm...brilliant indeed! I can just imagine the flying insults here against Greogoire if she had been behind after the thrid recount and didn't concede..but rather called for a new election.
Doesn't much matter -- since none of this is "brilliant" in any sense. It's all about doing whatever needs to be done (on both sides) to see one's person put in the chair -- strettttttttching as far as you can go.
Rossi's blatant hypocrisy after the 2nd recount sealed the deal on the R side; Gregoire calling it done sealed it on the D side.
What great parties and politicans we have...
Posted by: tom on December 30, 2004 03:25 PMThank you for all of the hard work and effort you all are doing. Keep it up.
There comes a point when everyone has to stand up and say "enough" to the powers that be.
Clearly, the MSM and WA Democrats that are in control of the state don't want to acknowledge that a majority of the state wants to re-contest the election to get a fair result.
The MSM will continue to ignore this until there is enough critical mass. That mass is growing. Stefan's work will eventually be too much of a scoop for some ladder climber at the PI or Seattle Times. Someone will break rank with the party.
Just imagine for a second, television cameras rolling on a crowd of 100,000 or more people in Olympia peacefully calling for a re-vote. Now imagine Christine Gregoire watching on TV and saying "Oh Sh-t" to herself.
Let's make it a reality.
Posted by: Jeff B. on December 30, 2004 04:19 PMOr..."They all do it!"
Posted by: South County on December 30, 2004 04:27 PMChristine claims "this is the biggest display of democracy I've ever seen."
Hang on to that thought Christine, because we're going to show you an even bigger display.
Washington deserves the truth. Re-Contest.
Posted by: Jeff B. on December 30, 2004 04:35 PMAnd Tom, there's no hypocrasy here...Dino was ahead in the first two counts, even though the second one added new ballots. The D's changed the rules in the middle of the game and now want to claim an ill-gotten gain.
Looks like the R's are calling their bluff. I just hope the GOP prevails in this incredibly convoluted process and is able to clean up the system once in power.
Posted by: megs on December 30, 2004 04:43 PMWe can start making the signs....
Rossi is brilliant in his strategy! I'm not going to reveal why....(Hey! Why give the liberals anything?)
The Seattle Times turned left about a year and a half ago! Many regular readers wrote to complain - some complaints were even featured in a spot by the lead guy Fancier. He admonished the complaints - pooh poohed them as baseless and buried them from that point on....then continued on with the Times journey to the left....sigh...so obvious..such a shame.
Posted by: Deborah on December 30, 2004 05:00 PMIf and when we protest this "election" I will be there. I still want to know how many military votes were not counted or ballots never received.
My brother-in-law is on his way to Iraq for the third time, so Iraqs will have right to vote and here King County steals our election. It makes me sick. I just wish some high racking military personnel would step up and say "If the military votes means nothing to the State of Washington maybe we should relocate our bases." Just a thought.
Posted by: Lookout-Wife on December 30, 2004 05:01 PMAnyway, they are laying people off and loosing money...What more proof do they need that conservatives who value truth are leaving in droves. They never even called me to ask why I dropped. They really do have their heads in the sand.
THANK YOU SHARK! I LOVE YOUR SITE!
Posted by: Eric on December 30, 2004 05:09 PMMany people are now as "mad as hell" or at least willing to show up for a peaceful protest in Olympia.
I'll organize this if I can get support from Shark to post the where, when, etc.
I'm working on a .PDF file that you can print from your own printer that simply spells out RE-VOTE! with an orange background. Everyone can make signs and show up. Wear your orange!
When a date is set, talk radio will be notified as well.
Washington deserves the truth. Re-Contest!
Posted by: Jeff B. on December 30, 2004 05:17 PMI love it! And I'll be there whenever! Luckily, my vacation time starts over at 1/1/05. :-)
I'm sure that KVI will be more than happy to donate some of their leftover orange signs and to advertise.
Posted by: megs on December 30, 2004 05:20 PMVery well said. I have wondered the same thing as you, if Christine Gregoire is so certain she can win an election, any election, then why not do a revote? If she's so sure and voters are so galvanized, then she would win by a landslide, right? And no slippery slopes from Dems who say she shouldn't have to run because she won; we could say the same for Rossi as well because he won twice. I think the people are galvanized and that's the reason there won't be a revote, I don't think the 'machine' will like the result.
I swear, this whole fiasco has me feeling like I'm living in the middle of some podunk run by someone whose name is preceded by 'Boss'.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Emily on December 30, 2004 06:10 PMOr maybe we can call him Hizonner Da County Exec. In Xine, he and the Cook County machine have bought themselves a bright shiny new Mayor for this state, the best that a few stuffed ballot boxes can buy, and I'm sure he's really anxious to go take it out for a spin.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega on December 30, 2004 06:57 PMMary, I think I speak for all of us when I say that your 87-yr-old mom is awesome! Still have my orange "Don't Let King County 'Ukraine-ize' WA" sign from last week. I'll be there, too!
Posted by: Michele on December 30, 2004 08:18 PMThe election was fair
The republicans lost
The Democrats Won
Get over it... Move On
Posted by: Magnum Serpentine on December 31, 2004 12:35 AMmove on, etc...bla bla bla.
Face the facts: The discrepancies more than exceed the 130 vote 'lead'. Tell me honestly, if there were a re-vote--are you so sure Gregoire would keep that precious 130 vote lead? Or are you afraid of what might happen?
A re-vote is NOT illegal...at most it's an inconvenience. Sure it will cost money (what doens't cost money? Washington state has to pay for the hand recout anyway...thanks Gregoire for not conceding!). But it has alread cost Washington state any democratic legitimacy--and has cost King County its credibility (what little credibility it had). From this point on, any voting results from King County will FOREVER be suspect...
much like a cheating spouse will always be suspect. Sorry about the analogy--but the damage has been done.
Posted by: noel on December 31, 2004 01:48 AMWe're on our own when it comes to understanding what's happening; everyone from Reed on down is standing around with their hands in their pockets, repeating "No one has shown me any evidence of fraud." They aren't looking, either.
The Times is trying to have it both ways, as is Reed/Logan/Sims/Phillips. They see no fraud, and they aren't looking; when we look, we're fishing. So, who's responsibility is it to insure clean elections, TIMES? If it's ours, then shut up and help, or get the h@ll out of the way. Or ask Mr Reed/Logan why they are always the last to know about any issues.
Posted by: South County on December 31, 2004 08:29 AM