A reader posted this comment to my "Nixon Impeached, Resignation Expected" entry of late last night. It's worth displaying more prominently:
Regardless of the outcome of the trial, Handy Nixon's testimony today revealed the most appalling set of actions of any election officials in the entire 2004 election miasma.Sadly, none of the "real journalists" covering the trial seemed to have picked up on this. Let's repeat: we now know that Nixon Handy helped organize a disinformation campaign to counter legitimate and correct criticism of the state elections system. If the reporters and editorial boards were doing their jobs, this would be front page news and the editorial pages would be demanding Handy's resignation. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 01, 2005 06:34 PM | Email This(Yes! Even more appalling than the outright, admitted falsification of a report by Nicole Way and Garth Fell, two mid-level King County elections managers, and the fraudulent submission of that report to the canvass board without explanation by Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens. And you thought that creation and proffer of false and fraudulent documents related to a federal and gubernatorial election was as bad as it could get? Think again!)
Handy Nixon admitted that when legitimate questions about numeric discrepancies between ballots cast and voters participating were raised by one popular blog (SP), one lone honest reporter at the Times (Keith Ervin), and one knowledgable King County Councilmember (David Irons) which in turn, generated more honest questions from other press, elected officials, and the public, that the following activity was set in motion:
Rather than devoting time and energy to discovering the source of the discrepancy and either correcting it or fully reporting the effect of the problem on the results, an activity that would have done a lot to redeem these election officials in the eyes of the public, Handy Nixon assembled a huge committee of election officials statewide to publicly support King County in their accounting flaws, to agree to mouth the same identical message to the press and the public, and to create the disingenuous and manipulative "talking points" that included among other things, the patently false claim that voter crediting had "nothing" to do with absentee ballot reconciliation in King County.
I sincerely hope that the names of the Hall of Shame Auditors who participated in this cover-up will be noted by voters in their home counties, and that they will be sent packing next election. (Some of these jokers are up for election this fall, folks!)
At any rate, congratulations to all of you for your contributions- I've really enjoyed reading most of them!
Posted by: political junkie on June 1, 2005 06:54 PMAn unrepentent Logan apoligist, she's going to be squarely in my sights as one of the many Legislators and other Bureaucrats who are going to take the fall for their actions and failures as our elected representatives.
If you live in the 27th and are sick of being poorly represented, drop me a line. Help me get active in making it very clear to Tacoma's voters that we need some changes in 2006.
Posted by: Jeff B. on June 1, 2005 06:59 PMYes, Sam Reed knew of this activity. Nick Handy testified yesterday that Sam was aware of the coordination being done.
Handy also testified that Sam drew the line at placing the "crediting has nothing to do with reconciliation" talking points on the OSOS website. Sam cited the upcoming litigation as a factor in that decision.
Three months later, Sam Reed would testify in his deposition that crediting of absentee ballots was indeed part of reconciliation, both as a practical matter and undr state law.
Posted by: Susan B. Anthony on June 1, 2005 07:34 PMSome dude w/ column on local section of seattle paper; whaddya think. Used to be Jean Godden's slot. YOu looking for Michael Savage?
Thank goodness radio can work w/ more than 2 stations, otherwise we'd be toast, relegating to only this blog.
Posted by: righton on June 1, 2005 08:32 PMI guess for the Dem's, this time around a Nixon came in quite Handy. ;-)
Posted by: dano on June 1, 2005 08:37 PMDo you still have that Mattingly e-mail where she said "we were requested" to send ridiculous circle the wagons letter. No one ever found out from Mattingly who requested it.
It was a stunning mystery...I'm beginning to get a clear picture of the likely culprit...Mr. Handy.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on June 1, 2005 09:15 PMDisclaimer: I am not a lawyer but I play one on a blog :)
Wouldn't the D's have been better off to rest and present no case? I have listened to virtually all testimony and really can't think of anyone that has helped the D's case significantly.
Posted by: TommyGun on June 1, 2005 09:32 PMIt's like that old saying, "It's better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are an idiot, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
Posted by: Mark D on June 1, 2005 09:40 PMThe only question left for the judge is what to do about it.
Posted by: Hanna on June 1, 2005 10:27 PMThe Republicans certainly have scored more with the Judge in regard to objections, arguments, relevancy and the use of time with their presentations..(with the exception of the deposition skit in the beginning days..)
The Democrats however, have been quite annoying to the Judge with their constant unfounded objections, their long-winded rhetorical questioning of witnesses, their irrelevant lines of questioning,
their angry tones used with the Republicans witnesses, and their combative attitude with the Petitioners themselves!
Burman - was down-right hostile towards Braden today and brought on a verbal spanking from the Judge!
The Judge, taking it upon himself to question Nicole Way and Dean Logan, was revealing his need for clarification in their testimonies. Something bothers Judge Bridges about Nicole Way's testimony and Dean Logan's attitude toward the problems in King County....and I don't think their answers to his direct questioning satisfied him!
I don't think the Judge had much patience for Mr. Adolph either! I think the longer the Dems had him on the stand the more annoyed the Judge became..
The most important part of the trial so far - to me - is that the Judge is asking the right questions and allowing the right testimony and cross-examination and ignoring the nonsense objections..
Overall.....I am confident!
Posted by: Deborah on June 1, 2005 11:46 PMer.......Yeah! Umm....except I'm taller? heh
Posted by: Deborah on June 1, 2005 11:49 PMAfter court, Hamilton said Republicans are "just picking on a bunch of senior citizens who are the heartbeat of our democracy and run these polling places."
gotta love dems, now its about mean GOP picking on old people
Posted by: righton on June 2, 2005 06:48 AMI can't believe I voted for Democrats all those years.
Posted by: Bostonian on June 2, 2005 11:42 AM