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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (92282)	12/26/2004 2:51:18 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793858

Sound Politics - What Should Dino Rossi Do? Nothing. At least nothing in public at this time. His Christmas message already said all that needs to be said: “I know many Washingtonians are hoping this will end soon, but I’m also sure that people across this state want a clean election and a legitimate governor-elect. At this point, we have neither. Bullseye. That simple statement shows that he's on the same page with the large majority of people in Washington state. He should spend the next period of time above the fray and out of the public spotlight, quietly preparing for a new election, letting Governor-pretend Fraudoire and the Democrats prance around and destroy themselves in public. Mrs. Fraudoire: Gregoire said Thursday that she has "every confidence" in Washington's election system. "I think we have been a model to the rest of the nation and the world at large about how an election system, as close as this one is, can be done with the highest of quality ... This is the biggest display of democracy I have ever seen and I am proud of it and I think it's an inspiration." Whether she genuinely believes that or not, she is either the world's biggest fool or the world's biggest liar and in any case stunningly out of touch with most Washingtonians, who know perfectly well that people across this state want a clean election and a legitimate governor-elect. At this point, we have neither. Our election system works okay when the margin between the two candidates in any race is sufficiently wide to begin with. Every Democrat and every Republican recognizes that McKenna beat Senn and Murray beat Nethercutt. But it's too clunky of a tool to measure the will of the voters when the contest is in any way close. Our entire elections system, top to bottom, is completely worthless for giving us a useful answer in a close race. Had we stopped with the machine recount, I think we all would have been lulled into complacency. But now that we've opened Pandora's Box with the manual recount, we've all learned more about our elections system than we ever really wanted to know. The more we learn, the more obvious it becomes that the system is hopelessly broken. The outcome of the gubernatorial threecount is completely meaningless. Any public official who spouts happy talk and pretends to tell you otherwise is either too cynical or too stupid to deserve our trust and a public office, and they should be excreted from public service without hesitation or regret. That includes not only Mrs. Fraudoire and the now famous Dean Logan, but also our Secretary of State Sam Reed, the mountebank who's been overseeing this appalling sham for the last four years, and still has the gall to ask "What, Me Worry?" Precinct 1823 and the Christine Rossi canvassing board are only the tip of the iceberg. Keep checking this blog for more illustrations of garbage and decrepitude in King Ukraine County Elections and elsewhere. Suffice to say that the rules, standards and procedures for the entire enterprise -- from voter registration and record-keeping to vote-counting and reporting are nothing more than a Potemkin Village. In order to trust an elections system to give us the correct answer in a contest as close as Rossi v. Gregoire, we all need to believe that (a) every eligible voter who takes the minimal steps needed to participate will have his vote recorded and tabulated as intended; and (b) that no ineligible voter will have his ballot tabulated as legitimate. There is simply too much lassitude and incompetence everywhere in the system to instill confidence in the "safeguards" that are supposed to ensure the integrity of our elections. Without public confidence in the integrity of our elections system, our "elected" officials cannot rightfully claim to represent us. If Christine Rossi were to assume office under the present conditions, it would be for all intents and purposes, as Adam Yoshida put it, a coup d'etat. The only fair solution to the current crisis is to have a runoff election within a short timeframe, with enough reasonable constraints to ensure that a clear victor will emerge and with enough clarity and transparency in the process that the voters will have confidence in the results. Frankly, I hope the Republicans can find a graceful way to back down from the attempt to count more votes in time for certification day. Playing that card merely validates the existing process, which should only be exposed as the discredible fraud that it is and rejected. For Dino Rossi, as I stated above, this is a time to remain above the fray. But it is the time for his supporters -- indeed for everyone who believes in democracy -- to protest against the Chernobyl-scale meltdown of our elections system, to refuse, loudly, to accept the radioactive illegitimacy of what it has produced and to demand a runoff. A "down to the studs" remodel of our elections system is overdue and must be one of the next governor's top priorities. In the meantime, our best course of action is to be honest with ourselves that the threecount didn't and won't produce any kind of a mandate for either candidate; and that the only way to heal the wounds and restore confidence in our government is to take a deep breath, schedule a new election, and work to ensure that our chosen candidate finishes the election with a clear mandate.