2004 Not Dead in Ohio?

Since Robert Kennedy, Jr. published his story in Rolling Stone challenging the results of the 2004 presidential election (and after attempted debunking in Salon and elsewhere, and debunking of the debunking), two pretty noteworthy statements in the trad media.

The latest and loudest appeared in the New York Times, by columnist Bob Herbert (as excerpted here; the rest is behind the pay-per-view wall.):Republicans, and even a surprising number of Democrats, have been anxious to leave the 2004 Ohio election debacle behind. But Kennedy, in his long, heavily footnoted article ("Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"), leaves no doubt that the democratic process was trampled and left for dead in the Buckeye State. Kerry almost certainly would have won Ohio if all of his votes had been counted, and if all of the eligible voters who tried to vote for him had been allowed to cast their ballots.

No one has been able to prove that the election in Ohio was hijacked. But whenever it is closely scrutinized, the range of problems and dirty tricks that come to light is shocking. What's not shocking, of course, is that every glitch and every foul-up in Ohio, every arbitrary new rule and regulation, somehow favored Bush.

This follows an oped in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Kenneth F. Bunting, an associate publisher of that newspaper, outing the trad media for its response to the RFK jr. article: the silence in America's establishment media has been deafening. But Bunting concludes: Singling out Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell for much of the blame, Kennedy writes persuasively that enough was awry in that state alone to raise serious questions as to whether Bush really defeated John Kerry in 2004.

Herbert's column especially is likely to intensify debate over this article and its conclusions, but will it be enough to prevent such perversion of the very basis of our government and political rights? Not in Ohio--not if Ken Blackwell has anything to say about it, and guess what, he still does.

Though he is running for governor, he is still Secretary of State, able this time to manipulate the rules governing his own election. According to a New York Times editorial he recently
has put in place "emergency" regulations that could hit voter registration workers with criminal penalties for perfectly legitimate registration practices. The rules are so draconian they could shut down registration drives in Ohio.

Similiar rules have been put in place by Katherine Harris' Republican successor and the Republican legislature in that other bastion of democracy, Florida, resulting (the Times ed says) in a law that is so harsh that the Florida League of Women Voters announced that it was stopping all voter registration efforts for the first time in 67 years.

It's obvious how suppressing votes in black neighborhoods, disenfranchising blacks and Democrats, rigging machines to register votes for Bush when the voter voted for Kerry, etc. could give the election to Bush. But what about suppressing voter registration, which Blackwell and others also did in 2004? Partly it's targeted to likely or actual Democrat registrations. Partly it was in recognition that more people were angry at Bush and registering so they could vote against him. But it's also part of the electoral philosophy of Rove and other Republicans, as expressed by a GOPer operative recently convicted of an illegal phone-jamming scheme in New Hampshire to disrupt Democratic registration efforts.

According to Political Wire, he said the scheme reflects a broader culture in the Republican Party that is focused on dividing voters to win primaries and general elections. He said examples range from some recent efforts to use border-security concerns to foster anger toward immigrants to his own role arranging phone calls designed to polarize primary voters over abortion in a 2002 New Jersey Senate race."Said Raymond: "A lot of people look at politics and see it as the guy who wins is the guy who unifies the most people. I would disagree. I would say the candidate who wins is the candidate who polarizes the right bloc of voters."

Keeping everyone from participating but those you are sure are yours to command is a key part of this strategy. There is no ethic, principle or value that is greater, or is allowed to interfere with domination by the Bushite Republicans and their minions. Until the trad media and the public at large comes to grips with this almost unthinkable situation, they will continue to manipulate "elections" and consolidate their power without compunction or conscience, and certainly without democracy.

It can also be the key to your fortune, on scales both large and small. There is an incredible story unfolding in Florida, involving manipulated elections in support of big ticket development enriching some of the locals, and the arrest of the man trying to expose it all. It's like some Rod Serling deep south story updated to 2006--complete with a city manager who is also the police chief, Jeb Bush appointees and Wal-Mart. Yet for all its absurdities, it's also a portrait in miniature of what may well be going on elsewhere, including Washington DC.