WHY WE WANT A REVOTE IN WA

Like many Washington state citizens who find voting irregularities beyond the pale and completely unacceptable to a democracy, I feel our current state legislature will let us down if a revote in the contested gubernatorial election does not come to pass.

Newstips have already started to sprinkle in via anonymous sources close to King County Elections suggesting there were irregularities more akin to Richard Daley's Cook County, Illinois corrupt Democratic machine (that gave JFK the 1960 election) than to the accidental "whoops!" scenarios favored by those that control King County's electoral process; and if over time this proves to be the case, these irregularities should run quite counter to the supposedly "progressive" ideals favored by many King County voters.

Even though many King County liberals seem relieved that Christine Gregoire is now governor-elect -- based on certain on-the-street interviews shown on local TV -- if they are truly happy to see her in office, even if put there by unfair machinations, then they are hypocrites or worse. They don't realize that unfair (and quite possibly illegal) election practices undermine both the state's reputation and electoral integrity to such a huge degree that Washington state becomes, in effect, no better than a banana-republic tyranny. Jimmy Carter had best stop looking over the Palestinians' shoulders (in their recent election) and keep a close eye on Dean Logan of King County Elections ... just as long as Jimmy, himself, doesn't get caught up in the fervor of local Democratic party practices and feel himself tempted to shoot a few unverified provisional ballots through the voting machines.

I will not lie -- I voted for Dino Rossi. While that may not seem odd (given where I am posting), I have this to say and I say it honestly: I would not want Dino Rossi to become governor by the same shenanigans that have installed Christine Gregoire as governor-elect. It goes against every fiber in my being, as an honest person and as one who believes in fair-play. That is the truth. I am not an "at any cost, by any means" partisan. And that is what I believe distinguishes me from so many local voters in the Democratic party camp, the local left-leaning press, courts, and most of the Washington legislators. To them, there are means to an end that are justifiable -- ones that I cannot and will not abide by because to do so would be to lose my own core, my own ethical sense of self. But this loss obviously comes quite easily to many people in this state. Supposed progressive politics and many petty (and not so petty) corruptions flow was readily as high-priced coffee.

And this is exactly why a revote is necessary. Without a revote, the stain of corrupt party politics will continue to haunt Washington state's reputation for years to come. Long after investigative reporters have sifted through various records and interviews with King County election workers (I suspect phone records of Dean Logan, head of King County Elections and Paul Berendt, King County Democratic party chief would be quite interesting to peruse), and even after various "by then not-quite-provable" illegalities have come to light, the stink of unwholesome political corruption will hover over this state and (hopefully) stick to local legislators like glue.

I will make a prediction: Washington state legislators will be naive and count on their constituents having short attention spans. They will miscalculate, thinking they have only to get through the next week or so and wait for citizen groups to go back into their cubby-holes and wait for new taxes. What the legislators don't yet realize is that this story has great traction and "irregularities" of this magnitude will not easily be forgotten. I also foresee an erosion of the local Democratic base via the influence of "Dino-crats" and others for whom ethical concerns outweigh winning at any cost and by any means.

We need a revote NOW, for that is the only way to correct a terrible electoral mess ... that, and the immediate removal from office of Dean Logan. Any election official who cleverly and cynically uses a PC smokescreen -- the phony populism of "every vote counts" -- to hoodwink and highjack the courts to selectively remove lawful deadlines (for King County Democrats, largely) but not for our military voters overseas is a weasel and should not be entrusted with overseeing even a fast-food cash register. The manner in which the provisional ballots were put through voting machines UNVERIFIED, as well as election worker reports now coming in (albeit in a scared, anonymous trickle for now) and stating how a selective process was used, whereby new votes were "found" all help to illustrate a process gone horribly wrong ... and quite possibly in a most corrupt and quite illegal fashion. In short, investigators should put Dean Logan under a microscope -- I suspect what they will find will be most fruitful in the long-run, both for the reputation of our state and the integrity of its electoral system.

First, if Christine Gregoire is convinced that this most recent recount is the most fair and the most accurate, then why is she so afraid of a revote? Is it because the dead can't vote twice in King County? Is there some metaphysical law that governs how many times a dead person can vote illegally for a given candidate?

Second, it reveals a huge double-standard for Christine Gregoire and the WA Democrats to "hang tough," to essentially say "To hell with deadlines, we need to get this election right," ... and then, when it's time for Rossi's camp to do exactly the same thing (and with even more justification, given the recent "irregularities"), the Democrats howl and decry the Republican's push for a fair resolution to this mess (and given the process so far, the only true and fair resolution is a special run-off election).

This just further illustrates how corrupt and unfair the Democratic party has become over time. Some may say this is inherent in any system where one party rules for too long a time, but I believe the roots lie in the currect psychology of Washington state (or, more accurately, WESTERN Washington): an amorality born of a relativistic, "progressive" paradigm gone terribly astray ... a horrid love-child of 60's ultra-permissiveness mixed with "me generation" selfishnesses that create, in essence, a brat-child mentality unable to determine what is fair or unfair, only what it desires (in this case, a phony and corrupt brand of "progressivism"). Harsh to say? Perhaps ... but not that far off the mark, if perhaps a bit of a hyperbole. Applicable to ALL Washingtonians? Well, of course not, but certainly to enough of its citizens (especially in King County) that this recent travesty may yet stand. But that will not serve Washington well in the long-run ... not that it will bother the conscience of so many citizens who want Christine Gregoire to remain in office without the fair solution of a special election -- to determine, once and for all, which candidate was truly elected ... by living, breathing state voters.

I wrote this article. It was not apparent to me how to list myself as the source, so I left the source field blank. Thanks to all who have mentioned how this all works (sourcing, etc).

As for submission to the Seattle P-I, I think I have about as much chance having them publish this as I would to have a dinner invite from the local ultra-left gay "intelligentsia" that control the alternative weeklies (read: entertainment listings and sex ad classifieds -- no hard journalism to be found).

I did, however, manage to talk with Dave Ross (KIRO radio) during his 3-6 PM show (first show of this time-slot). I figured this show might have a pretty good share, given the fact that he has just moved to this prime slot. For the benefit of those of you who are not local, Dave Ross is a character who fits in well in this region: the "stealth liberal." (It is, overall, a quite passive-aggressive region, so this is no major revelation). You know the type: always wanting to appear more mainstream than their actual politics, always talking loud in restaurants, often quite proud of being a big fish in a little pond. And personal manner and tone? One word: smarm. Oh, and he's the Democratic candidate from the 8th congressional district who got spanked by Dave Reichert (former King County Sheriff who has the Green River Killer's scalp on his belt, figuratively speaking). I'm not in that district or I would have helped spank Ross back to radio.

Anyway, the process was interesting: I called in, waited a bit, and an assistant asked my name and what I wanted to talk about (standard stuff). The WA Senate minority leader who was being interviewed by Dave was just wrapping up, and LO AND BEHOLD, I hear Dave ask the senator the very question I had told his assistant I wanted to ask DAVE. Ummm, is this sort of theft standard operating procedure for these folks? Excuse me -- I've answered my own question.

The question was basically a portion of my article -- essentially, wasn't Christine Gregoire following a double-standard (based on her past position, when she was initially behind in votes) in regards to her great reticence for any form of run-off. You know, he didn't really have any good answer for this. Liberal logic often relies heavily on either emotion or "smoke and mirrors" logic, so I was not really surprised.

Damn, but I thought it was a good question. After all, it's one of those classic "when the shoe is on the other foot, someone does a complete logical 180-degree spin" situation. Gregoire looks brittle and a bit rattled on TV -- she knows there are bodies buried somewhere and the bulldozers are scurrying to flatten out the landfill.

So, I went to Plan "B" -- I asked him this (also from my article): If Gregoire is so convinced she won by the most accurate count, why fear a run-off? After all, it's all about serving the people's interests (right, Christine?) and wanting to instill both public trust and a true enfranchisement of the voters (the whole "will of the people" thing). He was more direct about this -- he said: "Because she thinks she will probably lose." So, let's see ... she knows she doesn't really have the votes to be the FAIRLY ELECTED governor of a majority of Washington voters, yet she's hanging on by her glued-on fingernails? Hmmmm ... that's not exactly a mandate in my book.

I reiterated to Dave (question theft or no) that her re-vote position is a huge double-standard, and I suspect I made him uncomfortable with some new questions I posed about the exact agencies who would oversee any possible investigation into actual fraud (for when the buried bodies start to smell REALLY bad ... the landfill is already getting a bit ripe). Discussions that involve mention of "FBI" are not high on the favorite topics of Democrats, when it's their guys or gals on the firing line. Still, I mentioned there's no harm in waiting a few weeks for gubernatorial certification so that some digging can be accomplished in order to see what transpired. I even said: "You know, the usual stuff. Perhaps even the Feds might want to look at, say, any phone records between Dean Logan and Paul Berendt (as in, establishing any -- if they exist -- correspondences between them and how that might correlate to times of discovery of new votes) ... I mean, hey ... there were a new bunch of votes popping up with strange regularity for a while.

I'll give him this: Dave DID say maybe it would be good to put a whole bunch of people under oath and just get to the bottom of it. He made it sound as though this would forever put the issue to rest, but he doesn't fool me -- it was said with the same conviction as a drug smuggler just pulled over by the cops: "Yeah, I don't mind if you look in the trunk. I got nothing to hide." But, usual smarm-tone aside, I guess I'll have to take him at his word.

Wow, after my call, they sure played a TON of commercials. Including mine, there were only three callers that whole hour. When in doubt (and when popular revolt is brewing), sell crap ... they must teach you that in liberal radio school. The last call was a chipper young woman who pleasantly (and, I will admit, did so better than I) reamed Dave a new one. Boy, she was a sprightly little bulldog in her tenacity. Her position was one that is catching on more and more: whether it was due to incredibly gross incompetence or outright fraud, the voters of Washington would be best served by a new vote, and anything else does not truly respect the wishes of so many of Washington state's citizens.

Her call wrapped up the show; as I said, the first in that drive-time slot. Needless to say, I was pleased that two of the three calls that last hour were peppy in their push for both a re-vote and getting to the bottom of this mess, especially since this is the type of show where most callers parrot liberal media soundbites "Uhhhh, yeah ... CBS shoulda hung firm ... ya know, I tink evabody knows Bush got outa da service, I mean didn't finish his service during Vitnam." There was a much, much older lady who called, mumbling something about the 2000 election (some unintelligible comparison or analogy) but it was a pretty lame call and fairly incoherent. Gosh, loved that last caller, though ... she was delightfully feisty.

I hope many folks that were listening on the radio end up at the re-vote rally in Olympia tomorrow!

-- Keeso

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