As an ex-presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry is combining the most
unlovely characteristics of Jimmy Carter and Al Gore.
When Congress went back into session, Kerry was in the Middle East,
bad-mouthing U.S. policy to American troops in Iraq and to Arab despots in
neighboring lands.
"Kerry, who repeatedly charged during the presidential campaign that
President Bush botched the war effort, was greeted warmly by U.S. soldiers
in Baghdad," said a story in the San Francisco Chronicle Jan. 6 by Borzou
Daragahi.
Much deeper in the story Daragahi reveals that Kerry was warmly greeted by
"about 20 soldiers based in his home state."
Most soldiers had a rather different view of Kerry's visit, said "Greyhawk,"
an Army officer stationed in Iraq.
"The hero of Ho Chi Minh strikes again," said Greyhawk in his web log
(Mudville Gazette). "Some cheering was heard from several of the few
thousand troops who voted for Kerry over here, but they were drowned out by
the cheering of the 'insurgents.'"
Then Kerry used the occasion of Martin Luther King's birthday to bitch about
his 119,000 vote loss in Ohio.
"Thousands of people were suppressed in the effort to vote," Sore Loserman
II charged at Boston's annual Martin Luther King Day breakfast, at which he
was a speaker. "Voting machines were distributed in uneven ways. In
Democratic districts, it took people four, five, 11 hours to vote, while
Republicans went through in 10 minutes — same voting machines, same
process, our America."
This wasn't true. Voting machines were distributed on the basis of how many
registered voters there were in each precinct. The Cleveland Plain Dealer
reported that in Cuyahoga County, lines were longer in the suburbs than in
the inner city. The Columbus Dispatch reported that in Franklin County,
there were more voters per machine in the suburbs than in the city.
Even if things had been the other way round, Kerry surely is aware that in
Ohio — as in every other state in the Union — the location, equipping and
staffing of polling places is the responsibility of county government. And
in heavily Democratic counties, election officials are Democrats.
Kerry is not alone in alleging fraud where none exists. Sen. Barbara Boxer
(D-Cal), the senate's shrillest voice and dullest wit, joined the moonbats
in the House to delay the casting of the electoral college vote in order to
make the same baseless complaints.
The triviality of the charge — people had to wait in line to vote —
indicates that those making it know there was no vote fraud in Ohio. But
Democrats are silent about two instances of fraud that may have changed
outcomes.
In the race for governor in Washington state last year, Republican Dino
Rossi bested Democrat Christine Gregoire on election night and in a machine
recount. Gregoire inched ahead by 129 votes in a hand recount when election
officials in heavily Democratic King County (Seattle) "discovered"
additional ballots they said they hadn't counted before.
Web logger Stefan Sharkansky (Sound Politics) noted there were nearly 1,800
more ballots cast in King County than there were voters. In addition, 348
provisional ballots were mixed in the general pool before an effort was made
to determine if they were valid, and more than 100 felons were permitted to
vote, in violation of the law.
John Kerry carried Wisconsin by 11,384 votes, less than a tenth of the
margin by which Bush carried Ohio. Milwaukee had 492,000 registered voters
in 2004 (out of a voting age population the U.S. Census Bureau estimated at
426,000 in 2000). Of these, 84,000 registered on election day. Milwaukee
County's election commission could not send out registration cards to more
than 10,000 same day registrants because they failed to provide a proper
address.
Wisconsin's Democratic governor has twice vetoed bills that would require
people registering to vote to prove that they are who they say they are (by
showing a picture ID) and live where they say they live.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the legislature in Washington state blocked a
measure to cross check a list of felons against voter registration rolls to
make certain the ineligible don't vote.
There's a reason why, and it has nothing to do with protecting the purity of
the electoral process.
