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“I Still Hate You, Sarah Palin.” By David Kahane
I Still Hate You, Sarah Palin
The Republicans bring a knife to a gunfight, and lose again.
One of the most terrifying moments of my political life came last summer at the Republican convention in St. Paul. No, I don’t mean seeing John McCain careering around the Xcel Energy Center like Eyegore in Young Frankenstein, his face frozen in a Lon Chaney Sr. rictus grin as he reached across the aisle to his erstwhile friends in the media and got his hand bitten off. Rather, I’m referring to the aftermath of Sarah Palin’s outrageous acceptance speech, which whipped up the Rotary Club delegates into a frenzy of white-boy fury that not even heckling by a brave Code Pink embed could deter. Truly a fascist classic and one that sent shivers down our collectivist spines.
Even worse was the glaze of horror on the phizzes of the assembled heroes of the Mainstream Media. Andrea Mitchell — yes, the very same Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, whose employer saw no conflict of interest at all when she married then Fed pooh-bah Alan Greenspan — stood there gaping like a frog while the rest of the assembled Finemans and Matthewses and Olbermanns scurried around like roaches when the light gets turned on: What the hell just hit us? For one horrible moment, it looked as if the carefully crafted plans of David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, George Soros, and the Second Chief Directorate, first department, of the old KGB were about to gang agley.
Not only were we offended at the sheer effrontery of McCain’s pick: How dare the Republicans proffer this déclassée piece of Wasilla trailer trash whose only claim to fame was that she didn’t exercise her right to choose? Where were her degrees from Smith or Barnard, her internships at PETA, the Brookings Institution, or the Young Pioneers? We were also outraged that the Stupid Party had just nominated a completely unqualified candidate nobody had ever heard of, a first-term governor of Alaska whose previous experience consisted of a small-town mayoralty. As opposed to our guy, Barry Soetoro of Mombasa, Djakarta, and Honolulu, a first-term senator nobody had ever heard of, whose previous experience had been as a state senator (D., Daley Machine) in Illinois. After eight long, illegitimate, lawless years of &*^%BUSH$#@! tyranny, how dare you contest this election?
And so the word went out, from that time and place: Eviscerate Sarah Palin like one of her field-dressed moose. Turn her life upside down. Attack her politics, her background, her educational history. Attack her family. Make fun of her husband, her children. Unleash the noted gynecologist Andrew Sullivan to prove that Palin’s fifth child was really her grandchild. Hit her with everything we have: Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, taking a beer-run break from her quixotic search for Mr. Right to drip venom on Sister Sarah; post-funny comic David Letterman, to joke about her and her daughters on national television; Katie Couric, the anchor nobody watches, to give this Alaskan interloper a taste of life in the big leagues; former New York Times hack Todd “Mr. Dee Dee Myers” Purdum, to act as an instrument of Graydon Carter’s wrath at Vanity Fair. Heck, we even burned her church down. Even after the teleological triumph of The One, the assault had to continue, each blow delivered with our Lefty SneerTM (viz.: Donny Deutsch yesterday on Morning Joe), until Sarah was finished.
You know what? It worked! McCain finally succumbed to his long-standing case of Stockholm Syndrome (“My friends, you have nothing to fear from an Obama presidency”), Tina Fey turned Palin into a see-Russia-from-my-house joke, “conservative” useful idiots like Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker hatched her, and finally Sarah cried No más and walked away. If we could, we’d cut off her head and mount it on a wall at Tammany Hall, except there is no more Tammany Hall unless you count Obama’s Tony Rezko–financed home in Chicago. And it took only eight months — heck, Sarah couldn’t even have another kid in the time it took us to destroy her. That’s the Chicago way!
Yes, my friends, it’s once again time to quote Sean Connery’s famous speech from The Untouchables, written by David Mamet — the lecture the veteran Chicago cop gives a wet-behind-the-ears Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner, back when he was a movie star) while they sit in a church pew. “You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!” If you just think of us — liberal Democrats — as Capone you’ll begin to understand what we’re up to. And we just put one of yours in the morgue.
I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but maybe now you’re beginning to understand the high-stakes game we’re playing here. This ain’t John McCain’s logrolling senatorial club any more. This is a deadly serious attempt to realize the vision of the 1960s and to fundamentally transform the United States of America. This is the fusion of Communist dogma, high ideals, gangster tactics, and a stunning amount of self-loathing. For the first time in history, the patrician class is deliberately selling its own country down the river just to prove a point: that, yes, we can! This country stinks and we won’t be happy until we’ve forced you to admit it.
In other words, stop thinking of the Democratic Party as merely a political party, because it’s much more than that. We’re not just the party of slavery, segregation, secularism, and sedition. Not just the party of Aaron Burr, Boss Tweed, Richard J. Croker, Bull Connor, Chris Dodd, Richard Daley, Bill Ayers, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and Emperor Barack Hussein Obama II. Not just the party of Kendall “Agent 202” Myers, the State Department official recruited as a Cuban spy along with his wife during the Carter administration. Rather, think of the Democratic Party as what it really is: a criminal organization masquerading as a political party.
If you had any sense, you would start using our tactics against us. After all, you have a few lawyers on your side. Sue us. File frivolous ethics complaints against all our elected officials until, like Sarah, they go broke from defending themselves. (David Paterson would be a good place to start.) Challenge the constitutionality of BO2’s legion of fill-in-the-blank czars — none of whom have to be confirmed, or even pass a security check. (Come to think of it, neither did Barry.) Let slip your own journalistic dogs of war, assuming you have any, to find Barry’s birth certificate, his college transcripts, whether he applied to Occidental as a foreign student, and on which passport he traveled in 1981 to Pakistan with his friend Wahid Hamid, for starters.
You might also want to think about interviewing New York literary agent Jane Dystel, who a) contacted the totally unknown Obama in the wake of an adulatory New York Times piece in 1990 and b) got him a $125,000 advance for a memoir that c) he couldn’t write, even after a long sojourn in Bali, which d) got the contract canceled, whereupon e) Dystel got him $40,000 from another publisher, following which f) the book finally came out to glowing reviews and g) Obama fired her. Wouldn’t she have an interesting story to tell?
Of course, you won’t.
You’re too nice, too enamored of history and tradition to realize that the rules have changed. Remember, I live and work in a town where, “Hello, he lied,” isn’t a joke; we men of the Left are perfectly comfortable lying, cheating, and stealing — hello, Senator Franken! — in order to attain and keep political power. Not for nothing is one of our mottos, “By Any Means Necessary.” You see, we’re the good guys, and for us the ends always justify the means. We are, literally, shameless, which is why Bill Clinton is now a multi-millionaire and Eliot Spitzer is already on the comeback trail.
In Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, “the fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.” This is the book that “Reset” Rodham (what ever happened to her?) and BHO II grew up reading and continue to live by. If you don’t understand that that’s the way we see you — as the enemy — then you’re too dumb to survive. Remember that for us politics is not just an avocation, or even just a job, but our life. We literally stay awake nights thinking up ways to screw you. And one of the ways we do that is by religiously observing Alinsky’s Rule No. 4.
Did Sarah stand for “family values”? Flay her unwed-mother daughter. Did she represent probity in a notoriously corrupt, one-family state? Spread rumors about FBI investigations. Did she speak with an upper-Midwest twang? Mock it relentlessly on Saturday Night Live. Above all, don’t let her motivate the half of the country that doesn’t want His Serene Highness to bankrupt the nation, align with banana-republic Communist dictators, unilaterally dismantle our missile defenses, and set foot in more mosques than churches since he has become president. We’ve got a suicide cult to run here.
And that’s why Sarah had to go. Whether she understood it or not, she threatened us right down to our most fundamental, meretricious, elitist, sneering, snobbish, insecure, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders bones. She was, after all, a “normal” American, the kind of person (or so I’m told) you meet in flyover country. The kind that worries first about home and hearth and believes in things like motherhood and love of country the way it is, not the way she wants to remake it.
What you clowns need, in other words, is a Rules for Radical Conservatives to explain what you’re up against and teach you how to compete before it’s too late. Luckily, since I care about money even more than I care about politics, I have just such a book in the proposal stage, currently making the rounds of various publishers, assuming any of them are wise enough to take me up on it.
And, yes, this time it really is personal.
– David Kahane is pushing for a new national holiday to commemorate the destruction of Sarah Palin, and is hopeful that his senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, will co-sponsor it, along with Henry Waxman in the House. You can second the motion at kahanenro@gmail.com or on Facebook.
TWG NOTE: One would think the glassy eyeds would Love Sarah Palin, if they only knew her record!
As mayor of Wasilla:
#1 Took a town that had not grown in 30 years and grew it by adding big box stores. She was able to convince these stores they would be profitable and they are. In fact, Wasilla with a population of just 6300 has 50,000 people shopping there every day. It enabled her to cut property taxes by 75% and personal property and inventory taxes by 100%. The income from the malls allowed her to do much for the city.
Updated sewer system.
Repaved every road in Wasilla and added needed infrastructure by getting the new big box stores to chip in.
Built a multi sport arena for the children of Wasilla.
Kept a glass jar on her desk with the name and phone number of all residents. Once a week she would pull a name randomly and call them to see what they thought of the city.
As Chairperson of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
#1 – As ethics officer, she found there was corruption on the committee being perpetrated by a member of her own party. She went to the head of the commission, the legislature and the governor seeking help in rooting it out. It soon became apparent to her that the corruption was widespread and it needed to be stopped. She got the head of the commission (a republican) and the secretary of state (another republican) to resign and face criminal charges.
#2 – She quit her well paying job, cutting her family income by 60%. Working as a private citizen she was able to not only get the commissioners fired, but thrown into prison to boot.
#3 – Seeing that the corruption ran all the way up to the governor’s office, she decided to run herself and won.
As Governor of Alaska
#1 – Her first act as governor was to veto a popular new law depriving gay couples of the same benefits straight couples get. And this from the woman dims allude to as a homophobe. It was her contention that her personal beliefs should not enter into governing the state and that all people deserve equal rights. What a fruitcake huh?
#2 – She took on the oil companies and made them increase their payments to the state for the oil and gas they took from there.
#3 – Despite dim hand wringing over her expenses, she was able to make 30% more public appearances as the former governor while cutting the travel expenses by over 80%!!!
#4 – Again cut taxes (this is becoming a habit) while still giving every resident of Alaska checks for 2500 dollars from the increased oil and gas money.
#4 – Before she knew she was carrying a special needs kid, she adopted a plan to triple the money spent on education for children with special needs.
#5 – In 2008 she was voted a 25,000 dollar pay raise which she refused to accept.
#6 – Although dims blame her for the bridge to nowhere, the truth is congress passed the expenditure in 2005, BEFORE she was governor. She pulled the plug on the plan as “wasteful”.
#7 – Has worked hard to build a gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48 states, which would greatly increase the states income while at the same time lowering the heating costs in the lower 48. Others had been trying for 35 years to build it and all of them failed. Sarah succeeded. Exxon with Trans-Canada are building the 26 billion dollar pipeline.
#8 – Went to court to force oil companies to either use their leases or forfeit them.
Not bad for an insane Woman, right?
obama’s Relentless Attacks On Our Military – Let’s Review Military Voting Rights
TWG: Let’s just set aside for now the relentless attacks on Military pay, healthcare, benefits, deployments by this horrid regime, not to mention obama-napolitano designating our returning Veterans as DOMESTIC TERRORISTS Take a look at how the obama regime has attacked voting rights for our Military troops. It makes me physically ill whenever I see Veterans supporting this regime. They are TRAITORS, spitting on the face of each and every Veteran who has ever served this once great Nation. TRAITORS. Not knowing what you’re supporting (IGNORANT APATHY) is no longer an acceptable excuse.
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“Senate panel halts proposal for overseas military to vote electronically”
News from Kentucky.
“Military and Overseas Voters in 2012″
A Pew Data Dispatch. As I’ve argued in The Voting Wars, we have to do much more to enfranchise our overseas military personnel—especially with problems with voter registration (registration rates are very low).
“17 Computer Scientists: Invest More in Military Internet Voting; Letter: Internet voting only option for military “to achieve first class voter status””
The National Defense Committee has issued this press release. See also this statement.
“Pentagon unit pushed email voting for troops despite security concerns”
“Active-duty service members disenfranchised by Fla. voter purge”
CBS News: “Tampa-area resident and Navy captain Peter Kehring has spent more than 30 years in the U.S. military. But due to Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott’s recent purge of voter rolls, Kehring will not be able to cast a vote on Election Day, reports Tampa CBS affiliate WTSP….And he’s not alone: Kehring is among 30 active and reserve service members in the Tampa area who have contacted the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office, according to WTSP.”
This is the danger of voter purges just before the election—false positives which disenfranchise eligible voters. Voter cleanup needs to happen in the off-season. Better yet, we need to rationalize and nationalize registration for federal elections.
“Senator: Defense Department Not Complying With Election Law”
This item appears at The Weekly Standard.
“Romney campaign sues over absentee ballots in Wisconsin”
CS Monitor: “The Mitt Romney campaign has filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin seeking a five-day extension for absentee voters overseas and in the military.”
“Officials want late absentee ballots counted”
LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Secretary of State
Ruth Johnson and Attorney General Bill Schuette want clerks in two dozen Michigan communities to extend the counting deadline for absentee ballots sent to residents overseas and in the military.
Eric Eversole Respond to Bob Carey on Military Voting Issues
Following up on this post, Eric Eversole sends along these thoughts:
The point that must not be forgotten is that the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) failed to provide military voters the assistance required under federal law. The most recent allegations are an attempt to deflect criticism from FVAP’s failures and cloud the real problem of low military voter participation rates.Contrary to Mr. Carey’s claims, the Military Voter Protection Project (MVP Project) considered whether to include “automatically” generated absentee ballot requests in our analysis of the 2008 election data. Under federal law, as it stood in 2008, states were required to send out absentee ballots to military and overseas voters for two federal election cycles. In other words, if a military voter requested an absentee ballot for the 2006 federal election, the state not only had to send absentee ballots for the 2006 election cycle, it also automatically send absentee ballots for the 2008 federal elections as well.
Federal law subsequently changed in 2009, but we decided to include automatic absentee ballots in our analysis for two reasons. First, they were still valid absentee ballot requests for the 2008 election. Second, a vast majority of these ballots were cast and counted. This latter fact is evidenced by the 2008 post-election report by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), where nearly two-thirds of these ballots were received by the voter and were returned to the local election official to be counted.
For us, it came down to this: if you are trying to gauge the number of potential participants in an election, why would you exclude valid absentee ballot requests, especially when a vast majority of those ballots were returned and counted? Regardless of the source, they represent thousands of real military and overseas voters that participated in the 2008 election. Now, they represent thousands of military and overseas voters that may not be able to participate in the upcoming election.
Nor should anyone buy the false claim that military and overseas voting is actually up in 2012. That claim can only be made by ignoring the 231,000 automatic absentee ballots that were sent out and the 150,000 that were returned to local election officials to be counted. It makes no sense to exclude these ballots unless you were trying to understate actual participation rates in 2008.
If you look at the number of military and overseas ballots that were counted in 2008, it shows you how far we must go in the coming weeks to meet 2008 totals. Take Florida, for example: in 2008, the state counted 95,014 absentee ballots from military and overseas voters. Yet, as of September 22nd, the state had sent only 65,173 absentee ballots to these voters.
The same holds true for Virginia. In 2008, Virginia counted 28,816 military and overseas ballots in the presidential election, but has sent out only 12,292 for this year’s election as of September 22, 2012. It doesn’t take much to figure out that it will be difficult to meet the 2008 participation levels, even if every single ballot is returned and counted.
The more interesting discussion is not whether the number of absentee ballots will be down this year, but how much of the decrease can be blamed on FVAP, and most importantly, how we ensure that our military voters are not disenfranchised in this election. Some commentators have pointed to the reduction in overseas deployments and a reduction in activated National Guard members, as an excuse for reduced absentee ballot requests. Others have pointed to the removal of the automatic absentee ballot requests from federal law and how that may have impacted participation.
These factors, however, do not overcome FVAP’s failure to implement a key provision of the MOVE Act—one that would have created a more systematic basis for allowing military voters to register and request an absentee ballot. That process was supposed to be governed by the National Voter Registration Act or “Motor Voter.”
As many in the election community have long known, Motor Voter has played a critical role in helping all Americans, especially those in underrepresented communities, to participate in our elections. When Congress passed the MOVE Act in 2009, it determined that military members should be entitled to the same benefits when the check into a new duty station. Yet, that didn’t happen.
FVAP and the Pentagon’s failure to implement this requirement must be the central point in this discussion. If we are going to improve the participation rates by military voters, they need a more systematic process to register and request an absentee ballot. Until that occurs, our military members will continue to be one of the most disenfranchised groups in the United States.
“Ex-DoD Official Says Voter Group’s Numbers Wrong”
Important report from Military.com: “According to Carey, the problem is not the Pentagon and it’s not flagging voter interest, but MVPP’s analysis. MVPP either missed or ignored the fact that under the law in effect for 2008, election officials were required to send out thousands more ballots than were actually requested. At the time, the law mandated that absentee ballots be sent out to those who submitted a current ballot application and also to anyone who had applied for an absentee ballot in the prior election, 2006. That was bound to create a significant spike in the number of ballots mailed out, according to Carey. Trouble is, some of it was illusory.”
I suspect we will hear a response from Eric Eversole to this, although he did not respond to Military.com’s request for an interview.
Republicans Allege Obama Admin. Not Doing Enough to Help Military Voters
“Romney seeks extended deadline for overseas voters, including in Michigan”
AP: “Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign has sent letters to election officials in Wisconsin, Mississippi and Vermont demanding that the deadline for receiving ballots from military and overseas voters be extended.”
“Military ballot requests down in key battleground states”
“GOP-backed military coalition drops veil: Obama seeks to ‘undermine the rights of military voters’”
“Absentee Ballot Applications Down by Nearly Half in NC “
Michael McDonald: “The number of absentee ballot applications is down by nearly half from 2008. In 2008, election officials had received 37,539 applications compared to 20,695 in 2012, or 45 percent fewer applications. The number of applications from registered Republicans is down more than Democrats, which are also down. The percentage of registered Republicans declined by 55 percent while the percentage of registered Democrats declined 35 percent. Thus registered Republicans composed 51 percent of the earliest absentee ballot applications in 2008 and 42 percent in 2012. These numbers appear to confirm a report from Chapman University finding military absentee ballot applications are down from 2008.”
“Sen. Cornyn criticizes lack of voter assistance services to military overseas”
“New IG Report Sets Off Debate About MOVE Act Implementation”
“Report: Half of military bases lack voting facility”
The Washington Times reports. My earlier coverage (including a link to the IG report) is here.
“Pentagon Report Finds Military Voting Efforts Underfunded, Ineffective”
TPM: “The Pentagon’s inspector general said in a report issued Tuesday that the federal government’s efforts to assist military voters under the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act aren’t working thanks to underfunding and ineffective outreach to younger military personnel. Under the MOVE Act, every military installation that isn’t in a war zone is required to establish a voting assistance office. But the Department of Defense inspector general tried contacting every one of those offices and wasn’t able to contact half. The Air Force was the worst offender. The inspector was only able to contact 29 out of 74 offices.”
As I argue in The Voting Wars, the single biggest change we need to make for military voters is getting these voters registered.
“Ohio Ordered to Restore Weekend Early Voting in Judge’s Ruling”
“Why South Carolina Wants To Ban Student IDs At The Polls But Is Just Fine With Military IDs”
This is important.
“Give Military Voters Extra Consideration”
This letter to the editor (responding to my recent oped) appears in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Report says fewer in military register to vote; Absentee ballot requests from military members and spouses are alarmingly low this election year, a voter advocacy group says.”
“Republicans Plot Assault On Iowa Caucuses On Military Voter Issue”
Fascinating BuzzFeed report. And I’ve long agreed that military disenfranchisement and other issues are a reason to kill the caucuses.
Retired Military ID OK in PA
In this earlier post, a reader suggested that a military ID for a retiree which says “indefinite” would not be usable to vote under PA’s voter id law. I asked whether this was correct.
Thanks to a reader who points me to this PA website which says in listing acceptable documents: “An unexpired U.S. military ID – active duty and retired military (a military or veteran’s ID must designate an expiration date or designate that the expiration date is indefinite). Military dependents’ ID must contain an expiration date and must not be expired.”
Thanks for the information, and good news.
“Military voters as political pawns”
I have written this cover piece for the Sunday San Diego Union-Tribune opinion section. It begins:
It’s the election season, and the battle for the presidency and control of Congress is being fought not just through voter registration drives, endless campaign ads, and stadium rallies, but also in courts across America. Litigation over election rules has become increasingly commonplace since the disputed 2000 election in Florida, which led to the United States Supreme Court choosing George W. Bush over Al Gore. And as in 2000, the question of military voters and military ballots is back in the media and legal spotlight, with Republicans unfairly accusing Democrats of being anti-military.
A federal district court in Ohio will soon decide the Obama campaign’s challenge to an unusual Ohio law. The law allows military voters and overseas voters, but no other voters, the right to cast an in-person ballot in the three days before Election Day. Democrats argue that this law is unconstitutional because it “requires election officials to turn most Ohio voters, including veterans, firefighters, police officers, nurses, small business owners and countless other citizens, away from open voting locations, while admitting military and nonmilitary overseas voters and their families who are physically present in Ohio and able to vote in person.”
Another snippet:
The claim that Democrats were trying to undermine the military vote was especially ironic. The only significant federal election legislation to pass out of Congress since 2002 was the MOVE Act, a bill championed by Democrats to extend military voting rights. Overseas military voter turnout is abysmal, and the MOVE Act was a small step in the right direction by requiring states to get ballots to military voters on time. Still, Republicans have repeatedly criticized the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice for not implementing the MOVE Act aggressively enough against states which have sought waivers from its provisions.
Perhaps the Democrats are willing to fight about military ballots this time because of how they got burned in the Florida 2000 dispute. As I detail in my new book, “The Voting Wars,”; during the recounts of the ballots lawyers for Gore had been fighting against the counting of overseas ballots which did not have a postmark showing a foreign mailing before Election Day. When Republicans got wind of this, they accused Democrats of being anti-military. Democrats asked vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman to put the controversy to rest, but he said on the NBC news program “Meet the Press” that military ballots received by county canvassing boards should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Military Voters and Pa. Voter ID
A reader sends along the following thoughts:
While I firmly believe the Voter ID initiatives by several states are politically aimed at voter suppression among blacks and other minorities,I found myself being able to identify personally with the effects as explained by a Pennsylvania Congressman on the PBS News Hour the day the decision was handed down by the Commonwealth Judge. If the Congressman was correct in his explanation, one affected category of voter affected was military retirees. He explained that in Pa. all Picture IDs, Driver’s Licenses or Military IDs have to be current and reflect an expiration date. As military retiree, my military ID Card does not have an expiration date. It simply says Indefinite since I’m a retiree. It seems Pa. will not accept the Military ID Card of a retired serviceperson. My spouse’s military ID card does currently reflect an expiration date. Under current regulations however when she turns 75 she has to get a final ID Card that will reflect Indefinite just like mine. So if we were residents of Pa. and had become too old and infirm to drive, neither of us could use the military ID. True we would be able to get some sort of picture ID from the Motor Vehicle Registration offices but you get the gist. I’m sure the adverse impact of this law is worse for the minorities and I don’t know the total numbers of older military retirees that this affects but if it’s more than one it’s too damned many. I also wonder if other states have made similar decisions.
Is this correct under PA law? Anyone too infirm to drive would likely be entitled to an absentee ballot, which is one way to deal with this problem.
Must-Read Ned Foley Post on Husted Early Voting Decision, Military Voting Case, and Pa Voter ID Case
Ned Foley has a must-read post, Analyzing a “Voting Wars” Trifecta.
Here’s a taste on each of the three areas Ned covers.
On Husted’s uniform voting requirement: “But one can reasonably question whether Husted’s new directive upholds the standard of fair-minded, nonpartisan election administration that Husted has repeatedly professed that he wishes to follow. The uniformity that Husted has now required precludes any in-person voting on Saturdays and Sunday during the five-week period that Ohio’s statutory law provides for early voting. Is that a position that a nonpartisan Director of Elections, who is neither Republican nor Democrat, would take?”
On Democrats’ suit involving early voting period and the military: “In my judgment, the better position is that even though the Anderson/Burdick/Crawford test is not the same as the “rational basis” test, the State ought to be credited with whatever policy justifications can be offered to justify a non-exclusionary regulation of the voting process. Perhaps it is the fact that I served as Ohio’s State Solicitor for two years (while on leave from Ohio State’s law school), but I don’t think federal constitutional law should trip up a State just because the State used an arguably faulty legislative process for adopting a substantive rule that would be undeniably valid using a different legislative process. Instead, except when strict scrutiny properly applies, the respect that States as sovereign governments in our federalist system deserve requires (in my view) that they should be given the benefit of the doubt, so that their legislation is sustained under federal constitutional law whenever there is a reasonable policy argument available to sustain it.”
On yesterday’s decision on Pa’s voter id. challenge: “I think the court there was justified in refusing to invalidate the law in its entirety, just as the U.S. Supreme Court was justified in Crawford in refusing to invalidate Indiana’s voter ID law in its entirety. The simple point is that the photo ID requirement in both cases is not a burden for the many voters who already possess the required photo ID, and as to these voters there is no reason to prohibit election officials from applying the requirement to present that form of ID when they vote. To be sure, there may be no great necessity in the State’s insistence that these voters show a photo ID, rather than some other form (like a bank statement or utility bill), but given the absence of a burden as to these voters, the State should be permitted to have its way. After all, the obligation to show a photo ID might have some minimally deterrent effect against ineligible voting, and given no harm to voters who already have this form of ID, the balance tips in the State’s favor. (As a policy matter, I would prefer an alternative voter ID requirement, but suboptimal policy does not render a law unconstitutional.)”
Read Ned!
“Campaigns spar over Ohio election law”
AP: “It doesn’t take much to start a political spat in Ohio, where jockeying for every presidential vote is practically blood sport. The latest pits President Barack Obama’s campaign against groups representing military voters, an uncomfortable place for the commander in chief.”
The hearing on the preliminary injunction was today, and the judge said he would take some time before ruling.
I will have more to say on this dispute in a piece to appear soon.
“Commentary: Protect votes of servicemen”
Jocelyn Benson in the Detroit News: “When Michigan’s sons and daughters, husbands and wives put aside their safety to protect ours and serve in the military, it’s our responsibility to ensure that they can exercise their right to vote. Dealing with a deployment is stressful and nerve-wracking for any military family. I know — I am an army wife, and my husband is currently serving in Afghanistan. As we juggle all of the responsibilities of military life, the last thing our service members and their families need is an added struggle of trying to get their ballots in time to vote.”
“Fact check: Obama not trying to curb military early voting”
Factcheck.org reports.
A Walk-Back on Walk-Back on Military Voting?
Following up on this post, see the Obama campaign statement appended as an update to this BuzzFeed story:
UPDATE: Adam Fetcher, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, sent BuzzFeed the following statement:
“It is not correct that the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party have shifted the position taken in the case brought in Ohio to protect early voting for the vast majority of the state’s voters over the last three days before the general election.
We fully support accommodations for the military, such as the Uniformed Overseas and Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act that President Obama signed into law. We also believe it is arbitrary for the state to open the polls for the weekend and Monday before the general election but to turn away most Ohio citizens who seek to cast their vote during this period. We support the right of the military and overseas voters to vote then, and we support the right of all other Ohio voters to take advantage of this same opportunity. In short, everyone should have equal opportunity to come in on election day – or during the days leading up to it at open polling locations – and cast a vote.
It is important to note that Ohio voters have successfully qualified a referendum on the ballot to stop the legislature from enacting a series of limitations on voting, including early voting for all citizens during the last three days before the general election. After the referendum was approved for the November ballot, the state’s legislative leadership claimed it would repeal this early voting restriction. But the General Assembly then proceeded to re-enact it – in direct disregard of the will of the voters.
As the case before the court makes entirely clear, this case is aimed at arbitrary exclusion. It is about restoring rights, not taking them away.”
“Commission: Only Ohio Distinguishes Military, Civilian Early Voters”
BuzzFeed: “Ohio’s nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission finds that no states set the broad distinction that Ohio law does for early in-person voting — and only two states draw any legal distinction. Husted had it wrong.”
Mazur: Should We Have VIP Lanes for Military Voters?
Here is a guest post from Prof. Diane Mazur:
Should We Have VIP Lanes for Military Voters?
The Obama campaign has challenged an Ohio law that extends the early voting period for members of the military, but not for civilians. The focus is on the three days right before Election Day. Under the new law, service members stationed in Ohio can continue to vote in person on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before the election, but civilians can cast early votes only through Friday. When the Obama campaign asked a federal court to open the full early voting period to all voters, Mitt Romney accused the President of trying to undermine military voting rights.
Republicans said the lawsuit questioned whether it was constitutional to ever make accommodations for military voters. This characterization is inaccurate, and silly. There is a long history of accommodation for military and overseas citizens to vote by absentee ballot (for example, the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act), and this is a settled understanding.
The Ohio law is the first, as far as I know, to grant extra voting privileges to service members voting in person, not by absentee ballot. The Obama campaign is not arguing that service members are never entitled to accommodation based on the unpredictable circumstances of their assignments, but only that it is arbitrary to hold “military-only” voting days when all voters are physically present and able to vote in person. If the election offices are going to be open, we should let everyone in the door. The Republican Party has offered no reason why Ohio needs “military-only” voting booths for in-person voting. The law does not address any specific burden or difficulty in voting, such as the rare service member who might be deployed without notice away from Ohio at the last minute, too late to register to vote by absentee. The law privileges all Ohio service members for no reason other than being in uniform.
If you follow the statements of the military groups and Republican representatives closely, you’ll see that they glide back and forth between references to absentee and in-person voting, realizing that their in-person arguments are without precedent and without justification. News reports ought to make clear that this is a giant leap beyond any other kind of military voting accommodation, and one that has nothing to do with the needs of the military.
It is all too easy to win arguments by accusing others of disrespecting the military. What really disrespects the military, however, is using service members as a wedge for political advantage and setting military and civilian communities against one another. This is, unfortunately, the sorry legacy of the 2000 presidential election. We have created a generation of service members who firmly believe the false myth that military people were disenfranchised in 2000 when they attempted to vote from overseas, and they remain suspicious today. The opposite was in fact true, that Florida elections officials were bullied into accepting ballots that were voted after the election, lest they be accused of being anti-military. We’re still paying for those reckless arguments today in terms of poorer civil-military relations. [For more, see A More Perfect Military: How the Constitution Can Make Our Military Stronger (Oxford University Press, 2010) (Chapter 11, “A Cautionary Tale About Military Voting”) and The Bullying of America (4 Election Law Journal 105 (2005)).]
The Ohio debate is more of the same all over again. It reminds me of the classic science fiction novel Starship Troopers, a story about a future society in which residents could qualify to become citizens, and to vote, only by serving in the military. The motivation behind the Ohio law granting “military only” voting days comes uncomfortably close to that vision. The idea that we should afford greater accommodations of convenience to service members because they are somehow more deserving of the right to vote than the rest of America does great damage to military professionalism. It’s important to protect the right to vote for all Americans, whether they serve in the military or not, and military professionals would agree.
Diane Mazur is a former Air Force officer and Professor of Law at the University of Florida
“Obama Campaign Opens Can of Worms with Ohio Early Voting Lawsuit”
National Journal reports.
“Romney Camp Still Won’t Say If Vets, Firefighters, Cops Deserve Early Voting Rights”
TPM reports.
“Early Voting Lawsuit In Ohio Draws Ire From Romney Campaign”
Must-listen Pam Fessler report for NPR.
“Early Voting in Ohio”
David Firestone: “If Mr. Romney truly cared about the ‘fundamental right to vote,’ he would support it for everyone, even those who might not support him.”
“Military Groups’ Argument About Obama Voting Lawsuit “Extremely Misleading,” Prof Says
Prof. Diane Mazur knows more about military voting rights than anyone else I know. Read her interview with Buzzfeed.
Mazur’s ELJ piece on military voting in Florida 2000 was essential to my retelling of the Florida story in chapter 1 of The Voting Wars.
“Axelrod: Military Voters Should Get Special Consideration In Voting”
BuzzFeed: “Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod gave voice to a careful walk-back by the Obama campaign over its challenge to an Ohio early voting law….In their initial filing, the Obama campaign argued that it was arbitrary for military voters to be able to submit ballots during the three-day period but not non-military voters. But now they appear to be shifting their defense of the lawsuit, telling BuzzFeed that what is arbitrary is not the difference between military voters and ordinary civilians, but that the Ohio voters could vote in the three-day period before the election in 2008 but cannot in 2012.”
If that’s the argument, what’s the relevance of the military voter period?
“Romney: Obama lawsuit seeks to ‘undermine’ military voters”
The LA Times reports.
“Axelrod: Team Romney launching ‘shameful’ attack on voting rights lawsuit”
CNN reports.
“Obama, Democrats suing to block military voting in Ohio? Update: No”
This item appears at Hot Air.
Obama Campaign Responds to Romney on Military Voters in Ohio
See this statement (via TPM).
“Mitt Romney: We Must Defend The Rights Of Military Voters”
Mitt Romney Press | August 4, 2012Boston, MAUnited StatesMitt Romney today made the following statement on early voting privileges for military servicemen and women in Ohio:
“President Obama’s lawsuit claiming it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women early voting privileges during the state’s early voting period is an outrage. The brave men and women of our military make tremendous sacrifices to protect and defend our freedoms, and we should do everything we can to protect their fundamental right to vote. I stand with the fifteen military groups that are defending the rights of military voters, and if I’m entrusted to be the commander-in-chief, I’ll work to protect the voting rights of our military, not undermine them.”
My earlier coverage is here and here. Note the relief sought in the Obama campaign complaint is all about getting early voting extended for all Ohio voters, and nothing about taking away early voting rights of military voters:
“The Right’s New Lie: Obama Suing to Keep Soldiers from Voting”
This diary entry by JR appears on Daily Kos. My earlier coverage of this controversy is here.
“Obama campaign Ohio suit irks military groups”
AP: “Fifteen military groups are opposing a federal lawsuit in Ohio brought by President Barack Obama’s campaign because they say it could threaten voter protections afforded to service members, such as the extended time they have to cast a ballot.”
I expect Republicans to use this suit to paint Obama as anti-military. In fact, I think the purpose of the suit is to extend the benefits in voting given to military voters in Ohio to all Ohio voters.
UPDATE: That didn’t take long.
SEE my more recent post on this issue, with a link to the complaint, here.
Who Counted Our Ballots? SEIU!
SAVE AMERICA—— CRUSH SEIU, ACORN AND ALL THE REST OF THE DIRTY SCOUNDRELS.
THOSE ROTTEN SWINE WERE THE ONE’S COUNTING OUR BALLOTS.
____________________________________________
HEY DC ! HERE’S YOUR PINK SLIP! I HOPE THE DOORS SLAM YOUR ASSES ON THE WAY OUT!
NOW GET OUT OF OUR HOUSE.
PLEASE REPORT ANY SUSPECTED FRAUD DURING THIS ELECTION BY CALLING 1.888.775.8117
PLEASE REPORT ANY SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY WITH REGARD TO VOTING IN THIS MID-TERM ELECTION BY CALLING 1-888-775-8117 which will be staffed by attorneys, to handle polling issues and possible voter fraud or intimidation. If you suspect that fraud may be occurring in any way, please call for free advice.
1-888-775-8117
THIS IS NOT AN ELECTION. IT’S A RESTRAINING ORDER.
“This is not an election on November 2. This is a restraining order. Power has been trapped, abused and exploited by Democrats. Go to the ballot box and put an end to this abusive relationship. And let’s not hear any nonsense about letting the Democrats off if they promise to get counseling.” ~ P.J. O’Rourke
IT IS TIME TO STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR BELOVED COUNTRY AND TO START THE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL WITHIN THIS HORRID REGIME. WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DEMAND NUMEROUS CRIMINAL CHARGES FILED AGAINST THIS ADMINSTRATION FOR HIGH CRIMES AGAINST THIS NATION AND HER PEOPLE. NOTHING LESS.
The Obama Deception – Full Length Movie in HQ
This is such a good movie. I realize many of my readers have seen it already, but why not watch it again! It’s a good reminder why we’re in this fight and why we need to vote these rotten scoundrels OUT OF OUR HOUSE! Grab some popcorn and a beverage and get comfy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=share
Eric Holder’s DOJ – Enforcing Racism, Injustice and Thuggery At The Voting Booths
The Obama DOJ shysters actually had the nerve to issue this press release with a straight face. This statement is the real kicker:
“Both protecting the right to vote and combating voter fraud are essential to maintaining the confidence of all Americans in our system of government.”
THE WAKING GIANT 