Yes, I’m gonna be a [political] star” …well, more or less anyway. But according to the new report on the last presidential campaign from the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund, if you happen to be a Republican and you do “drive that car,” check your tires:
The ACVR Legislative Fund report, “Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression In The 2004 Presidential Election,” finds that while Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of voter intimidation and suppression, neither party has a clean record on the issue. The report finds that paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression activities than were their Republican counterparts during the 2004 presidential election. Examples include paid Democrat operatives charged with slashing tires on GOP get-out-the-vote vans in Milwaukee and an Ohio court order stopping Democrat operatives from calling voters telling them the wrong date for the election and faulty polling place information. (ht: Andrew B.)
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19 Comments
1. Rick Ballard:“if you happen to be a Republican and you do “drive that car,” check your tires”
Real Republicans live in gated communities or have private security forces. Or both.
Jeesh.
Aug 2, 2005 - 10:32 pm 2. Katherine:Rick,
I thought real Republicans are so rich they need not hold jobs? Obviously, itís their chauffeurs who keep the tires in perfect order.
Aug 2, 2005 - 10:40 pm 3. Kevin P:Roger:
The real truth about Republicans is that they have the ultimate evil genius Rove. All those Democrats involved in electoral fraud were actual Rovian Manchurian Candidate style moles who were triggered to perform Karl’s will via spider solataire.
Aug 2, 2005 - 10:58 pm 4. Katherine:“The ebb and flow of the Atlantic tides, the drift of the continents, the very position of the sun along its ecliptic! These are just a few of the things I control in my world!”
Yep, that would describe the godlike powers of Our Master Rove.
Aug 2, 2005 - 11:30 pm 5. Terrye:Yes I think the Democrats are displaying some projection in their vote fraud claims.
What was it that Huey Long’s son said? He wanted to be buried in Louisiana so that he could remain active in Democratic politics.
Aug 3, 2005 - 4:13 am 6. Robert Crawford:neither party has a clean record on the issue. The report finds that paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression activities than were their Republican counterparts
Gotta love the way they start with “both sides are equally bad” then admit that, no, both sides are NOT equally bad.
Any of this is wrong, and I hope Republicans are cleaning out the idiots in their ranks. I don’t have much hope for Democrats.
Aug 3, 2005 - 4:21 am 7. HA:Michael Totten banned me from his blog for characterizing the Democrats as “embryonic fascists.” Well, this report documenting the systematic and growing use of fraud and violent intimidation by the Democrats confirms this characterization.
The Democratic party is thoroughly corrupted both morally and intellectually. They’ve morphed into nothing more than a mob of anti-liberal Marxist thugs. As a lifelong Democrat, it gives me no pleasure to say these things.
I’m right and Michael is wrong. He has a naive streak a mile wide when it comes to the Democrats. He fails to understand that socialist ends cannot be achieved liberal means. The ends and the means are in conflict and one or the other must be sacrificed. This is the Hayekian Dilemma the Democrats now confront.
Michael fails to understand that with this inherent conflict, the worst rise to the top. Only those who are willing to make the concious moral and intellectual calculus that liberalism itself must be sacrificed to achieve the ambiguous mirage of “social justice” need apply.
Aug 3, 2005 - 4:43 am 8. Joe Schmoe:On a personal note, my wife’s car was keyed twice and egged on the night before the election. She had a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker. We live in the Los Angeles area. My car was never molested, but it is a large, dark SUV that I wash weekly — i.e. a blue-collar person’s car — and I always thought that people were afraid to touch it becuase they knew that the driver would beat them up if he caught them messing with his car. They were right, too.
One of the greatest and most inspiring acts of political courage I ever saw was performed by a taxi driver in Columbus, Ohio. I went to Columbus for the election. It is the capitol of the state, and there are a whole lot of politicians and lobbyists in town. They are the sort of people who take taxis a lot. After the election is over they will still be around, and you don’t want to alienate your customer base.
One of the local cabs was unforgettable — a Pontiac Aztek in this neon pinkish color. You’ve never seen anything quite like it.
The owner of this cab had covered his taxi with probably 10 B/C bumper stickers. And he’d gone one step further — each of the Aztek’s windows, which were quite large, had huge “BUSH” and “W” markings on them. Imagine seeing this thing come down the street — the world’s ugliest vehicle (Pontiac Aztek) painted in neon pink (!) with “BUSH” and “W” in letters three feet tall on all the windows. It was quite a sight. I saw it roll down the street in all its glory in front of the Capitol Building and literally stood slack-jawed in awe.
I really admired this guy. Most cab drivers would never risk alienating 50% of their customer base like that. My dad drove a cab and he was always noncommittal about politics. But the Aztek driver — he went all out. It took real courage to do something like that.
Anyway, if you ever need a cab in Columbus, remember the neon pink Aztek.
Aug 3, 2005 - 6:38 am 9. jesse:You gentle geniuses do know this is a Republican group, right?
Aug 3, 2005 - 6:40 am 10. Bostonian:So Jesse, what’s your point?
Do you have any counter-evidence at all?
I don’t remember any Democrat’s tires getting slashed, or any break-ins in Democrat campaign offices, nor any stories about Republican supporters storming through Democrat campaign offices, bullying the workers.
Or did I miss something?
Aug 3, 2005 - 7:31 am 11. BradBlog:Bostonian – Yes, you missed plenty. Do some actual research. Just because Rush Limbaugh didn’t tell you about the two DNC Campaign Offices in Ohio that were broken into doesn’t mean it didn’t occur. If you will look you will find a myriad of things…All pointing back to dirty tricks by the GOP.
As to Roger being foolish enough to run with this item at all, I guess he doesn’t bother looking into anything either.
Take a gander at http://www.BradBlog.com/ACVR.htm for a start to get your facts straight.
The ACVR is a GOP front group run by high-level RNC operatives (Exec Dir, Mark F. “Thor” Hearne was the National General Counsel for Bush/Cheney ‘04 Inc. and Press Spokesman Jim Dyke was the RNC Communications Director).
You have been scammed and you have falled for it. And then you have the temerity to complain about the “Liberal” media?!
Puh-lease.
Aug 3, 2005 - 11:13 am 12. Bostonian:BradBlog,
Puh-lease yourself.
I never listen to Rush. Don’t even know if his show is aired in this area.
I see you have no comment on the GOP offices that were broken into and had laptops stolen, the union organizers storming through Republican campaign headquarters, or the tire-slashing fun in WI (a prosecution is underway for that) on election day.
Who owns or runs the ACVR has absolutely nothing to do with any of those facts. (Not even if you can link them to Karl Rove.)
(Not that I made any reference to the liberal media, but come to think of it, the press did not make much of any of these events.)
I don’t think I’ll bother with your blog.
Aug 3, 2005 - 11:41 am 13. Inspector Callahan:Good call on the Brad-Blog thing, Bostonian. I held my nose and dove in.
His first post:
“GOP Ohio Miracle of the Moment!
Republican Schmidt Takes 4% Lead Over Democrat Hackett in Final 22 Minutes of Vote Tally!”
It’s like Kos or DU, but with better background colors.
TV (Harry)
Aug 3, 2005 - 12:00 pm 14. Bostonian:Inspector, that’s about what I would expect, given the screaming, impotent rage of the guy’s tone.
Aug 3, 2005 - 12:06 pm 15. Keith_Indy:I suppose we’ll have to wait for the Civil Rights Commission to author a report unsupported by actual testimoney, before we can declare Republicans the scourge of elections across the land…
Or just keep attacking the source of the report, as if that is a valid technique in debating an issue.
A good counter-argument would be posting actual facts that show that Republicans engaged in this dispicable behavior more than Democrats.
Aug 3, 2005 - 2:21 pm 16. techunter:AZCentral pulled the article off the website and I have the story as to why. Click on my name (techunter) to read my research. Kevin
Aug 3, 2005 - 2:36 pm 17. HA:BradBlog,
And I suppose you are non-partisan? Yeah, right.
One thing is clear and indisputable. There is a massive PATTERN of proven voter fraud and intimidation committed by the Demorats. There are real police reports of real crimes, real criminal charges, real convictions and real court orders.
http://www.ac4vr.com/reports/072005/democraticincidents.html
And then from the Democrats we see the kind of unsubstantiated smear campaign that wackos like YOU specialize in. Lots of allegations, but nothing ever gets proven because the charges are false.
http://www.ac4vr.com/reports/072005/democraticincidents.html
The pattern is overhwelming. Democrats engage in systematic election fraud and intimidation. Then they engage in smear campaign against Republican election observers so that the observers will back off and the Democrats can engage in fraud without scrutiny.
Aug 4, 2005 - 3:42 am 18. HA:Oops. That second link should be to charges against Republicans:
http://www.ac4vr.com/reports/072005/republicanincidents.html
Aug 4, 2005 - 3:44 am 19. Pat Curley:Looks like the study is a Republican partisan operation.
Aug 5, 2005 - 2:00 pm