GOP Telegraphing Their Own Fraud By Accusing Dems?
The recent raid of the Nevada offices of ACORN was outrageous to suggest the voter registration organization was illegally registering duplicate voters to aid a candidate who is leading in national polls by double digits.
If ACORN was so stupid to risk their own credibility and muck up an election in which Barack Obama has been pulling away from rival John McCain anyway, they’d have to either be total fools – or perhaps framed to look evil by those actually doing the tampering?
This suddenly stepped-up enforcement of voter integrity issues since McCain has fallen behind in polls is stunning. Since 2000, we’ve seen numerous alarming reports by government agencies and watchdog groups furiously publishing evidence of voting improprieties and have seen nothing done about it.
The bipartisan HAVA recommendations have gone ignored and unimplemented. The 500 page Conyers Report detailed questionable tactics, long lines, intimidation and disinformation robo-calls, deceptive registration cards and most glaringly, hackable electronic voting machines (EVMs).
A separate independent GAO report confirmed the 2004 election was decided on vulnerable equipment. Independent audits have demonstrated the machines are as much as 10% off even without intentional tampering due to glitchy technology, but public demonstrations have proven the hardware and software were and are sucesptible to foul play. The same machines are scheduled for use in a district near you November.
So why only now is the case for voting integrity enforcement being made? Just a coincidence?
Indeed, the DOJ attorney firing scandal for which former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is currently being investigated was based on the ponderous push for federal prosecutors to pursue voter fraud cases – whether they existed or not.
Worse still, the evidence recovered by BBC-TV reporter Greg Palast shows that vote-caging tactics were being used by Karl Rove’s senior assistant Tim Griffin, with damning database lists loaded with minority voters sent directly from RNC headquarters to George W. Bush’s campaign.
So Republicans have been successful in 2000 and 2004 disenfranchising voters by the millions using suppression, voter purges and challenges, phone-jamming schemes and well-placed friends in high places.
But the plot ironically includes accusing the Democrats of stealing votes. Though both sides have indeed been involved in fraud historically, the difference in recent times is startling, with Democrats sitting atop mounds of evidence yelling at the top of their lungs to a deaf media and public. They have seen little if any enforcement while absurd GOP claims have been brought into court, stretching all plausibility and in some cases being instantly thrown out in minutes.
Today we see a troubling report accusing ACORN of fraudulent registrations in several key battleground states, including a raid on ACORN’s Nevada offices. The NY Post reported today that a young man was registered 72 times by ACORN for loose cigarettes and $15, yet failed to interview any ACORN spokespersons, despite the slew of media appearances by top level representatives defending ACORN practices, workers and credibility made yesterday.
What we’re seeing here is the same smokescreen used by the GOP/RNC when they are engaged in wrongdoing – they accuse the opposition of same. This is a clarion call that the RNC is underway committing vote fraud. We’ve already seen deceptive direct mail pieces from the McCain campaign in Florida going out to elderly Democrats and resultant lawsuits brought by the Obama campaign.
Based on the disgraceful, unpresidential rhetoric being used by McCain himself to tie Barack Obama to William Ayres, it is little surprise that they will again seek to slime and sleaze their way through America to try to win the White House while the economy continues to tumble.
