It is too early to suggest a course of action on the race, it depends on what is uncovered- if it was voting error, your solution is fine- if it is more nefarious- as it seems right now- then you seat both and run a new election.

um, on your suggestion about FL-13, i don't mean to be too wishy-washy about this stuff, but your proposal ignores what that seat is for.  it's for the people of FL-13, not any party, not any committee, etc.  if the seat is in republican hands, it will likely stay that way and for the foreseeable future of dem leadership of the house, FL-13 won't get the same basic consideration as democratic districts when it comes time to hand down gov't contracts and what-not.  they need to call for a new election.

We are willing to empty six- and seven-figure campaign warchests to try to win congressional seats.

So why not grab one that's free?

Fuck what anybody thinks about it. The pundits would probably respect Pelosi for being rough and tough.

We've beaten the Reps, but they haven't surrended. I'm for pursuing the hardest possible partisan agenda until they stop party-line voting. Given their choices for party leadership, I don't think that's going to be soon.

I say grab the seat, which we probably won anyway. Negotiate later.

No Democracy needed, eh Matt?

You have said some stupid shit before, but this takes the cake.  Who cares how the actual people actually voted, let's cut a back room deal, because that will somehow make us look good?  Uh, no, it won't.  It will make us look terrible.  

Cutting a deal that hands the seat to the GOP will be the worst of all possible solutions.  First, it will show us as craven opportunists with no core values, willing to bargain away the fundemental right of people to elect their leaders.  Second, it will show us as weak; unwilling to stand up to the illegal disenfranchisement of our voters by the other side.  Finally, it will cost us that seat for a decade.  Your suggestion fails on every level; ideological, strategic, and tactical.

The only solution that works is a re-vote.  

video around (it's an excellent introduction and summary for those new to the issue), I am back to re-reading Darkness at Noon (last read too long ago).  What are you reading?

More or less.

Only, from memory, the laundering in the DeLay case was only around $200,000. (Cheapskate!)

CA politics is known for being a souk. But is this standard practice for term-limited pols to collect a golden handshake from the party on their last day?

Or is it only the guys who've really, really worked for the money?!

Ethics is a county in New Jersey.

Today is Bobby Kennedy's birtday.  For some reason there's a massive Bobby PR push, which makes me skeptical even though he's one of my idols.  What I like about him is that he was an unethical reactionary thug who grew into a progressive champion because he faced down fear and misery.

No one did more to defeat the antiwar candidacy of Eugene McCarthy and give us many more combat deaths over many years under Dick Nixon.

No hero of mine but I didn't shoot him. :-)

Best,  Terry

"There's no way to know how the people voted."

That is exactly why a re-vote is the only possible solution, and anything else is a political disaster.  We may lose the seat in a re-vote, but we gain the the legitimacy that only comes from standing up for core convictions and the attendant appearence of stregnth.  We cut a deal, and we get neither.  If we aren't willing to re-vote, we should at least have the stones to say "The GOP cheated" grab the bull by the horns and jam our own guy in, because any "deal" for "legislation" assumes that it gets through Rove, which I think is, at best, a crapshoot at this point.  

We have no idea how the White House is going to respond to the legislation of the first 100 hours.  We shouldn't make bets until we have a better idea how that will play out.

Your earlier post on McCain is right on the money, but I don't think he will be the nominee, so I think you are shooting straight and true, but at the wrong target.  Mark my words:  The GOP base hates McCain, and you can't win the nomination without the base.

It would be easier to support these kinds of actions if journalists didn't actually hate us.

The editors and journalists who are most responsible  for the destruction of journalism are the least likely to lose their jobs. It isn't Tom Friedman who is at risk, it is the workers bees in the Food section or technology reviews or whatever, the people who have least to do with what is wrong with the media are most likely to be laid off.

this is a time for solidarity

I've just finished reading Bill Simmons' article on Doc Rivers which, quite out of nowhere, nails in four paragraphs the entire essence of blogging (diaried about it and everything).

Also, I'm reading Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowery and seriously considering moving to an old Indian town in Mexico to drink myself to death.  Am I looking for the mother lode? No my child, that is not my desire.  I'm digging for fire.

Matt,

I can hardly believe that you are serious in suggesting that the Democrats trade away a Congressional seat that they very likely won in exchange for the Republicans doing the right thing and signing onto voting reform legislation.
That is exactly the kind of halfass, wimpy, unprincipled backroom dealing that progressives should be standing against.

WTF???

The CWA newspaper guild is fighting job cuts.  Journalists are losing jobs.  It would be easier to support these kinds of actions if journalists didn't actually hate us.

The more jobs are lost, the more pressure is placed on those people to write a larger number of shorter stories, with less and less substantial content.  As this happens, it is more and more significant which stories they are assigned to write about, and which to ignore.  As a result, the media beceoms increasingly monolithic, its stories increasingly steretypical.

If we want a better press corps--or, at the very least, to fight against an increasingly bad one--one of the most fundamental things we can do is support journalists' jobs by supporting their unions in their job-saving efforts.

Assuming there were not actual stolen votes, I think we lost this seat because of poor ballot design.  The same problem caused Gore to "lose" in 2000.  

There real question is where are the FL Democrats when these ballots are being developed?  Are all our local officials down there idiots?

I don't think we can avoid seating the Republican.  On the other hand, I do not see why we cannot use federal oversight to mandate a complete overhaul of the FL voting system.  

Either we run those elections under DC supervision or we call in the UN to take over the process.

Not to be picky, but as Trippi says, Bobby's birthday is on the 20th. I was for Gene, too and saw Bobby as a spoiler at that time. Nonetheless, I'm going to see the movie today and have to acknowledge that Bobby was a saint compared to the current of crop of politicians, with a few exceptions (Howard Dean immediately comes to mind).

...well, not yet, but I just ordered Stephen Breyer's "Active Liberty", has anyone here read it?  I actually heard that it--alongside Scalia's "A Matter of Interpretation"--shows the next big conflict that will be fought out on the Supreme Court.

We've got this 2008 race tracker wiki, which I think is just a phenomenal idea. I wonder if we might also benefit from a wiki-like way to keep track of which state party outfits need their gates crashed.

I know the VA party is pretty good, and pretty open to change, but when I first started to work with them I was really skeptical because I didn't have a reassuring word I could trust. On the flip side, people living in states with dysfunctional Democratic parties should know that -- in case they were wondering -- yes, they really should get involved.

Matt, as a resident of FL-13, my first reaction to this proposal is to cast aspersions on your character and provenance.

1. The Publicans stole this and we can prove it in court.

2. Vernon Buchanan (Jennings's opponent) is a corrupt, venal subhuman. The GOP primary for this seat was ugly for a reason, and it's not just because his opponent was confused about whether Negroes have the ability to swim. Buchanan does not get a free get-out-of-jail card.

For what it's worth, this won't happen again in FL-13, because our paper trail referendum passed in the same election, and this undervote issue caused the supervisor of elections to be shamed into belatedly approving it (a total flip-flop on the issue). But that's no excuse.

By James Caroll

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?s id=06/05/10/1345217

It explains a lot about our nation's dependence on war, and chronicles the Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz march through numerous administrations to their present positions.

Must read!

FLA-13 RACE

Two thoughts:

1.  agree on pushing for voting integrity/reform (re-form, indeed, since all we need is a good, old-fashioned PAPER TRAIL!)
   
2.  as for seating the Republican, why?  he lost, and let's get real, do you thing hastert/delay/blount and company would hesitate for a nano-second in putting their guy in.  based on the orlando sentinal investigation of undervotes, it seems pretty clear that our "gal" won and should get the seat.