2/11/2008

Eh, Close Enough

"The people who cast the votes decide nothing," Josef Stalin is reported to have said. "The people who count the votes decide everything." With some very suspicious machinations surrounding the Washington State GOP caucus votes on Saturday, it appears that the state Republican Party is channeling the spirit of that long-dead Soviet tyrant.

You see, with just 87% of the vote counted, with about 1500 votes left to go and with just 242 votes separating John McCain and Mike Huckabee, the party chairman ordered the tally halted and McCain declared the winner. Unsurprisingly, Huckabee is not happy and sent a squad of lawyers to the Evergreen State to raise hell.

As a rule, I don't think much of Huckabee's folksy theocratic platform, but if the election really was stolen from him, he should fight it with all he's got.

The GOP has used similar tactics in the past to steal elections from Democrats to the yawns of the party rank and file. But now that the same thing is being done to disenfranchise them - well, it's amazing what a fuss is generated.

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