Let's Not Re-Do Florida in 2000
A Message for Senator Allen
By Leon H Wolf

As we sit now, James Webb has a lead of approximately 8,000 votes over George Allen in Virginia, with votes yet to be counted. Insofar as there are outstanding absentee ballots, they should of course all be counted before Allen throws in the towel. If the final margin of victory is small enough that it triggers some sort of automatic recount, then I am all for the automatic recount. There's merit to doing a once-over and making sure that the thing was done right.

But there's also merit to the notion of finality when it comes to the electoral process.

Read on.

At some point, there must ultimately be a winner and a loser - the stability of Democracy depends upon it. Which is why, when I hear that the RNC is mobilizing lawyers and publicists and whatnot to fight a protracted battle down in Virginia, I have to cringe.

No one understands the potential consequences of losing Virginia (which will probably mean losing the Senate) more acutely than I do. But that doesn't mean that throwing a hissy over the way things turned out is either (a) going to do any good, or (b) make us look any better than the Democrats did in 2000 (How did Florida work out for them in the 2004 Presidential election, by the way?).

Senator Allen, you ran a truly horrendous campaign for which you are largely responsible. If you lose, this will be the reason for your loss. Please accept it graciously.

Conservative pundit, and Pat Buchanan's sister, Bay Buchanan just said the following on CNN:

If this thing were to just flip, and ended up George Allen winning it, you're gonna have resentment going on across this country, it's gonna be deeply felt as if we stole the Senate, not only that particular seat but the Senate itself.

Someone else has provided the link, so here's this odd bit of news:

http://www.washingto...

Dow Reaches New High on Election Results

By TIM PARADIS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; 5:55 PM

NEW YORK -- Wall Street rose for a third straight session Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrials reaching another record close as investors grew more confident that a huge victory by Democrats in congressional elections would result in gridlock and keep lawmakers out of the way of business interests.

The market had largely expected Democrats to gain control of the House of Representatives, but an undecided Senate race in Virginia had, during early trading, unnerved investors who dislike such uncertainty.

{Personally, I think all the financial writers compete to see who can come up with the best fictional reasons why the daily stock index moved one way or the other.)

Repubs eat their own young with as much relish as they do ours, if it's expedient :)

A recount would have little chance of success, given that the large jurisdictions in Virginia mainly have touchscreen machines, and there aren't many ballots to count. But it would focus media attention on the Republicans' voter-suppression tactics, something they want to stay below the radar so they can use those same tactics again next time.

I grew up in a poor country, where head lice were a common problem. You have to deal with them with a two-pronged strategy:
1) pick off and kill the mature ones, one by one.
2) #1 being difficult (the dratted things are small and nimble), you "arrest" their development into mature stage, by constant combing and an occasional dousing with, I think, kerosene (whatever it was, it stank to high heaven. And I had to go through it every time I came back from camp, scratching like mad )

Since Allen and his like are very much like head lice, I think similiar techniques ought to be applied. We've picked off the mature one -- Allen. Now we need to make sure the eggs don't develop and breed; "combing" the infected area with a good spotlight should take care of the problem :)

THIS JUST OUT OF BLACKSBURG.

KC.