Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform [Annotated] 0465045804, 9780465045808

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"There

is

no more important issue facing our nation than the right to vote,

and no more important book on this point than Fooled Again."

—Congressman JOHN CONYERS.JR.

FOOLED AGATN Over 100 pages new mater

The Real Case for Electoral Reform By the author of THE

BUSH DYSLEXICOH

MARK CRISPIN MILLER

Praise for Fooled Agai n "Fooled Again

must-read for anybody concerned about the

a

is

health and preservation of our democracy."

—Joseph Wilson, author of The "Mark Crispin

.Miller deserves the nation's

thanks for drawing

attention to the grave threat to democracy that unreliable voting machines

— and

of Truth

Politics

comes from

their possible abuse by un-

scrupulous politicians."

— Roberi

Parky, author ot Secrecy

Bush Dynasty from Watergate

Rise of the

"A

terrific writer

with

a

"Mark Crispin Miller makes again in

steal the

in

i

a

,

Iraq

former Senate Majority Leader

compelling ease

2000

Ohio and elsewhere

very likely to be used

to

very important message."

—Tom Daschi used in Florida to

& Privilege:

that the tactics

presidential election were used

to steal the

2004

and are

election,

2008."

—David Moore, former Senior Editor of the Gallup Poll

"A

great read and a great

and author of How

work of scholarship.

Miller's ability to assemble

American democracy scholar on its side." tion.

to

and synthesize so is

Steal an Election

am amazed at much informaI

fortunate to have such

a gifted

—Lance DeHaven-Smith, Professor of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University "I

encourage those

who visit my web

Again by Mark Crispin Miller. This

site to is

read the book Fooled

an important and illumi-

nating book about our seriously flawed election system."

—Barbara Streisand

makes by

"[Miller]

a

forces fueled

compelling case that virulent antidemocratic

American democracy, but of Fooled Again

is

its

to

my

indictment of the media, democracy's

watchdog, which are letting

wake-up

making an all-out assault on mind the most troubling aspect

religious fervor are

it

happen.

"Mark Crispin

Miller's Fooled

Again

.

.

Fooled Again

.

a

is

jeremiad aimed at the

heart of the national Republican machine. But original reporting that in the

it's

end amounts to

also a

may

well describe the

endgame

Again

.

.

.

Fooled

that leads to single-party

dominance through the next generation." '"''Fooled

work of

a solid case for

Republican theft of the 2004 presidential election.

Again

is a

— The Christian Century

call."

— Chicago Reader

of crucial importance in helping to thoroughly

is

document the dangerous extremism of the Rove Republicans and their deeply un-American aversion to democracy and their willingness to use whatever means necessary to keep

—

or gain power."

—Don Siegelman, Governor of Alabama 1999-2003 "[Miller]

makes

a

compelling argument for the need for sweeping

— The Columbus Dispatch

election reforms."

"Miller

is

right.

The

electoral system

is

not

a criminal case,

and

you don't have to prove that Bush stole the election beyond a shadow of a doubt in order to eradicate all doubts you may have about the race.

And

he's right, too, that

ous investigation into the flaws in the flaws

we should have had

last election,

—and the flaws we see every year—should prompt

cians to

fix

a seri-

and that those politi-

the entire electoral system before the next big race."

— Salon.com "A

fascinating catalogue of impeachable offenses and prose-

cutable crimes."

—Kirkus Reviews

you need more fodder to support your conspiracy theories at the Thanksgiving table, Mark Crispin Miller presents Fooled Again, a well-researched and wide-reaching book. 7

"In case

.

From

goonery

old-fashioned

adds up how

Crispin

to

high-tech

.

.

shenanigans,

individual thievery yanked the

White

— Port Lin J Mercury

House away from John Kerry."

"Miller has done his homework, and his sources are numerous

and scrupulously footnoted.

He comes

close to convincing an

open-minded reader that the 2004 election was a gigantic fraud. His exhortation to Democrats 'not to milk it for partisan advantage but to use

it

to promote, and realize, electoral reform'

book's stated purpose, and Miller does make

reform.

.

.

.

Millers

clarion call to

all

call for electoral

a

is

the

strong case for

reform becomes an urgent

Americans, one that should not be ignored."

— Florida Sun-Sentinel "The author of The Bush recount was

just the

"In recent days

Dyslexicon

beginning."

Mark

warns that the 2000 Florida

— The Washington

Post

Crispin Miller has reported that he heard

from Kerry personally that Kerry believes the election was stolen. The dialogue has been widely reported on the internet. Kerry has since

seemed

to

deny

it.

We

have every reason to believe Miller."

— Columbus Free

Pi'ess

"BuzzFlash strongly recommends Fooled Again by Mark Crispin Miller because our democracy simply cannot afford another

— Buzzflash.com

fraudulent or stolen election."

"(T)here was indeed something rotten in the state of Ohio in 2004.

Whether by

intent or negligence, authorities took actions

many thousands and having them counted. The

that prevented

widespread to

call into

of citizens from casting votes irregularities

were

sufficiently

question Bush's margin of victory. This

was not

a fair election,

brought to

and

it

deserves the scrutiny skeptics have

—Mother Jones

it."

"Mark Crispin Miller has been

at the forefront

of watchdogging

the Republican leadership for years and has recently released a

new book

titled Fooled

Again. If you've read his previous works,

The Bush Dyslexicon and Cruel and Unusual, you know that Miller never walks the easy path towards proving his theories. Fooled

Again also

is

no exception.

manages

It's

to organize

sistencies; the

brilliantly written

—of course. But

myriad of suspicious

deals,

methods, and results

which were largely ignored by the mainstream media the losing ticket election."

—

it

and draw together the litany of incon-

in the days leading

— and even

up to and through the

—Bob Cesca, The Huffington

Post

FOOLED AGAIN The Real Case Electoral

Mark

for

Reform

Crispin Miller

BASIC

B BOOKS

A Member of the

Perseus Books

New York

Group

FOR

© 2005

Copyright

Hardcover edition

first

first

All rights reserved. Printed in the

by Mark Crispin Miller

published in 2005 by Basic Books,

A Member of the Paperback edition

AMY

Perseus Books

Group

published in 2007 by Basic Books

United States of America.

No part of this

book may

be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in

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Design by Jane Raese

A CIP catalog record

for this

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from the Library of Congress.

Hardcover: ISBN-13: 978-0-465-04579-2; ISBN-10: 0-465-04579-0 Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-0-465-04580-8; ISBN-10: 0-465-04580-4

109876543

2

1

The

sovereignty of a despotic monarch assumes the power of

making wrong him.

The

and wrong

wrong,

right, or right

sovereignty in in their

a

republic

as

is

he pleases or as

is

suits

proper and distinct places, and never suffer

the one to usurp the place of the other.

understood,

it

exercised to keep right

A

republic, properly

a sovereignty' of justice, in contradistinction to a

sovereignty of will.

THOMAS Things have come truth like lying.

.

PAINE, I786

to a pass .

.

The

where lying sounds

conversion of

all

like truth,

questions of

truth into questions of power, a process that truth itself

cannot escape

if it is

not to be annihilated by power, not

only suppresses truth as in earlier despotic orders, but has attacked the very heart of the distinction between true and false.

... So Hitler, of

whom

no-one can say whether he

died or escaped, survives. T. W.

No

ADORNO, I945

voter disenfranchisement occurred in this election of [in] the election of 2000. EvenThe voters know it, the candidates know it, know it, and the evidence proves it.

2004, and for that matter

body knows the courts

it.

TOM

DELAY, JANUARY

6,

2OO5

Contents

Preface

xi

1

The

2

Taking Care of the Counting

26

3

The

54

4

Do Unto

5

The Most

6

An Orderly

7

One

Miracle

i

Requisite Fanaticism

Others Before They Uncontrollable Election

Last Scandal

Do Unto You

Form of Cancer

81

135 172

240

Epilogue

259

Appendix

281

Afterword: State of Denial

289

Acknowledgments

391

Notes

395

Index

471

Preface

Jrlow raised

America vote

will

by

how Jeb

2006 might

or

2008? That

book. But in asking

this

election of

in

it I

am

affect the field

Rudy or John

is

the central question

not thinking of how the

of candidates for '08; or

or John or Hillary will try to "posi-

tion" him- or herself, energize or transcend his or her "base," or raise the

many

millions needed to "define" him- or herself

before the cameras.

I

am

gies or tactics, or with

not concerned with the parties' strate-

any other traditional feature of

political

campaigning.

The

crucial question of

idential race

stead, is

is

is

how

the nation votes in our next pres-

finally unrelated to

all

such theatrics. At

the integrity of our electoral system. Unless that system

reformed from top to bottom, and

will

issue, in-

happen

is a

foregone conclusion.

be a repetition of

2004

— and

a

as

soon

The

as possible,

election of

what

2008

will

preview of 2012, 2016, 2020 and

every "presidential race" thereafter, until the gap between our

dismal national condition and the ruling party's claims has

grown so take

some

The

large that even those in

power begin

to notice

it,

and

further catastrophic step to change the subject.

point of looking back at the 2004 election, then,

is

throw Bush out of the White House and put John Kerry

XI

not to in his

PREFACE

xii

place.

For one

no guidance

thing, the Constitution offers

what should happen

if it

ident was not elected.

turns out that a seemingly elected pres-

Without doubt, the

perpetrator(s) of so

vast a fraud should be impeached; but even if that

regime, the succession would not

under

this

Kerry.

And even

if

there were

States,

would necessarily be

it

were

feasible

to Senator

fall

constitutional

a

making Kerry president of the United that such a switch

as to

argument

for

would not mean

desirable, considering

Kerry's swift concession after having staunchly promised to

And

"count every vote." not

a partisan

so a true account of the

endeavor; nor could

it

be, as

2004 election

is

any true account can

shed no very flattering light on either party. While the Bush Republicans were plainly getting ready, from 2001, to sabotage the race, the

Democrats, with very few exceptions, were ignoring

every sign of such intent.

They were

apparently

more worried

that they

might be charged with "paranoia" than they were

about the

state

best use it

of our electoral infrastructure. In any case, the

Democrats can make of this book would be not

to milk

and

realize,

for partisan advantage but to use

electoral otic

reform

member

not survive

—

a

of the

if its

campaign

GOP will

in

it

to promote,

which every genuinely

surely join them, as

patri-

America

will

republican and democratic institutions are not

salvaged and protected. It is

the purpose of this

book

to serve

pointing out the truth about the alone, and not the free. In this

tory

last election, for that truth

maunderings of the punditocracy,

world,

— the truth

American democracy by

first

of

all

— the world of

itself is liberating, as it dispels

will set us

politics

and

his-

the deadly fog of

propaganda, superstition, dogma, rumor, groupthink, spin and wishful thinking that sometimes, lately, seems to cloud

minds. To assert that Bush was "re-elected handily" (or at

all

all) is

PREFACE

as false as all the

other

and delusions Bush

lies

flogged over the years: that Iraq posed

a

&

xiii

Co. has

grave danger to the

world, and was complicit in the terrorist attacks on 9/11; that the Bush administration could not have prevented 9/11; that our

troops are in Iraq today because of 9/1 safer

from

terrorist attacks than

it

that

1;

America today

is

was on 9/11; that the torture

Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was the freelance work of just a few sadistic men and women and not the at

strange fruit of administration policy; that "climate change"

not occurring, and about

it,

is

it

it

is,

and even trying to reverse

economy; rity

even

that,

that the universe

on the brink of

is

ruin,

there's it

would destro\ Americas

6,000 years old; that Social Secu-

and must be "saved" by the "re-

forms" proposed by Bush; that childhood obesity lem; that homosexuality

is

not

a

prob-

chosen; that Karl Rove did not speak

is

to certain journalists about Valerie

CIA; that the wars

is

nothing we can do

Plame Wilsons

status

at

the

and Afghanistan are going well, the

in Iraq

"terrorists," "in their last throes,"

"freedom's on the march"; that

now

God

getting desperate; that

told

Bush

to smite

Hussein; and on and on. To recognize that Bush

&

Saddam

Co. stole

open one's mind to the possibilnew and unconstrained investigation into

their "re-election," or at least to ity,

and to demand

what went down

in

a

2004,

is

a cognitive

and moral action

vital to

the health of this republic.

And

as

it is

crucial that

theft of power, it

it is

no

less

was accomplished. In

sity

we

a

recognize Bush/Cheney's (second)

important that we grasp exactly how

nation of this

size,

complexity, diver-

and (nominal) transparency, the theft of a presidential race

no simple matter but requires actions national and local.

It

a

is

wide array of complementary

cannot be accomplished by

group of operatives convening secretly

in

a small

some well-appointed

PREFACE

xiv

bunker. In fact

it

cannot be done secretly

at

all. It

requires the

active participation of hundreds, even thousands of loyalists

value winning over democratic principle that their

—because they believe

opponents are demonic, beings so dangerously

their victory simply

who

cannot be allowed. Such

opposition too intimidated to speak out in

evil that

a theft requires

own

its

an

defense, and a

press too scared of seeming "liberal" (or one too deeply sympathetic to the right) to report what's plainly visible to

observer. theft

Such are the pathologies required

for the successful

of an election in America today, and such pathologies are

now demonstrably As

any rational

this

at

work.

book points

out, the

Republican Party did whatever

it

could do, throughout the nation and the world, to cut the Kerry vote and pad the Bush vote.

Some

of

its

methods were exceed-

ingly sophisticated, like the various cyber-scams pulled off in tight complicity with Diebold,

ES&S,

Sequoia, Triad and other

corporate vendors of electoral infrastructure. Other methods

were more bureaucratic: the disappearance of innumerable Democratic registration forms, countless absentee

ballots

and

countless provisional ballots, as well as multitudes of would-be

Democratic voters wrongly stricken from the "felonies" never for

rolls

because of

committed or committed by somebody

no given reason whatsoever. There were

equities in state after state.

else,

or

vast logistical in-

Democratic precincts got

far

too few

machines, and those machines kept breaking down, or turning

Kerry votes into Bush votes, with long, long voters stuck for hours voting); while

chines,

all

And then

(or, as

lines

of would-be

often happened, giving up and not

pro-Bush precincts tended to have plenty of ma-

working

well, so that voting there

there were

was quick and

old-fashioned dirty tricks

meant

easy.

to scare

people into staying home, or to send them to the wrong address,

PREFACE or to get them out to vote a day too bullying, intimidation

late.

and harassment

mass disenfranchisement,

just as

There was

xv

also outright

—the oldest methods of

obvious in 2004 as they were

in

now such methods were used

Dixie after Reconstruction, only

nationwide (and the U.S. federal government,

in this case,

was

behind them).

Such computer problems, bureaucratic ploys and individual misconduct were apparent not

just in

Ohio (and

throughout the South), but coast to coast civic

—

a

Florida, and

ill

national carnival of

crimes and improprieties, maintained by two separate but

complicit groups. At the top were those orchestrating the grand rip-offs

and reversals

in

such states

as

Florida, Ohio, Arizona,

Minnesota and (ieorgia. \nd then there was the grass-roots diery: the cadre of believers

spawn, and as

who

therefore saw

many Democratic

Bush votes

who

as the\

perceive the

enenn

sol-

as Satan's

as their sacred dut) to destroy

it

votes as possible ami facilitate as

could, regardless of

how many

many

actual voters

might choose either candidate. These troops often served

as

poll-workers and poll-watchers, or they might show up, the party paying

all

expenses, to threaten would-be Democratic-

voters on the telephone or to hand out flyers warning that

voters

who had unpaid

would be arrested door to door

in

parking tickets or owed child support

at the polls.

Some

of them would go from

Democratic neighborhoods, kindly offering to

"deliver" any absentee ballots to the proper office.

South tion

after the Civil

more than

all

War, there was

a large

As

in the

and angry popula-

willing to use guile or terror to suppress the

vote, seeing such crime as patriotic, civilized, even godly.

In short, the election of

movement,

2004 was stolen by

just as hostile to the

a

theocratic

promise of democracy

as

any

Bolshevik or Nazi of the past or any fuming Islamist today. That

PREFACE

xvi

has never spoken for the American majority and

movement never

will.

the polls

we

still

The only proper way to

—and

it,

then,

to defeat

is

there's the rub, for if this faction controls

quaintly

irrelevant.

fight

The

call

it

at

what

"the ballot box," our electoral opposition

is

only rational response must be to break their

by taking back our democratic

civic stranglehold

and instituting the reforms

now

institutions,

necessary to ensure that the

United States cannot be hijacked by

a fierce

minority of theo-

backed by certain corporate powers.

We need to

do away with electronic voting (which can never be

entirely se-

cratic militants

cure); use a standard

paper

ballot,

worded and designed

comprehension; federalize the electoral system, so that ers are trained civil servants,

Election

Day

week devoted

Sunday or

a

for easy

its

work-

not local bigots or politicos; make

a national holiday, or, better yet, a

to the all-important choice of

people in the people's government;

make

(IRV) universal in America, to give

who

will serve the

Instant Run-off Voting

chance to viable third-

a

party candidates; institute strict campaign finance reform; and

not

least, start

comprehensive media reform

—disassembling the

commercial juggernaut that now dictates what we know and

when we know

it

—so that our

politics

can finally be emanci-

pated from the glittering shackles of Big Money.

But there can be no movement for reform, however badly needed,

if

there

cans agree that

we

are told

is

no scandal driving

we must have

it.

Most

electoral reform;

on" to more important matters

Bush

is

irrational, for if

&

Ameri-

and yet too often

by these same rational Americans that we must "get

over" the election of 2004, as only then will

view

rational

we

—

we be

like electoral

just ignore the

able to

"move

reform. That

copious evidence that

Co. committed vast electoral fraud in order to protract

their rule, there appears to be

no pressing reason

to reform the

PREFACE

system. "If

it

there will be

ain't

no

broke, don't

&

Bush

fix it,"

Co.

xvii

will say;

and

adequate reply to that truism (especially in "a

time of war") as long as

we indulge

the fiction that the system

is

not seriously "broke."

And that

it

we

right now, as

movement

dawdle, Bush's party and the

serves are busily advancing measures to consolidate their

"victory" by

making

fair elections

more

There

unlikely.

are

strenuous campaigns underway to get electronic touch-screen voting into California and

New

York, Illinois and Man-land

longtime Democratic strongholds, which will suddenly and inexplicably

become depleted of

their

Democrats once those ma-

chines are put in place. In Georgia and Indiana, laws were lately

passed requiring

all

approved photo IDs

those

—

John Conyers has put various efforts to

who would

vote to purchase state-

essentially "a poll tax in disguise," as Rep. it

—and nationwide there

make voting

still

more

also have

difficult for

all

such stealthy actions

is

to rein in, control

terminate American democracy

American democracy can that that plan

is

foil,

in the works,

—

a

and thus

plan that

but only

and that

it

immigrants

The

and for the poor, among other subject populations.

we

been

in

point of essence

believers in

we will acknowledge made great progress in

if

2004.

Mark

Crispin Miller

FOOLED AGAIN

1.

The Miracle

Whichever or even last

it

candidate you voted for (or think you voted

you did not vote (or could

not),

for),

you must admit that

years presidential race was pretu interesting.

Maybe

not as

interesting, or important, as the election in Ukraine, with

bold majority refusing to he cheated of self-government by \

urns authoritarian regime.

not as interesting, or

as

And maybe our

a

presidential race

important, as the election in Iraq,

allows

it.

Those

their

government

for them,

if

more important, or

\\ .is

\\ ill

the Bush regime

foreign contests must have been

ing than ours and

de-

whose

people bravely ventured to the polls to choose the both that

someday choose

its

more

interest-

the U.S. press would not

have so meticulously covered both those races while reporting very

little

on the aftermath of the election

here, other than to

confirm and reconfirm Bush/Chenevs startling victory.

And

yet,

notwithstanding the comparative indifference of our press, the election here had

many

points of interest; for Bush's victory was

startling. It was, in fact, miraculous,

not to point that out.

even

if

the U.S. press chose

FOOLED AGAIN

2

Indeed, Bush's victory was a miracle of such proportions that

our

press's silence

on the subject must be yet another indication

of that institution's liberal

bias; for if the

hostile to the Spirit, as so

many

—and believes — the charged

as

some

5

1

media were not entirely

figures in the

government have

percent of the electorate apparently

print press and the newscasts in this country

would have hailed President Bush's re-election not stroke of genius by Karl

in a walk," the cleric

Lord

it's

going to be

the statement was a tainly

"I really believe

like a

is

going to

earlier,

on

a

I'm hearing from

blowout election

make

in 2004."

That

it

wrong. Cer-

factor can account for that

amazing win,

little

no other worldly

which no human

1

just as a

work of God Himself,

had predicted, ten months

broadcast of The 100 Club. the

as the

Pat Robertson foretold. "I think George Bush

just as

win

Rove but

crass does not

pollster could foresee,

and which no mortal

has been able to explain in rational terms.

On

Election

signs that the

Day

and shortly

after,

there were several

whole process had been overtaken by some higher

power. For instance,

won

itself

8.56 million

it

was

first

reported that the president had

more votes than he had received four years be-

fore

—

was

a miracle, as Bush's disapproval ratings

a figure that

was soon bumped up to

his approval ratings far too low, for

such

a

11.5 million. 2

This

were too high, and

sweep to be explicable

mundane phenomenon. His numbers had been droopy since mid-May, when Gallup had him down to a 46 percent approval rating and Pew down to 44 percent, with 48 percent disas a

approving. 3 "We're in that place where no presidential reelection

campaign has ever been." 4 Thus Matthew Dowd,

a

senior adviser to Bush/Cheney, had gloomily conceded in the spring, Bill

when

press reports were noting that Ronald

Reagan and

Clinton had, in their respective reelection drives, enjoyed

THE MIRACLE

3

Day

ap-

approval ratings well up in the 50s. As Election proached, Bush's numbers had not budged:

Gallup Poll and

Approve:

48%

CBS News Poll Approve:

Newsweek

It

Disapprove:

46%

5%

Disapprove:

44%

Unsure:

7%

MoE:

+/-

4%

Disapprove:

47%

Unsure:

7%

MoE:

+/-

3%

just

squeaked

by.

vote total of 58 million

hat he could

many

it,

u uh

win by

witnesses on the

[sic]

set a

new

record, exceeding the

in 1964," exulted Catholic

website dedicated to "traditionalist Catholicism." 7

Insight, a

There

is

no doubt

that

Bush was passionately favored by

multitude of true believers on the right. to

the swing

were happy to observe: "George W. Bush's popu-

one established by Lyndon Johnson

them

I

hefty margin was extraordinary, as

a

in

therefore would have been remarkable enough

religious right lar

Unsure:

(10/28/04-10/30/04)

49%

such ratings, Bush had such

47%

numbers were considerably higher

Kerry's states.

Today/Gallup Poll (10/29/04-10/11/04)

Poll (10/27/04-10/29/(14)

Approve:

6

CNN/USA

5

make

Were

there

a

enough of

so great a difference? In the election of 2000, there

were some four million evangelical voters who did not come out for Bush.

Throughout

the

last

campaign, Karl Rove did every-

thing he could to get them to the polls. Although he seems to

have succeeded, at least according to some calculations, that increase cannot account for Bush's victory, nor was to "evangelicize" the president's base.

The

Bush was 9 percentage-points higher than

—

earlier

a rise offset significantly

it

it

near enough

evangelical vote for

had been four years

by the 6.4 percentage-point in-

crease in total voter turnout. 8 In the end, rightist evangelicals

FOOLED AGAIN

4

accounted for only 40 percent of the president's electoral support: the

same

Therefore,

as in 2000,

when Bush had

would have

it

lost

the popular vote.

to be a broader coalition of believers

that enabled Bush's "re-election." Regular churchgoers (that

those

who go

worship once

to

percent of voters

—

week or more) accounted

for 42

almost twice as large

as the

a constituency

bloc of evangelicals. coalition broadens,

a

9

its

We

find,

members

is,

however, are

that, as the religious

more evenly divided: 60

per-

cent of such churchgoers cast their votes for Bush, while 40 per-

cent supported Kerry. (Apparently, traditional Catholics went for

Bush by 53 percent, with 47 percent supporting Kerry.) 10

And

yet even that

much

larger bloc of voters only represents ap-

proximately half of Bush's vote.

There

is,

in short,

no evidence

for the contention that the

That he did so

Christian right extended Bush's reign. spite his vaulting disapproval ratings

is still

achievement, dependent on the unexpected lion

phantom

The

whim

of several mil-

voters.

impression that

forth to vote for

were asked

new

Bush may,

change in wording by polls

well de-

quite a marvelous

multitudes of evangelicals poured

in part,

have resulted from

recent

In 2000, voters leaving

"Do you

consider yourself part of

exit pollsters.

this question:

a

11

the conservative Christian political

movement,

also

known

the religious right?" In 2004, that question was revised to

away

its

wash

"Would you

partisan and/or fanatical associations:

as

de-

scribe yourself as a born-again or evangelical Christian?" Predictably,

more

swering the

voters defined themselves as evangelicals in an-

latter

question

deemed themselves

—23 percent, whereas 14 percent had

evangelical conservatives four years before.

As the Washington Post reported on November cialists said

the

2004 wording

virtually assures

4, "polling spe-

more

affirmative

THE MIRACLE

answers."

Whatever motivated

the revision,

its

effect

was to ex-

make

aggerate the impact of the evangelical vote and thereby Bush's flock

seem

larger than

it

really was.

5

This also was the

pointed message of the pro-Bush propaganda vented by the leading theocrats just after the election.

According to the leaders of the theocratic right ory gloriously resonated

far

and wide

—whose the-

— Bush won because the

righteous hordes of born-agains encouraged Christians of

all

kinds to rise and vote: mainline Protestants as well as Catholics,

including black and Latino believers; and their impact was fur-

ther strengthened by a smattering of pro-Bush Jews (whose

numbers had grown by 6 percentage-points

since 2000).

That

i:

national crusade was spurred, allegedly, by "moral values."

marriage, boasted

Tony

Perkins, president of the Family Re-

search Council, was "the

wagon

Gay

hood ornament on the family values

that carried the president to a second term." 13

However

rich (and strange) that metaphor, the theory that another

Awakening put Bush back

in office

is

Great

unfounded. Such wide-

spread religious zeal would certainly have registered in Bush's polls.

Moreover, there

tered

little

is

solid evidence that

to the national electorate.

"moral values" mat-

On November

published an extensive post-election poll asking those lately

11,

Pew

who had

voted to define the issue that concerned them most. 14 Iraq

came out on

top, noted

by 25 percent, followed by jobs and the

economy, 12 percent, with 9 percent invoking terrorism. "Moral values" was a phrase used only by another 9 percent 3

percent noting specific controversies like

hood ornament, while

Tony

—with only

Perkins's

proud

2 percent referred to the candidates' per-

sonal deportment.

Further, there was a prior version of the poll, presenting each

respondent with

a list

of seven issues, and asking him or her to

6

FOOLED AGAIN

rank them in importance. (In a later

no

specific issues.)

most

tered

poll, the

questioner

named

According to that survey, "moral values" mat-

to 27 percent of the electorate

—the leading

issue in

that less objective version of the poll, but a concern to only one in four respondents. 15

And according

to another post-election

by Zogby International, 33 percent of voters deemed

poll,

"greed and materialism" the most pressing moral problems in

America, while only 12 percent of those polled cited gay marriage. 16

Thus

there

is

good reason not

was re-elected by

his flock.

to

That

buy the argument

it

was they

who

that

Bush

"carried the

president to a second term" would seem to be a demographic

and an arithmetical impossibility

worked

—unless,

of course,

God

with that minority of pious right-wing voters,

a miracle

multiplying them supernaturally, like Jesus' loaves and fishes.

There were yet other

mense by current U.S. years.

17

(In 2000,

miracles.

The

national turnout was im-

standards: 60.7 percent, the highest in 36

was 54 percent.) That the president won

it

handily with such a turnout would appear to reconfirm the view that the electorate

skewed Republican,

ward the Christian

right.

shift, as

polls.

or,

more

This would represent

a

precisely, to-

revolutionary

Democrats have always benefited most from crowded

"The higher

the turnout, the better off Kerry

Curtis Gans, director of the

American Electorate (CSAE), (Twelve days

earlier,

Committee five

is,"

said

for the Study of the

days before Election Day. 18

Gans had made the argument

in

more nu-

merical detail: "This year, anything beyond 116 million or 117 million should benefit the Democrats, because

most of the con-

new voters

that Republicans

stituency

beyond the

might claim

The

[to

final tally

5

or 6 million

have registered] are likely to be Democrats."

on Election Day exceeded Gans's

figure

by more

THE MIRACLE

than

five million votes.) 19 It

cans had registered far

would

more new

also

mean

7

that the Republi-

voters than the

Democrats

an unlikely coup, however keen the president's religious base, as the Kerry/Edwards registration drive was noticeably stronger, especially in

Ohio and

miraculously,

won. 20

Florida, both of

The

which the president,

heightened Democratic turnout would

explain that party's signal victory in state legislative races, as the

Democrats

realized a net gain of 76 seats nationwide, taking

over the statehouses in Montana, Colorado, and John Edwards's

home

state,

North Carolina

miraculously, won. legislatures of

president

21

all

three of which the president,

(The Democrats

also took control of the

Oregon, Vermont and Washington.) And yet the

won anyway

—

a feat particularly

marvelous

the Democrats' extraordinary unity in 2004.

once, not split between

centrist

its

unified by a determination that had

since 1964. Ralph Nader's

The

in light

of

party was, for

and progressive wings, but

been missing from

its

ranks

campaign had depended on Republi-

can assistance, and he ended up with 41 1,304 votes, or 0.36 percent of the

total.

(The combined third-party

total

was the lowest

since 1988.) 22

On

the other hand, the Republicans were not united but in

fact divided, as the

center-right cally

Democrats have largely been, between

Old Guard and

committed

Guard runs the

wing more militant and ideologi-

—the difference being that the Democratic Old party, while extremists

GOP;

and they are

liberal

Democrats are

Dick Cheney

a

a

is

dominate Bush/Cheney's

infinitely farther to the right than the

to the

far right,

left.

(A Democrat

would have

most

as far left as, say,

to be an outlaw in the

mountains of Peru.) Throughout the campaign, there were signs of disaffection with

lowing, not only

Bush/Cheney and

their theocratic fol-

among moderate Republicans

but also further

FOOLED AGAIN

8

from the

right within the party,

to reactionary firebrands like

"Today's 'Republican' Party familiar,"

libertarians of the

Bob

one with which

is

Cato

Institute

Barr. I

am

totally

un-

D wight Eisenhower's son and GOP in a September 9 op-ed

wrote John Eisenhower,

a lifelong

champion of the

"Why I Will Vote

for John

wing Manchester Union and arrogance"

—

Kerry for President"

Leader.

21,

for the right-

Decrying the regime's "hubris

in foreign policy,

its fiscal

recklessness,

and

its

announced that he was crossing

authoritarian drift, Eisenhower

party lines:

Sen. Kerry, in strated that he

whom is

am

I

willing to place

my

trust,

has

demon-

courageous, sober, competent, and concerned with

fighting the dangers associated with the widening socio-economic

gap in

He

this country.

I

will vote for

him

enthusiastically.

concluded: "I urge everyone, Republicans and Democrats

alike, to

avoid voting for a ticket merely because

bel of the party of one's parents or of our

On

October

14, a similar

own

carries the la-

it

ingrained habits."

statement came from Ballard Morton,

scion of an old Kentucky family long devoted to the father,

Thruston Morton, had been

RNC; RNC, served

24

chairman of the chaired the

and

a

U.S. senator, and national

his uncle,

in the

GOP. His

Rogers Morton, also

House of Representatives

as a

Republican, and had served in both the Nixon and Ford cabinets. In the Louisville Conrier-Joimial,

I

bid farewell to Bush:

cannot in good conscience vote for President Bush

What I

Morton

he has done since

his election in

in this election.

2000 goes against the values

treasure both in terms of leadership and in our nation.

done what he respect. 25

said he

would

do.

He

has lost

my

He

trust

has not

and

my

THE MIRACLE

On

the other hand,

John Kerry

"offers us a choice"

on glohal terrorism, on U.S. national

security,

on the environment, on healthcare. "Above

on

all,

—on

9

Iraq,

fiscal policy,

he offers

a re-

turn of decency and integrity to the \\ nite House." Others

wrote with more

ferocity.

Cato

a

1,

2003,

in the

senior fellow at the

and former special assistant to Ronald Reagan,

"Righteous Anger:

The

December

Bush regime's Big-Brotherism

assailed the

Bush."

as

Doug Bandow,

American Conservative, Institute

As early

The

piece called

Conservative Case Against George

Bandow concluded,

president,

in a

\\.

"enjoys neither royal

nor religious status that would place him beyond criticism.

Whether or not he ited, constitutional

is

a real conservative,

On July

other former 31,

is

no friend of lim-

government. And for that the American peo-

angn.

ple should be very, very

Many

he

,s, to the later cru-

communists and, these

liberals.

and "right" must

in

large, a

even in

its

right's

defining

ideology.

The

other words, does not answer criticism or reply to argu-

It

only seeks to mute the enemy

—an endless project with-

out which the Bush Republicans could not

exist.

This repressive

bent became dominant just after Reagan/Bush, with the eightyear drive to demonize

Bush the Younger.

complementary

It

Bill

Clinton, followed by the reign of

seems to represent die dark convergence of

trends: the corporate consolidation of the media,

FOOLED AGAIN

56

which brought the destruction of news and the ascendance of hate radio, and the rise of theocratic activism, with to see

all

The tion of

those not firmly on

its

tendency

its

side as tools of Satan.

soldiers of the right are dedicated to continual annihilaall

other points of view: a mission that requires a lot of

repetitious, fervent lying, half-believed

not believed the major

—by those committed

symptom of

this

to

—or

it.

at

once believed and

The primary

paranoid fixation

is

the

tactic

and

vehement

portrayal of truth as "lies," fact as "fantasy," solid case as "conspiracy theory."

Such vehemence betrays

between cynicism and fanaticism tates

a

mind deeply divided

—the sort of mind that

gravi-

toward hate propaganda.

This double-mindedness

is

not called into play in the propa-

gandists' casual one-time derision of specific inconvenient notions. After Bush's first

the Internet was

the strange

all

debate with Kerry on October

1,

2004,

abuzz with speculation as to what had caused

—and unmistakable —rectangular protuberance on

the back of Bush's suit jacket. "Bush's aides tried to laugh off the controversy, with one official joking about

Mike Allen reported

'little

green

men on

the grassy knoll,'"

2

The hump, many

bloggers speculated, indicated that the presi-

dent had been

fitted

with

a wireless receiver,

ganda team to feed him phrases or

in the Washington Post.

if

become more incoherent than

allowing his propa-

and when he should

tronic device

on

his

silent

usual.

Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel, during washingtonpost.com, was asked

fall

if

back during the

a

Web

chat on

Bush wore "any kind of first

elec-

debate that allowed him to

receive information."

"Senator Kerry?

Is

you've been spending

that you?," Stanzel typed back. "I think a little

too

much

time on conspiracy

Web

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM

Did you hear the one about

sites.

debate?"

Elvis

57

moderating tonight's

3

Such comedy was no doubt wholly wearing an "electronic device

.

.

tactical.

that allowed

.

formation." (The ploy explains that startling

Bush had been

him

to receive in-

moment when,

al-

though no one had interrupted him, the president snapped, "Let

me

The New York Times just before November 2,

finish!")

to run

it

verified the story,

and was

but then abruptly spiked

order to suppress the controversv prior to Election Day.

set

in

it,

The

de-

was especially remarkable, considering that both Salon

cision

and Mother Jones had already reported on the president's "device." 4

The

Times subsequently mocked the controversy as delu-

sional, just as Bush's flacks

episode derisively, in

rumor bates

a

column on

that the president

—was that

Rove on

a

had done. Matt Bai invoked the

in the televised

"A de-

wire under his jacket? was he listening to Karl

microscopic earpiece?

a

"political conspiracists":

somehow cheated

—

flies

across the Internet and

takes hold in dark corners of the public imagination." 5 But

it

took no special propaganda effort to dismiss the controversy,

which barely resonated ridicule

in the off-line press.

The

necessary

was therefore brief and business-like, requiring no pro-

tracted counter-drive or angry histrionics.

Of

course, such wholly cynical derision has long been

monplace was

still

in politics, especially at

its

Bush

vice president, for example,

forts to portray

"You know

Sr.

used

it

When

he

in his ef-

himself as "out of the loop" on Iran/contra.

this stuff

about

my running a secret war?" he cracked

in 1986. "It's crazy. Absolutely nuts! I

When

most corrupt.

com-

hope you

all

know

that." 6

such labored protests failed to obfuscate the fact of his

neck-deep involvement

in the plot,

he shifted from displays of

FOOLED AGAIN

58

scoffing incredulity to bursts of outrage, mainly at the press,

which he accused of persecution. That pretense

at

high dudgeon

reinvigorated Poppy's faltering presidential run in January 1988,

when he

Dan Rather for bringing up the scandal in an CBS Evening News. (That counter-blast which

attacked

interview on

—

was Dubya's idea

And

—had been planned

carefully before the fact.) 7

yet by 1992, his incessant self-defense against the "big

witch-hunt" had turned off both the public and the press. 8 "Peo-

and

ple are tired of this,

he claimed, harsh:

I

think they

as Clinton's lead kept

"The burden has long

York Times

on October

I've told the truth,"

since shifted to

editorials turned

Mr. Bush to prove

of ignorance," proclaimed the

his difficult-to-believe assertions

New

know

widening and

19, 1992. 9

Bush only

fortified the

when, on Christmas Eve, he issued

case against himself

presi-

dential pardons to his co-conspirators in the affair, thereby defy-

ing Lawrence Walsh, the independent counsel, and

percent of the American people,

who had

some 59

registered their disap-

proval of such pardons. (With a straight face, Bush then insisted at a press

conference that "no impartial person has seriously

suggested that able.")

my own

role in this matter

is

legally question-

10

This long denial was

a failure,

was voluminous and Walsh

not

lacked the requisite fanaticism.

He

noid conviction that

all

is

just

because the evidence

relentless but also because

crucial to

Bush

Sr.

could not muster the para-

deadly mass endeavors, from

purveying Big Lies to prosecuting unjust wars to stealing national elections. It

melodrama is

a

bewildering mentality; for

—the absolute

and always quick to serve

does not exemplify

it,

it

conflict of total opposites

also deeply split against itself.

ity I

is

it

delights in

—and yet

it

Although awed by that mental-

(he

went

and so may

all

out for Nixon), Bush

help us understand

it.

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM

Hush the innocent

as

He

cence.

man

Ider did not sec his

I

— or rather,

enemies

dem
ns

and himself

own

in his

.\ni\

ple, not to

be respected,

much

as

.1

the questioners

it

did he

paragon of moral

tude. Mis lies uere not impassioned, although he otten

exasperated

would not hack

off.

I

[e

with any special fury, through gritted teeth or with

peo-

little

less feared. \r. evidently,

need to see himself,

inno-

therefore as hu-

beings: insolent, impertinent and inconvenient

see himself, or

59

recti-

became

did not

a livid

lie

smile.

but in the offhand, lightl) sneering wa\ that signifies impunity. lis

I

ing was so casual Or so facile as to be transparent, and

|\

uncom nu mil.

therefore

oi the "intelligence

Although Bush

was

Sr.

was always u-n good

and so cleanse the world to be a

Co.—and emies

m

first-class instruction

the

community."

jugular, he did so not because he

seem

too redolent of his protec-

all

breeding and

tive wealth, exclusive

ways

as u

was

wanted

at

going for the

to annihilate the

(

>ther

because he wanted not to

of evil, hut

wimp. By contrast, the soldiers serving Hush &

the) include the president himself

as "evil

ones":

subhuman

perceive their en-

beings, supernatural agents

and/or wicked people working for or through such agents. I

heir dissidence, or non-cooperation, indicates not reasonable

disagreement (there being no such thing) nor even haser motives, such as an appetite for

am

of the

power or wealth or

glory.

who do not look like us, who will not think and act along with us, who cannot or will not believe in us, are evil. Those, in short, who art not "its" are evil, ami vice versa: evil is what is not I

hose

"us." for I

his

We is all

can only tolerate ourselves. prett)

that "evil," finally,

is

vague, of course

no essence,

the soldier looking for

it.

firing at

— and

necessarily so, for

quality or spirit separate from it.

dreaming of

it.

It is

not out

FOOLED AGAIN

60

there at

all,

an independent cosmic force inhabiting and animat-

ing others' minds or bodies.

within the mind

evil is

who

or, as

bluntly: "It"

it

Bush would

who wants nothing

relentless soldier

and

—

To put

say,

evil,

not because

it's

The

it.

soldier

is

culpability, the

stay

is

it.

That

Such

—of the it

out,

soldier

is

always out there, some-

where, everywhere around him, but because side him, always with him,

the heart

other than to rout

therefore never can stop hunting for

forever stalking

not.

is

it's

always

still

in-

the rage with which he chases after

not innocent.

And

because he senses his

only way he can regard himself as "good"

on the attack against those

"evil

own is

to

ones" alleged to be attack-

ing "us" out of their boundless and gratuitous malevolence.

There

is

probably no place on earth where "they" are not

at-

tacking "us," "they" being Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus or

whatever other Other

Although the

mus

may

issue here

apparently personify the rage within.

may seem

abstract, that suicidal ani-

has great political utility and serves a vital propaganda func-

tion. It explains the fierce effectiveness

with which Bush/

Cheney, and the theocratic movement backing them,

White House drive and

we

will

serve

its

in 2004. Unless

recognize the nature of that

important place in right-wing religious ideology,

be powerless to contend with

—or one day

An

we

stole the

realize

it

and thereby to pre-

—American democracy.

may start with a last look back at whose efforts to shut down all talk about his

explication of the animus

George Bush,

Sr.,

role in Iran/contra failed, in part, because

sary raging half-belief in his

own

sory zeal, the Big Lie will soon

he lacked the neces-

innocence. Without that delu-

fall flat;

the Big Liar will stumble, say too

for without that passion

much, contradict himself and

otherwise intensify the very furor he's trying to hush. Without that zeal, moreover, his performance will not agitate those need-

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM

ing to believe

his

ill

(and their own) innocence. and

in

61

the idle-

ness ot his (.uid their) tormentors. In short, his pique won't he

contagious, and his hyper-sympathizers will be few. In denying his

key role

Gibson ought

North himself)

become flash

Sr.

came

across not as

.1

Oliver North had done so memorabl)

as

sion that Mel

would dare

Bush

in Iran/contra,

cuted patriot

but as

him

to call

pas-

(a

to dramatize, pla) ing the righteous

noble mightil) annoyed that anyone

.1

to account.

Bush the Elder could onk

was too preppy, through and through, to

nettled; he

and smolder

perse-

as

winning pseudo-populist must do.

.1

While the elder Bush's pnss\

irritation

could not arouse the

multitudes of the resentful, his creature Clarence

Thomas

fought the truth ahout hiinselt with Stunning tone, and so

came

a pillar ot

right,

il

cans,

who worked wonders

le

was, ot course, helped unincasurahk

m

the Republi-

suppressing further evidence

Thomas came

out

all

on

hearing should never occur national disgrace.''

gossip and these

12

lies."

in

[ill's

1

Mill,

and. as ot this writing, has never

tire.

cooled. lie called the hearing "a

a

l>\

Charged with lewd behavior toward \mta

against him.)

l>e-

and top crusader tor- the ChristO-fascist

"disgusting." "This

tr.i\est\.'*

America."

1

"This

is a

circus.

It

is

testimony was "sleaze," "dirt." "this

"scurrilous, uncorroborated allegations."

"uncorroborated, scurrilous

lies

and allegations," "this non-

sense, this garbage, trash that you siphoned out of the sewers against me." etc.

"

among

m

the da\s

indeed, "a sad

when

the I

loda\

not

.1

our country

////.

at the

center of

that aggression

his advocates insinuated that

a partisan

conspiracy to smear

bring hi?n down: an accusation that, while bearing no rela-

tion whatsoever to the lonely ordeal of Anita Hill, did refer precisely to the judge

formers in her.

That

and

his insinuating advocates, all

a far-right partisan

this

ish inversion

of them per-

conspiracy to smear and destroy

conspiracy established as "the truth"

of the truth

well described in Hill's

is

a

nightmar-

own memoir

of the episode. After her nine hours of testimony on October 11,

she writes, "I returned to quarters." All there were

my

family and friends in our head-

somewhat hopeful, very glad the day

was over, and dead-tired. "Absent were the highlv paid public

Simpson suggested were sup-

relations handlers Senator [Alan]

porting me. Absent also were the 'special interest' groups felt

had encouraged

me

to

come

many

forward. Senator Simpson's

suggestion that ours was a well-polished machine aimed at nail-

ing Clarence

Thomas advanced

a

gross inaccuracy."

On

the

other hand, the army ranged against her was just such a welloiled operation:

One

insider's description

with what

I

witnessed in

of the Republican headquarters contrasts

my own

phere in the Republican camp like a "political rally."

legal claims,

The

station.

as chaotic

He

described the aunos-

and resonant

—very much

observer, a veteran of highly contested

was uncomfortable with what he saw, finding

conducive to getting

at the truth." 31

it

"not

FOOLED AGAIN

68

What her

life

Hill's

dangerous and miserable, was an extremist propaganda

drive of

awesome volume and

an exercise in "getting

tainly,

make

source had glimpsed, and what would soon

Clarence Thomas, but tort the truth as his crimes,

Hill, the

was not, cer-

sophistication. It

at the truth"

about Anita Hill or

a deliberate (if unconscious) effort to dis-

thoroughly

as possible,

and thereby casting him

by charging her with

all

as her defenseless victim.

propaganda claimed, was not the self-possessed and

modest woman she appeared

to be,

had seemed, but sex-obsessed and nutty and a

horny

little bit shitty"), a

colossal hypocrite

—that

is,

nor the honest witness she

slightly cracked ("a little bit

and therefore

fantasist

exactly like

Judge Thomas

a

as she

had so convincingly depicted him. According to the propaganda, Hill, moreover, was the beneficiary, and

happy

object, of a vast

"They went around tion

—

dirt.

calls at

campaign of character country looking for

Anybody with any

work,

dirt,

the un-

assassination.

dirt,

not informa-

anything, late night

David Brock,

in his

memoir

a

major player in that

—that

It

was

a

—and

drive, described so vividly

by Thomas is an apt descripnow doing "in defense" against

bitter plaint

tion of what his supporters were

Anita Hill.

calls,

home, badgering, anything, give us some

calls at

As Mayer and Abramson meticulously demonstrate

dirt."

as

this

Thomas

crusade that absorbed the

skills

and

zeal of

Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council, the Reverend Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, leading far-right operative Paul Weyrich,

veteran mudslinger Floyd tors

on the theocratic

Clarence

Thomas and

Brown and many other

right,

who would win

fierce projec-

that fight for

then go on to win far more.

Such warriors shared with Thomas that

fanatic half-belief

which Bush the Elder lacked, and which propelled them through the nineties

after the

Republican defeat in 1992. In-

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM

Thomas" (which

deed, the campaign for "Judge

Anita Hill) was something of

a

is

69

to say, against

dry run for the more protracted

drive against the Clintons, which climaxed in the failed im-

peachment of

that president and culminated,

the installation of Bush/Cheney.

by

this process," as

he put

it

And

later, in

"the country has been hurt

projectively complained. Just as

then, with that deranged acuin so characteristic of

lignant narcissism,

people

Thomas had

two years

who

"Our

ma-

institutions are being controlled by

nothing."

will stop at

Since the nineties, the most influential of such people has been

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, aka "The Jr.'s

fiery regent

on the

I

lill,

and yet

It

the

1

have settled for

said.)

in

32

a

id as

it

was DeLay

I

do

who

in

my

own

dictate to them.

impeachment

in

Bob Barr would

compromise involving censure. ("This

most important thing

In 2000,

li\

move-

colossus in his

1998, forced the issue of

louse w hen even anti-( llintonites as

to be the

a

blow off Bush and Cheney, or even

was DeLay who,

lammer," Bush

also, as the the* »eratic

ment's top congressional powerbroker, right, able to

I

is

going

political career,"

he

halted the official recount of

the ballots in Miami, by sending party goons to tear the place apart. 33 In 2003, with the blessing of Karl Rove,

DeLay

engi-

neered the gerrymandering of Texas, thereby growing the number of Republicans in Congress while further weakening the

Democrats. 34 (His aim has been to make the Texas Democrats

wholly non-white blessing

party.)

— DeLay flew to

exhorting the members,

Also in

2003

a

—without Karl Rove's

Israel to address the legislature there, literally, to stick to their

guns, and

never to settle with the Palestinians. This was a direct affront to

who was trying (seemingly) to persuade both sides to buy his "road map to peace." "Terrorism cannot be negotiated away or pacified," DeLay told the Knesset in a Manichaean call to Bush,

arms:

"Freedom and terrorism

will struggle

—good and

evil

FOOLED AGAIN

70

until the battle

is

resolved.

These

put before the United States,

Israel,

The Hammer ended

world."

are the terms Providence has

with

and the

a still

rest

of the civilized

more grandiose

rejec-

tion of political solutions:

One

day, Israel

—with the United States by her

freedom, security, and peace. eardi.

But

until

Almighty God,

day to dawn, free

men

His

in

David

—

will live in

infinite

wisdom, ordains that

—whether of the

will stand

cross, the

with Israel in defiance of

35

Such iron certainty "Almighty God" co-conspirator

—

is

is

his

or, as

based on

Tom

DeLay's perception that

team captain, coach,

comrade,

co-pilot,

they say in Texas, his "asshole buddy"

devoted to the congressman's interests

as

—

terrorism will perish from the

the world over

crescent, or the Star of evil

And

side

as the

congressman

Thomas,

himself. In this perception he resembles Clarence

"armed

for battle" and well-guarded

by the Lord against

all

worldly accusations. ("Just visualize Jesus standing behind you, Clarence, with his hands on your shoulders," Elizabeth to

him

just before the crucial hearing.) 36

Thus

Law said DeLay

shielded,

has always spoken out with that same blunt ferocity that shook the huddled senators

when Thomas

testified. ("I felt a disdain

"They looked

for the committee," he told Danforth. little

thieves sitting

up

there.") 37

ernment" and Democrats, the

EPA— the

like petty

At the excoriation of "big gov-

Hammer

Gestapo of government

has no peer.

"The

—pure and simply has been

one of the major claw-hooks that the government maintains on the backs of our constituents," he said, with ity,

in

1995. 38

"A lot of politicians

try are sucking the

in this

blood out of their

more heat than

House and

own

in the

clar-

coun-

constituencies," he

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM

said in 1991. "I can point to Hispanics

come very pitiful." 39

rich

by becoming

In 1989 he called

71

and blacks that have be-

civil rights activists,

Washington

and

I

think

it's

a "festering liberal hell-

hole,"40 and, four years later, "a liberal bastion of corruption and

crime." 41

"Howard Dean

he said

2003. "Ir this cruel, loudmouth extremist

in

is

of the Democrat crop, next

a cruel

and extremist demagogue,"

Novembers going

to

is

cream

the

make

the

(

1

>S4

elections look like a squeaker." 42

Like Clarence Thomas's "defense," DeLay's long jihad has

been an epic exercise

projecm

in

scribing himself, or his

own

Democrat or

scribed the

ity,

his

every bilious shot de-

intentions, tar

agency

federal

Exuberant Howard Dean may

more

that w as

"the

a joke

honor

loudmouth

loin

DeLay

about Paul Wcllstone's memorial sen

Nobel appeasement for their study of

neered the killing of

when

prize"

it

de-

stated target.

its

be, but "cruel,

tremist" seems the perfect epithet for

cracked

aptly than

ice,

ex-

— who

jeered at

scientists received the

ozone depletion and who, having engi-

Bill

Clintons ergonomics rule

—

a

worker-

protection measure that had taken ten years of hard work to put in place

— gloated

for the record, in the far-right Washington

Times: "I can't get this grin off

with

it." 43

when he

He a

my

face.

I

go to sleep and wake up

DeLay's projective outbursts are particularly flagrant

stands accused of doing business as he's always done

said of

Ronnie Earle, the Texas

range of counts, "the

DA seeking to

district attorney has a

indict

it.

him on

long history of be-

ing vindictive and partisan." ("Being called vindictive and partisan by

Tom

DeLay," answered Earle,

a frog." 44 ) Earlier,

DeLay had

formed

K

Street, the

sconced

in

Washington, into

publicans. 45

To make

all

"is like

being called ugly by

but single-handedly trans-

mighty bloc of full-time lobbyists ena

fundraising machine for the Re-

that revolutionary move, he had overtly

FOOLED AGAIN

72

strong-armed the lobbying establishment, which henceforth could not hire top people until

them.

(Now major

lobbyists

all

DeLay

had

at al.

first

approved

had to be Republicans and gen-

erous donors to the party, and that party only. Prior donations to the

Democrats would count against the would-be employee.)

When

Rep. Jerrold Nadler called for an investigation, Mike

Scanlon, DeLay's spokesman, fired back, straight-faced, with a

bald projective shot:

handed

"We

don't appreciate Nadler's heavy-

tactics." 46

However copiously evidenced, and improprieties

are, in his view,

Democratic Party and "the

the

Hammer's many crimes

wrongs done

liberal

media."

to

him by the another

"It's just

seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me," he early April 2005, about the

news

had paid over $500,000 to

Dani DeLay Ferro, forms

He

that his mndraising juggernaut

his wife, Christine,

and daughter,

in disbursements tagged in the disclosure

as "fund-raising fees,"

roll." 47

said, in

"campaign management" and "pay-

That was only one of DeLay's many

ethical infractions.

had already been "admonished" three times by the House

Ethics

Committee

—the mildest of reproofs, and yet

startling

testimony to the scale and nakedness of his transgressions, as that

committee was already famous for

power was unprecedented. liciting

was thus

on the energy

bill" in

toothlessness,

and

his

lightly censured for so-

"donations" from Westar Energy,

islative assistance

PAC

He

its

Inc., "in

return for leg-

2002; for using his

own

to funnel corporate funds to Texas state campaigns in 2002

(a violation

of the Texas election code); and for trying, in

May of

2003, to get federal agencies to track and nab those Democratic

members of

the Texas legislature

protest his redistricting

scheme. 48

who had

fled the state to

(That scheme also was im-

proper, although the House's ethicists were unconcerned.) So

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM

73

House Committee had no choice but to "admonish" the unbending Texan who then compounded those sins with yet another one, forcing the comglaring were these "lapses" that the

—

mittee to change

its

November

rules to his advantage. In

DeLay persuaded the committee to revoke member in a leadership position must give up she should be indicted by a state grand

DA

down

in

jury.

49

its

2004,

rule that

that post

(The

it

any

he or

"vindictive"

Texas had been studying the Hammer's recent do-

ings there.) In response, the

Democrats withdrew from the com-

mittee, which then remained inactive for three months, finally

forcing the Republicans to reinstate the rule in late April 2005. 50

Meanwhile, further dribbling out. trip to

On

Moscow

stories of

April 6, 2005,

back

in

1997,

DeLay's corruption had kept it

was reported that

a

six-day

when he was House majority

whip, had been secretly paid for by Chelsea Commercial Enterprises, "a

mysterious company registered

in the

Bahamas." Aside

from covering the cost of DeLay's junket, Chelsea had spent $440,000 lobbying the Russian government. "Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian sib

—that has business

ties

oil

and gas company

— Nafta-

with Russian security institutions,"

according to the Washington

Post.

"During

his six days in

Mos-

cow, [DeLay] played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to sian oil

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin,

a friend

and gas executives associated with the lobbying

Through

all

DeLay was

this

of Rus-

effort." 51

unrepentant, angrily refusing to

acknowledge any w rongs, despite the evidence, and blaming r

his troubles

On

on

April 14, in an interview with the Washington Times, he

plained about an op-ed in the "activist journalism."

the conspiracy:

all

a vast fictitious plot of nonexistent leftist entities.

He

New

com-

York Times, deploring

it

as

then shot an arrow toward the heart of

FOOLED AGAIN

74

Somebody ought

to

.

.

.

ask the

New

the L.A. Times, Time, Newsweek,

resources they are,

with his

all

who

York Times, the Washington Post,

AP why

they talked to

.

they're spending .

.

these organizations that are funded by

heavy

hitters,

Of course

all

these

Are they collaborating

and do these organizations ever

George Soros and talk to each other?

they do, they have people that are on the same boards.

I

mean, different boards but same people. 52

Although there was no such conspiracy against him on the

left,

there was, of course, a similar propaganda network on the right. It is

the right that functions through a tight and influential

nexus of like-minded "organizations," with the "same people" sitting

on

a lot

billionaires

enterprise.

of "different boards" and

and large commercial

a

number of extremist

interests funding the

whole

DeLay's chilling evocation of "George Soros and

heavy hitters" was in fact

a

his

dark projection of the infinitely

more effective mechanism that has long since overwhelmed "the liberal media," with ample funding from the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife, Howard Ahmanson, Pete Coors, larger,

Robert Krieble, Philip Anschutz, Robert Hurtt (Container Corporation of America), Richard

DeVos (Amway), Tom Monaghan

(Domino's Pizza) and many others, with vast material support

from Rupert Murdoch, and untold

Moon,

can noise machine," as forts

billions

from Sun

Myung

—"the RepubliDavid Brock has aptly dubbed — the

aka "the Messiah." Next to that colossus

it

of George Soros (the only billionaire

stantially against the right)

who

ef-

has spent sub-

appear quixotic.

Far from bolstering his claim to have been targeted by an

enormous

leftist

propaganda juggernaut, DeLay's shot

George Soros proved

that there

is

no such

thing. It showed,

at

on

the contrary, that the right wields massive propaganda power,

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM

not only through

its

own organs

as a leftist

Croesus pulling

behind the scenes had been purveyed throughout the

strings

presidential race, beginning

on June

3,

Times, appeared

on Rupert Murdochs

associating Soros with

figured out a

John Kerry,

way

2004,

when Tony Blank-

Moon-owned

page director of the

ley, editorial

who

but through "the liberal media"

DeLay's view of Soros

at large.

75

1 1 ti unity

&

Washington Colmes, and,

Jew

called the financier "a

to survive the Holocaust," as well as a

"left-wing crank," "a robber baron," "a pirate capitalist," "a reckless

man," "unscrupulous," "a self-admitted atheist" and "a

very bad influence in the world."

With Lay

et

his legal troubles

al.

in

17,

Soros

as

DeLay met

alone responsible for his ordeal.

with some 30 leading rightists

Family Research Council, arousing them with call to

arms:

The

point

is

the other side has figured out

the conservative ally,

movement. .And

that

is

to

how go

get the national media

on

this projective

to win and defeat

after people person-

of

their side. 53

just

then

George Soros: mobilizing sympathetic advocacy groups

with an eye toward helpful coverage by the national press. drive took shape throughout the rest of

Richard Mellon that

all

George Soros, and then

Here DeLay unconsciously described what he was to

On

at the

charge them with frivolous charges and link that up with

these do-gooder organizations funded by

doing

De-

the spring ot 2005,

sought to distract attention from them by reviving the

attack, casting

March

mounting

Scaife's

DeLay had been

ganizations,

all

NewsMax.com

targeted by "a

March.

On

The

the 24th,

ran a long piece asserting

shadowy group of liberal or-

backed by one man: George Soros." 54 To one

76

FOOLED AGAIN

such

outfit, Citizens for Responsibility

(CREW),

and Ethics

million" to

NewsMax

DeLay's agenda,

foil

Washington

in

whopping $7.5

the stealthy billionaire had granted "a

The

reported.

anti-

Soros drive continued through the week. In response to an anti-

DeLay

Ham-

ad from the Campaign for America's Future, the

mer's office claimed, "These groups are funded by Democratic

heavy hitters

like

George Soros." 55 The statement ran

USA

in

Today, the Washington Times, the Houston Chronicle, the Austin

American-Statesman, Congressiofial Quarterly Weekly and

from the Knight Ridder news

on the

The

right, in

cyberspace and on hate radio.

drive intensified

ingly, at a

on April

12.

DeLay showed

up, surpris-

lunch for Senate Republicans to give those boys their

marching orders ("He the

a story

service, also resonating elsewhere

them

said, 'Tell

Democrats are out

to get me,'" an

a plot

and

anonymous luncher

told

that this

is all

the Chicago Tribune) 56 and then sat for that seething interview

about "George Soros and

all

his

—with the Wash-

heavy hitters"

which spread the word to

ington Times,

all

the heavy hitters

on

the right. In a press release, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) decried the

"desperate smear campaign" carried out against

such

ical liberals,

Hammer

was

are inspired Crossfire,

as

by

George

now

a

In Wilson's view, the

Comstock

— formerly

major player

On

critics

On CNN's

in the anti-Soros

— argued that those torturing DeLay were doing

"George Soros money." 58

"rad-

and partisanship."

veteran propagandist Barbara flack,

DeLay by

as Soros was malevolent: "His

bitterness, hatred

John Ashcroft's drive

as

innocent

Soros." 57

it

for

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News

Channel, William Kristol, editor of Rupert Murdoch's Weekly Standai'd, asserted "a

George Soros-financed

attack

on

Tom De-

Lay," the accusation deftly freighted with a hint at Jewish perfidy:

"He

gives a speech in the

Sunday school

—

a

church

—and

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM they sneak somebody in to tape

it." 59

"The

on House Majority Leader

cratic attacks

Demo-

hysterical

Tom

77

DeLay," wrote

Richard Lessner, head of the American Conservative Union,

in

Philip Anschutz's Washington Examiner, "are part of a coordi-

nated effort to strike

Congress"

—

a

ist

Forum,

"is

billionaire

conservative leaders in and out of

"lavishly funded

drive

by George Soros." 60

George Soros," warned

"Multi-billionaire gle

down

bankrolling this attack on

George Soros

is

funding

a

Phyllis Schlaflv's

Tom

DeLay!"

number of

61

Ea-

"Athe-

the organi-

zations that are attacking DeLay," cried the website of the Traditional Values Coalition, headed by the Reverend

don. "Soros

is

a

one-world

such coded pot-shots lent of Nazi

socialist

government and

seeks a one-world

who

at the financier, the

Mellon

Scaife's

Shel-

hates Christians and

legalized drugs." 62

one most

propaganda came from Richard Poe,

editor for Richard

Lou

a

Of

all

clearly redo-

contributing

NewsMax Magazine. On

David Horowitz's website FrontPageMag.com

(a

venture partly

subsidized by Richard Mellon Scaife), Poe offered this Goebbelsian speculation:

The

pattern of the attack suggests that

machine

political

far wealthier,

more

DeLay may be confronting

ruthless and better skilled at

media manipulation than the Democratic Party hysteria subsides and the facts are examined,

Lay's foe

all

—

scrutable entity controlled by leftwing billionaire

As early

as

March

Majority Leader

the

a

learn that

De-

murky and

George

in-

Soros. 63

also leached into the mainstream.

31, in an editorial

Tom

When

itself.

we may

along has been the Shadow Party

As planned, such material

a

on the "embattled House

DeLay," the Rocky Mountain News ob-

served that "the campaign, according to

some

reports,

may be

FOOLED AGAIN

78

bankrolled by George Soros' April

8,

Open

On

Juan Williams helpfully restated the main talking point

on National Public Radio, casting

The

Society Institute." 64

Republicans

feel there's a

that they believe that

it

concerted

George Soros, the

a

right:

effort, the gossip

multibillionaire

been supportive of so many Democratic causes, who's in charge of

on the

as "gossip"

is

being

who

has

one of the people

concerted effort to unseat a very effective and

powerful Republican leader. 65

"Billionaire

12, "has

George

Chaddock

Gail Russell

Soros's

Open

Society Institute," wrote

Monitor on April

in the Christian Science

contributed some $2.5 million to ethics coalition

And three times on CNN Robert Novak scathingly referred to

groups" set up to "target DeLay." 66

on April 21, 23 and 27 "leftist billionaire

—

George Soros" and "the poison" administered

by MoveOn.org, Soros's "left-wing organization." Meanwhile,

on Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel,

Bill

O'Reilly took

only one shot at Soros, on April 23: "I don't want George Soros in charge of this country.

I

think he's

a

rank

socialist

and

a

hypocrite."

Thus

did

DeLay et

in their ostensible attack

al.,

on Soros,

ac-

tually portray themselves; for while Soros certainly did subsidize

MoveOn

and otherwise attempt to sway the electorate against

Bush/Cheney, he played

The

drive against

Max. com,

little if

him was

for instance,

a

any role in DeLay 's troubles.

pack of

CREW did

lies.

Contrary to News-

not receive "a whopping

$7.5 million" from the billionaire to do the fact,

Soros paid

pose

(as

revise

Raw

Hammer

in. 67

In

CREW not one dime for that or any other pur-

Story reported on

its story, slightly). 68

The

its

website, forcing

constant whine

NewsMax to

of partisan

com-

THE REQUISITE FANATICISM

plaint

— the endless fury over "Democratic heavy

also a deception, as the

bipartisan.

The

group that

criticized

—was

hue and cry over the Texan's ethics was

Congressional Ethics Coalition

—an umbrella

—

DeLay included such conservative outfits Watch and the Campaign Legal Center/' And yet 1

as Judicial

that drive

hitters"

79

'

—

such rightist drives

like all

— depended

less

on bald

concoction than on wild projection, as no endeavor of George

Democrats resembled even

Soros's or by the

slightly the

im-

mense, malevolent conspiracy evoked so passionately by DeLay et

al.

Theirs

—"inspired by

bitterness, hatred

was the only such conspiracy

in evidence.

and partisanship"

As

in the prior drive

against Anita Hill, the evil lay entirely in the hearts and minds of

those decrying

it.

70

Those "defensive"

Thomas and DeLav

drives for

anticipated

the Republican campaign to deny the party's theft of the 2004 election

—

in its vast

subversion of American democracy, the cul-

The

mination of the party's prior paranoid campaigns. players

in

these

theocrats' assault

drives

have figured prominently

on our democracy.

It

dency

in

2000 (even though,

cause Mrs. lent

to have recused himself

DeLay did

all

he could to force

judge noted,

from Bush

activist,

employment prospects under Bush and

earlier,

the

steal the presi-

as a federal appellate

Thomas, an ardent party

in

was Clarence Thomas's

appointment that enabled Bush the Younger to

Thomas ought

central

Bill

v.

Gore be-

would have Co.).

71

excel-

As noted

Clinton out of office,

going further even than his staunchest colleagues in rejecting

any compromise, so desperate was he to negate the people's choice. Since Bush's installation, the

and day to clinch

his party's

permanent control of

branches of the U.S. government. dized the

GOP's

Hammer has worked

He

all

night

three

engineered and subsi-

decisive gerrymandering of Texas in 2003,

FOOLED AGAIN

80

oversaw the party's seizure of the lobbying establishment in

Washington and transformed the House

into a rubber stamp as-

now become extraneous. More both Thomas and DeLay have taken every opportu-

sembly, where Democrats have generally,

nity to force their Biblical worldview onto

American democ-

— the primary motive of the countless grass-roots opera-

racy

tives

who

helped to

steal the last election.

4.

Do Unto

Others

They Do Unto You Before

It

is

not "conservatism" that impelled the theft of the election,

nor was

many

it

merely greed or the desire for power per

—although

of the perpetrators are insanely greedy and crave power as

avidly as the troops of any other nation.

The movement now

in

movement bent on

power

is

for power, yet he this one.

The

gree, that

project here

is

in

monstrous appetite crusade

a

a scale,

and to

would have staggered Machiavelli. The aim

al.

domi-

like

ultimately pathological and essen-

Machiavellian on

master politics but to annihilate et

a

would never have been part of

tially anti-political, albeit

total

not entirely explicable

such familiar terms. Lyndon Johnson had

Reed

se

it.

is

a de-

not to

Bush, Rove, DeLay, Ralph

believe in "politics" in the

same way that they and

their corporate beneficiaries believe in "competition." In both

cases the intention

is

not to play the game but to end

81

it

—because

FOOLED AGAIN

82

game

the

precisely

no

requires

some tolerance of the Other, and tolerance

what these bitter-enders most

players other than themselves

They can

despise.

—and need no

is

abide

others, as they

are already fighting with themselves, and to the death. In their

every adversary they see, or purport to see, an absolute oppressor.

DeLay has

called the

EPA "the

Gestapo of government," the

International Criminal Court "Kofi Annan's kangaroo court," the

House Democrats

But who,

really, are

intoxicated

by "the arrogance of power."

those swaggering, jackbooted martinets

goose-stepping through the congressman's vituperation? the

little

1

House

Hitlers in the

Of

all

none of them

(or Senate), surely

has trampled on due process, or threatens U.S. democratic gov-

—

Tom DeLay who once man who had the gall to ask him not to smoke a cigar premises, "I am the government!" 2

ernance, as brazenly and gleefully as

roared at a

on

federal

Forever locked in mortal combat with his inner

Bush Republican

devil, the

—or Bushevik—sees every deviation from the

party line as evidence of further devilishness. "If you oppose

Karl on anything, you're on the enemy's

list,"

a

Texas Republi-

can once said about Karl Rove. "You become the you're not really one." centration,

all

3

The

enemy even

Bushevik's jihad takes

his energy, as that struggle

is

all

his

if

con-

the only thing that

keeps him moving forward in one piece. Without endlessly de-

manding more reconfirmation, from himself and everybody surrender abelse, he fears he would break down or fly apart

—

solutely to whatever urge he keeps fully) to stifle.

politics: the

Hence

on working

(often unsuccess-

mode of democratic among groups or persons

his hatred of the very

necessary endless

talk,

necessarily in disagreement, and necessarily inclined to

mise.

To honor someone

else's

viewpoint

politesse that is far better-suited for

is

compro-

effeminate, a sign of

the parlor

—or the

salon

—

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

And

than the battlefield. deliberation

ical

far

is

yet the Bushevik's deep hatred of polit-

more

passionate than

loathes such talk not just because he sees

as the

enemy, perceives such

change of different views missible!

Such

or rather

it,

as a feeble substitute

—

talkers

talk itself as evil: a permissible ex-

as if different

views should be per-

discourse fosters heresy, or even welcomes

civil

itself heretical.

is

it

He

mere machismo.

enemy, but because he sees those

for violence against the

83

much

shouldn't even hold,

honors notions that one

It

promote.

less

inhospitable to

It is

holy zeal, inducing the believer to restrain himself, capitulate, fall

short. It

is

therefore an abomination (and temptation).

righteous must engage

arms against

not by taking part

it

The Bushevik would

it.

up, and lead his posse not

in

it,

The

but by taking

load his guns and saddle

away from the assembly

hall,

with

its

humanistic denizens irrelevantly nattering, but straight into the hall itself,

where

start to read

The of

it;

all

of them had better shut their mouths and

from the same page, or face the consequences.

Bushevik, so

and yet he

is

of hate, hates politics, and would get rid

full

himself expert

at dirty politics:

an expertise

that he regards as purely imitative and defensive. Because his

enemies, he thinks, are cal,

in

unprincipled

—he

order to "fight

fire

all

"political"

—dishonest,

ruthless, cyni-

thereby forced to be "political" as well,

is

with

fire."

As we have seen,

this

paranoid

conviction of the Other's perfidy suffuses and impels the propa-

ganda campaigns of the

right,

Bush/Cheney's drive to

and

Thus was cers

was especially important

steal the last election.

their firm conviction that they frustrate the

it

had to

Indeed,

steal the race, in

Democrats' attempt to do

it

in

was

order to

it first.

the theft of the election largely carried out by offi-

and troops

who deemed

(or delusion) that

it

a

pre-emptive

strike: the rationale

armed paranoids have always used

to justify

FOOLED AGAIN

84

their exterminationist campaigns. As, say,

Roman

Catholics used

to slaughter Protestants and vice versa, and as countless Christian

champions have slaughtered Jews and Muslims (and are now

slaughtering Muslims once again, although this time with Jew-

and

ish allies),

as Islamists

Christians, each such

have lately slaughtered Jews and

army wiping out those

would otherwise wipe out that army

first

evildoers

— so

regime believed (or purported to believe) that

who

has the Bush

it

must

fore things happen," as the president incessantly put

act "beit

in his

propaganda for the "toppling" of Saddam Hussein. Such propaganda was ubiquitous and unrelenting (and seldom contradicted

by the U.S. media) throughout the months before the war deft logistical

and psychological accomplishment that certainly

suggests deliberate mass deception.

gun

to be a

"We

don't want the smoking

mushroom cloud," said to know that there was not

Condoleezza Rice, although

knew or had

she

for an Iraqi nuclear

And liars

—

shred of evidence

a

capability. 4

yet their stridency and passion suggest that those cool

were

also hotly lying to themselves, in their inevitable ten-

dency to see themselves

as the long-suffering victims,

victims as ruthless persecutors. In January of 2003, friend of party propagandist

Peggy Noonan's

that he

and their

Bush

told a

was having

"some trouble sleeping, and that when he awakes the first thing he often thinks is: I wonder if this is the day Saddam will do it" by which Noonan's friend took him to mean, "he wonders if this will be the day Saddam launches a terror attack here, on American

soil." 5

("We're facing something we've never faced before,"

Laura Bush told Barbara Walters on December are

moments when you wake up

"You comfort each other?" "You

There was the same maniacal

at night

11,

and say

2003. "There

a little prayer."

bet," said the president.) 6

sincerity in Cheney's

war propa-

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

85

who know him, is in no way cynically manipulative," Newsweek reported in November of 2003. 7 "By all ganda. "Cheney, say those

accounts, he

is

genuinely convinced that the threat

is

imminent

and menacing." Only such conviction could explain the doggedness of Cheney's

line that there

——

was

taboo weapons hidden somewhere in Iraq:

months

president maintained for chief U.S.

a

it

—

a

such inversion of the truth

of deliberate deceit tell

the

huge campaign

because they

front,

justified in striking first.

feel

level, so

wholly

it

On March

sticker

this has

been

been on the domestic out" their ene-

21, 2005, for instance, three lo-

to give a speech

a

museum

in

Denver,

on Social Security

9

7 .

This

event, funded by the taxpayers, and there-

to the public.

dent, they were

As

justified in "taking

Although the three were quiet and pre-

sentable, and claimed that they

bumper

has

were forcibly removed from

White House

open

That

Iraqi soil.

themselves as victimized, actually or potentially;

where Bush had come a

—on

matter of projectivity than

see

mies pre-emptively.

fore

a

and awe"

In every case they cast themselves as victimized

where they

was

more

to "shock

lie.

on the global

cal residents

is

others. 8

evident in the compulsiveness with which

is

and therefore always their m.o.

charge that the vice

a

were themselves pre-

fearful perpetrators

greater terror

of

had been disproved by

the masses through apocalyptic violence

they

a vast reserve

weapons inspector David Kay, among many

Meanwhile, those paring

after

is

futile

had only come to hear the presi-

thrown out because there was an antiwar

("No More Blood

for Oil")

on the car

that they

had parked outside. They were ousted, in short, entirely on suspicion that they might disrupt the speech

cently

it,

a rationale

compla-

explained

by White House press secretary Scott

we

think people are coming to the event to dis-

McClellan: "If rupt

—

obviously, they're going to be asked to leave." 10

FOOLED AGAIN

86

Exactly what might ticular visitor

make

was "coming

White House "think"

that a par-

to disrupt" the day's event

McCellan

the

"The White

did not say, nor would his office clarify the matter.

House

press office did not return calls seeking elaboration

on

McClellan's remarks, which were made during the daily press briefing."

The

ousted the three citizens was posing as a Service.

He

was apparently

White House, although

the

White House and

nounced

(On July

Throughout the

with the

the Secret Service

would not

Amendment

William Leone anpress charges against

House volunteer" who had posed

Leone did not

of the Secret

—even though the three had

29, 2005, U.S. Attorney

that federal prosecutors

the "White agent.

him

infringement of their First

filed a lawsuit for

rights.

member

a party operative, affiliated

afterward would not identify

11

man who

was especially notable because the

fracas

as a Secret Service

give any reason for this decision). 12

six

months leading up

to the election, such

preventive expulsion by the Bush/Cheney campaign machine

was almost completely unreported by the national media. As improper

as

it

was in

that campaign,

the

a

democracy, the practice was appropriate for

which was

itself a

grand pre-emptive

Democrats were planning an immense

2004 was not only

That

strike.

electoral theft in

major talking point among the Bush Re-

a

publicans but apparently a crucial motivating factor. Although

Republicans have long accused the Democrats of rank electoral corruption

(a

charge

wholly

justified),*

*As one

who came

that, in certain

of age in

Cook County,

Richard J. Daley ruled the roost, at the polls.

times and places, has been

the specter of a national Democratic coup did

Moreover,

it

I

suffer

no

Illinois,

illusions

where the

first

Mayor

about Democratic practice

was, of course, the Southern Democrats

who

invented

and perfected the machinery of disenfranchisement throughout the Jim

Crow

an enormous difference in the

scale,

era.

However, between the

parties there

is

boldness, cynicism and sophistication of their respective efforts to

meddle with

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

87

not preoccupy the rightist mind until the evening of Election

Day

2000,

lessly

—

when Fox News Channel suddenly

called the race in Florida for Bush, other networks, in-

cluding CBS, having called the race for Gore. a

— and ground-

cousin of George

W.

Bush,

who had made

in constant contact with his cousins

Rupert Murdoch.)

13

was John

Ellis,

that bold decision,

George and Jeh and

NBC News then seconded

spirited insistence of parent

who demand

(It

his boss

Fox's call (at the

company General

Electrics

CEO,

Jack Welch,

personally marched into the networks news-

room

that

to

NBC

"confirm" the word from Fox). 14

Within minutes, the other networks followed consensus, although mistaken,

more and

call

the state for

made

it

Gore without arousing

fury of the right, regardless of the vote fect

suit

— and

that

impossible to shift once

itself.

the suspicious

Whether

that ef-

was deliberately intended by the Bush/Fox combination we

may never know

for sure. In any case, the right, stoked

by the

Bush campaign, immediately figured, and wrathfully proclaimed, that the Democrats were trying to steal Florida, and therefore the national electoral vote, from the rightful heir to the American throne.

That charge resonated loudly frantic interim

move

coast to coast throughout the

between Election Day and the Supreme Court's

to halt the Florida vote count

chiefly

elections.

on December

12. It

was

Rupert Murdoch's sturdy propaganda apparatus (Fox

While Democrats have

Cheney's second effort was

certainly filched races in the past, Bush/

a systematic national

and

local enterprise, involv-

ing not just the traditional methods for suppression of the vote but the subversion of the very infrastructure used to count the vote. In any case, the

Kerry campaigns were both extraordinarily scrupulous, traordinary perfidy of the

as

opposed

Gore and to the ex-

Bush/Cheney machine, which has returned the

South, and forced the entire nation, back toward the bad old days of poll taxes

and

literacy tests,

among other

anti-democratic methods once unique to Dixie.

88

FOOLED AGAIN

News Channel,

the

New

York Post, the Weekly Sta?idard, etc.) that

purveyed the claim that the Republicans,

gaged

in stealing the election,

were

who were just then

November

Colmes on

of having

at risk

snatched from them by the Democrats.

On

it

en-

actually

&

Fox's Hannity

12, as the votes in Florida

arduously counted, Sean Hannity and Peggy

were

still

being

Noonan sang

a

bellicose duet that lasted quite a while, including this exchange:

hannity: There are no standards here.

The

people that are de-

ciding are Democratic operatives with connections to the

Gore camp, and they

start

with one standard,

to another standard.

hannity: And then they charge

know! And they

I

standards!

not working

middle of it they change to another

out! In the

noonan: They go

noonan:

it's

One

only four or

a third

will

one!

keep going. They'll find new

of the problems with this story,

five [unintelligible],

whatever we

seems to

me

are, is that

we

it

we see the people talking and everybody's sound bites and we think this is a farce. Well, farces make you laugh. But we shouldn't be see this tape of what's happening in Florida,

—

laughing

hannity:

noonan: than

it

It's

It

not funny!

seems more

I

think they're trying to steal the election, as the

York Post pointed out!

"I'll tell

crats,

an attempted coup in some respects

does like a farce.

hannity: Well,

New

like

you

this,"

CNN's Bob Novak railed about the Demo-

"almost every Republican

steal the election!"

15

I

talk to thinks they're trying to

"The Gore campaign

the election," claimed a

November

is

attempting to

13 press release

steal

from Rep.

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

Nick Smith (who would go on

to co-sponsor President Bush's

Faith-Based Initiative in Michigan, and later run afoul of

DeLay).

16

am

"I

November

a

Gore

tion Act, aka "Terri's

to be a

to steal this election,"

14 press release from Rep. Dave

Law

and

II,"

a

Weldon

vehement supporter

Approach International, which

biblical

Tom

co-author of the Incapacitated Persons Legal Protec-

(later the

ciple

what appears

increasingly alarmed at

blatant attempt by Vice President

claimed

89

bills itself as

or Prin-

"grounded

in a

worldview and dedicated to strengthening the Body

Christ and reforming the culture").

November

17,

Mary Matalin

joined

On CNN's

17

in,

Crossfire

t

on

not to be deterred by her

debating partner, David Corn:

matalin: Manufacturing votes, bribing electors, intimidating cal officials, investigating electors.

can win:

lie,

cheat and

cheat and

steal!

steal! It's

This

is

the only

your bumper

lo-

way Core

sticker: "Lie,

Vote Gore!"

corn: So you don't trust the Florida courts? You have a secretary of state

matalin: Did corn:

—

that's

matalin:

I

I

say that?

will

you

still

claim

said lying, cheating, stealing! still

claim that the election was stolen

Florida courts say that

ties

didn't say that

done her decision,

corn: Will you

matalin:

I

Not

it's

unless they include looking at

of stolen, manufactured ballots

corn: You know,

I

if

the

OK for the recounts to go ahead? all

these irregulari-

[sir]!

say put the spin aside

matalin: I'm not spinning!

"It

should be obvious to

steal a victory in Florida

all

by now that Mr. Gore

is

trying to

by means of legal machinations,"

FOOLED AGAIN

90

charged Richard Lessner, executive director of American Renewal, "the legislative action in a

November 28

steal the election,"

thought so too

arm of Family Research Council,"

press release. "I think Al

William Bennett

Gore

is

trying to

—who

said to Bill O'Reilly

—on that same day (and, Bennett added, with

a

of people don't care in the media be-

telling slip, "I think a lot

cause they want Bush to win"). 18

The

voices of sanity were few, and even fewer those sane

voices that spoke with the requisite bluntness. "In fact," said (again)

on

on December

Crossfire

Gore came down,

"it's

the

12, the

Gore people who

Novak

day that Bush

v.

are trying to steal

votes in this election." "No," replied Bill Press, "I think you have it

backwards,

my friend."

Such voices being

the press largely refraining, in the

rare, or rarely heard,

name of "balance," from

tinguishing what was true from what was

apoplectically in his ity

the charge of

false,

— James Baker TV appearances—aroused that same

widespread Democratic "mischief

dis-

as

put

it

plural-

of fiery minds that had conceived the Clintons as pure Evil.

Many such Americans converged on Day and December 12, prepared

tion

Florida between Electo fight the

Democrats unto the death. "I'm out here because lowed to

prevail,

we

will

no longer

live in a

of law," said one such Minuteman,

power semiautomatic weapons quis,

is

who had

it

19

Grand Mar"Today the

an un-American party with an alien

wouldn't be doing what

Such was the logic

is al-

arrived with high-

in the trunk of his

agenda," said another demonstrator, "Otherwise,

Gore

country with the rule

and some seventy rounds of ammunition.

Democratic Party

if

scheming

that, in spite

a retired it's

naval aviator.

doing." 20

of the electorate, prevailed in

the election, once the fiction of Bush/Cheney's victory had been certified as real

by Clarence Thomas and

his four associates.

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

The myth House

Gore had

that

did not fade

away

Bush/Cheney's triumph.

after the

Supreme Court's termination of the

was

going

still

at

it:

"He

White

illegitimately tried to seize the after

race,

91

A week

Sean Hannity

did try and steal the election," he as-

serted about Gore, referring to the latter's effort as "a coup";

and, seconds

later,

having thus denied that the Republicans had

stolen the election, right,

Hannity denied that

had ever accused Gore of stealing

and rightist Niger Innis,

Colmes

21

anybody on the

he, or

Opposing Hannity

it.

the strikingly uncharismatic Alan

tried valiantly to challenge the Republicans for

charged ad nauseam that Gore was trying to

colmes: Republicans were saying things

steal the race:

like:

"Al Gore's going

to steal this election!" "If he wins, he'll never be

There

dent!"

are

having

my

presi-

many Republicans

hannity: Who?! colmes:

be

—and many conservatives who

my president"

and "He's trying to

said that: "He'll never

steal the election."

innis: All right. It wasn't Sean. It wasn't

me.

I

don't

know what

about. 22

you're talking

Regardless of that eerie disavowal, the myth of Gore's at-

tempted "mischief quickly hardened into

rightist gospel,

Sammon, a Washington Ti?nes reAt Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to was published by Regnery in May of 2001. The

thanks in large part to

Bill

porter whose apparent expose, Steal the Election,

book

is

a farrago

sinuations,

of half-truths, selective evidence and dark in-

making an absurd but by-and-large coherent case

and one rendered dramatically enough to garner ship and

arm

a

broad reader-

the propagandists for the endless fight. 23

book's argument was further propagated, and

its sales

The

no doubt

FOOLED AGAIN

92

by Sammon's numerous promotional appearances on

increased,

Rupert Murdoch's Fox O'Reilly Factor,

Hannity

(which show included

News

Channel, including

& Colmes and a long,

stints

on The

The Edge with Paula Zahn

cuddly interview with Katherine

Harris, Florida's infamous secretary of state and co-chair of the

Bush campaign

in Florida).

Well beyond the pitch

for

Sammon's

book, however, the whole rightist propaganda mechanism kept the cauldron boiling: "Al Gore, as far as I'm concerned, tried to

an election," snapped Hannity, apropos of nothing in par-

steal

ticular,

on September

30, 2002.

"Democrats

steal 2

percent to

3

percent of the vote in a typical election," David Horowitz told

Richard Mellon

November Even

as

7,

Scaife's

NewsMax.com,

in a piece posted

on

2002. 24

they went on damning Gore and warning that the

Democrats would

steal elections in the future, the

Republicans

themselves were evidently planning to steal votes, or were

al-

ready stealing votes, or had just stolen votes, in the midterm elections of 2002.

Having captured one branch of the

federal

government by non-elective means, the Bush Republicans

moved on

to gain a

comfy margin

in the Senate, which, thanks

to the defection of Vermont Senator

"Jumping Jim" Jeffords

(as

Sean Hannity called him), had been in Democratic hands by just

one vote for eighteen months. In the 2002

elections, there

were

extraordinary "upsets" in Minnesota, Georgia, Colorado and

New

Hampshire

—

all statistically

remarkable,

the Christian right (with heavy input from the

and

all,

of course, decisively advantaging the

all

effected by

White House)

GOP, which

en-

joyed a sudden four-seat margin in the Senate: 52 Republicans to 47

Democrats, with Jeffords making

a

de facto 48th. (After

2004, the Bush Republicans enjoyed a ten-seat margin: 55-44 + Jeffords.)

Although

it

ought to be the subject of another book

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

—or of — the

entirely

poses

25

93

several books, or at least a spate of journalistic ex-

likely heist

ways so similar to the

of the Senate in 2002 was in certain

theft of the election in 2004, with the

same

corporate entities involved in both, that some mention of the oddities

here appropriate, especially as the Republicans were

is

making so much noise about the Democratic danger of fraud (while the Democrats, subject, said

who

not one word about

In Colorado, Republican

hail

election

every reason to pursue the

it).

Wayne

Allard,

a

born-again with

a

100 percent approval rating from the Christian Coalition, beat

Democrat Tom Strickland by though the points. 26

nearly five percentage points,

al-

had shown the Democrat ahead by several

polls

(Diebold

touch-screen

machines

were

used

in

Saguache, Weld and El Paso Counties, collectively accounting for over 750,000 votes. Strickland lost by 70,000 votes.) 2 " Allard

went on

to play a leading role in the radicalization of the Senate,

authoring the Marriage Protection Amendment, which would

make gay marriage

unconstitutional, and co-sponsoring the

apocalyptic Constitution Restoration Act of 2004, which would

make God

— that

law: a stroke that

prescribed

is,

the Bible

—the sovereign

would enable

in, say,

basis of

American

federal judges to pass sentence as

Leviticus, without risk of reversal by

some

higher court. 28 In Minnesota, slightly

man

at

50 percent or

more before Election Day, with born-again Norm Cole-

(formerly

cent. 29

Zogby had Walter Mondale

a

Democrat, and Jewish)

at a consistent

Coleman, who hailed from Brooklyn, had

approval rating from the Christian Coalition. favorite son

Wellstone,

he died in

and

a

100 percent

Mondale was

a last-minute substitute for the

who had been a

30

45 per-

a

popular Paul

Coleman by four points when small plane crash on October 25. 31 Coleman leading

FOOLED AGAIN

94

defeated

Mondale with nearly 50 percent of

by

percent margin. (Of

a 2.2

the vote, winning

four suspicious races in 2002,

all

only Minnesota did not use Diebold equipment.) 32 Coleman

went on

to lead the senatorial attack

—

U.N. generally

on Kofi Annan and the

a drive irrelevant to national security in the

middle of the "war on terrorism," but pure catnip to Coleman's feral

backers on the right. 33 (Coleman

the pharmaceutical

The most dramatic Max Cleland,

Senator

Vietnam (he to

is

is

also a

good

soldier for

cartel.) 34

a triple

upset was in Georgia, where Democratic a severely disabled

veteran of the war in

amputee), lost by seven percentage points

Saxby Chambliss, who had

a

100 percent approval rating percent from the Sierra

from the Christian Coalition (and

Club) and whose campaign was managed by Ralph Reed. 35 This

was

Cleland had been narrowly ahead of

a great surprise, as

Chambliss

in the polls.

"The Hotline,

recalled a series of polls

had been ahead

Cox News

in

a

chickenhawk,

to fight in

it

Wednesday showing

news

service,

that Chambliss

none of them," reported the Atlanta-based

Service. 36

immensely popular

a political

With

his record as a soldier,

in military-minded Georgia.

who backed

because of

a

Cleland was

Chambliss was

the war in Vietnam but elected not

"bad knee." 37

The Chambliss cam-

paign was pure Reed/Rove, with Cleland's patriotism noisily im-

pugned by the unwounded Chambliss, who played up Cleland's opposition to Bush/Cheney's program for "homeland security."

The Chambliss campaign ran a TV spot depicting Cleland with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein: "Max Cleland says he has the courage to lead, but the record proves he's just misleading," sneered the voiceover. 38 there, with

Democrat

And

it

was

all

downhill from

Chambliss ultimately charging treason, flaying the

in a press release for "breaking his oath to protect

and

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

defend the Constitution." 39 (Cleland had

when he had moved toward supply truck.

He

a live

arm and

legs

grenade that had rolled off

had intended to throw

After the apparent rout,

lost his

95

a

40 it away.)

agreed that Chambliss's amazing

all

"come-from-behind victory" had resulted from expert character assassination and, at the end,

Bush. 41

ances with

was

from three exciting

joint appear-

In Minnesota too, Coleman's startling

tidily ascribed to the

win

well-orchestrated statewide outcry

over Paul Wellstone's memorial service; the liberal horde's barbaric "booing of Trent Lott" and other infamies that actually

had not occurred. 42 (As usual, the Republicans politicized the

is-

sue by ferociously complaining that the Democrats politicized the issue.) Such culture of

is

the state of most "political analysis" in the

TV, where every

victory or defeat

plained as wholly consequent on itself

and begrimed the

losers.

how

is

knowingly ex-

the winning side pitched

Such childish reasoning, based on

the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc, ignores the possibility of

more complex tors

—those,

responses, and,

more

in particular, that

were

importantly, of other facinvisible (as

most

factors

tend to be). Such reasoning also begs the question of whether

what we saw was

in fact a victory, or just a

seeming one. By over-

focusing on Chambliss's slanderous theatrics and overlooking the statistical unlikelihood of Chambliss's "win," the press ig-

nored the more material

by the sovereign and

its

fact that the election

state of

Georgia but

—

had been run not

literally

—by Diebold

executives and programmers.

On May

3,

2002, Diebold signed a contract with Cathy Cox,

Georgia's secretary of state

—

a

Democrat of the

Zell Miller type,

wildly popular with Republicans, and a most ambitious politician.

The $54

million deal, to install 19,000 touch-screen

machines throughout the

state,

had been negotiated by

a 12-

FOOLED AGAIN

96

member committee and was months

duly noted in the press. Three

Cox and Diebold secretly invalidated the agreea "First Amendment" that wholly privatized

later,

ment by co-signing

the electoral system in the state of Georgia. This accord

known full

to the legislature, unreported in the press

—un-

—gave Diebold

authority to train poll workers, build election databases and

prepare

ballots in 106 of Georgia's 159 counties. In those

all

counties Diebold's employees would henceforth supervise electoral proceedings,

assistance

—

all

a secret deal,

program the machines and render technical

without the oversight of any state

officials. It

was

fraught with improprieties; and the machines per-

formed abysmally

in 2002, requiring various furtive technical

expedients by Diebold's employees. 43

Throughout

the campaign in 2004, talking heads warned

heatedly and often that the Democrats were going to steal the election. "I think there are plans steal this election in Florida,"

CNN Capital Gang.

on

come out been

in

due

announced Bob Novak on July

to

31,

have some factual material which will

"I

course, 44

laid for four years."

underway by the Democrats

because the plans are being

"Why are

tion by cheating?" cried Alan

laid,

have

they trying to steal the elec-

Keyes on

CNN on August 30, re-

ferring to his hopeless senatorial bid in Illinois. 45 (A

week

later,

on the radio in Chicago, Keyes said that "Christ would not vote for

Obama"

Barack

—who, nevertheless, went on to win with 71

make me suspicious of all you Democrats," said Sean Hannity to Bob Beckel on September 17. And on September 27, Rush Limbaugh descanted on the danger with his usual good humor and precision: percent.) 46

When lost

I

)

"Your dirty

grew up,

I

mean

your voting rights

tricks

—— I

I

forever.

crats noticed their shrinking

thought once you were It's

only recently,

when

a felon,

the

you

Demo-

dominance, needing every vote they

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

97

could get, they started importing Haitians the day before elections.

Remember down

They

now

that in 2000?

Haitian boat that went

—went aground

started importing Haitians the day before elections,

and

— and now — and now the — they got to go out and scour the

country for felons. people

That but

A

there in Florida?

riff

not enough that they're registering dead

Is it

Ohio and

in

Illinois? Is

not enough?

was not an honest expose of Democratic dirty

a dirty trick

itself, its

for that

—that

is,

black people, as "felons"

community. In any

aground down there

tricks

purpose being to link the Democrats

with criminals and Haitians

Rushspeak

it

in Florida"

case,

is

no Haitians "went

on "the day before elections"

in

Limbaugh was thinking of October 30, 2002, when a freighter ran aground off Key Biscayne, and 200 starving Haitians leapt off the boat and made a desperate run for it. 47 State troopers tracked them down, and six men were arrested 2000:

for organizing the

illicit trip.

The

detention of the would-be im-

migrants roused protests and complaints. Limbaugh's reaction at the time:

I

can't help but think of

would do whatever tion

— not because

Bush family!

I

it

DNC head Terry McAuliffe saying that he

took to defeat Jeb Bush

he's a

bad governor, but

can't help but

wonder

prise," designed to put the screws to

American It's

voters.

I

would keep

important to point out that

I

said they spent 18 days at sea

then the

New

just to

if this isn't

an "October Sur-

eye out for facts on

think people is

embarrass the

Jeb and energize the African-

a close

spiracy theories are fools, but this

in next week's elec-

suspicious!

who go

The

this.

in for con-

early reports

and the people were disheveled. But

York Times said the trip took eight days, and

see that the people

do not look

like they've

been

you can

at sea for this

FOOLED AGAIN

98

length of time.

I

have no proof of

guided by experience

—especially

exploitation

rally. 48

Of course,

the Democrats had

ian crossing, year. 49

any

The

which had been

This

in light

of

my

just

is

last night's

works

done the Democrats no good

Coast Guard does not naturalize

Limbaugh

and, two years

Wellstone

in Haiti for nearly a

illegal

grants but of course repatriates them. Although

hooey,

intelligence

no connection with the Hait-

in the

effort could have

case, as the

this.

it

was pure

cast his Haitian tale as fact ("intelligence");

later,

he

recalled, as if it really

had occurred, that

"they started importing Haitians the day before elections"

on

that airy basis he accused the

people in Ohio and

hammering mors

—

if

you add

be gearing up

is

rant continued,

Limbaugh

itself:

the fraudulent voter, the

—but— so they—

in all the potential fraud that the

in this election,

evidence in Ohio

The

Bush machine

unlikely voter

you

Illinois." 50

— and

Democrats of "registering dead

"evidence" in his imagination, or at stray ru-

floated by the

The if

at the

in

immi-

[sic).

and you look

They had two

at

if

Democrats may

—we've already got

stories last

week about the

they're registering people that have been dead for 25 years. 51

In Lake County, Ohio, Republicans had charged the Democrats

with trying to register a dead voter

— and that charge was

"evidence" of fraud that Limbaugh had.

52

all

the

(There were no such

reports from Illinois.)

While the

right's on-air

and connected ticket's

propagandists ranted and insinuated

invisible dots

throughout the 2004 campaign, the

propagandists in the world of print, with somewhat

more

(ostensible) propriety, re-echoed the ever-growing charge of

Democratic

perfidy.

The

far-right press

began

this

work

in early

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

summer, warning that the Democrats had plans race

—

and often

a threat asserted vividly

in

99

to steal the

Sun Myung xMoon's

Washington Times, which cast the accusations by Bush/Cheney operatives as news. "Liberal groups supporting Democratic Sen.

John Kerry

for president," the Times reported

on June

29, "have

been accused of fraud and of sending felons into people's homes in their efforts to register

dictions of a

Democratic

new theft

voters in Missouri." 53 Dire pre-

were

also

common on

the

Web

throughout the months before Election Day. "Despite Kern's lagging polls, the Democrats

How?

Perhaps

by

still

plan to win this

old-fashioned

the

way:

November.

stealing

the

election." 54

Thus began an "Insiders Report" on Richard Mel-

lon Scaife's

NewsMax.com on September

21

— followed up, the

next day, with "Democrats Trying to Steal Iowa, Too?" ("More

evidence the Democrats are planning an Flection for

George

Bush.")"' Such faux-news

abounded

Day

surprise

in the final

weeks of the campaign. In Colorado, the Washington Times ported on October

was an

14, there

effort

re-

by the legislature to

"ease concerns about the integrity of the state election process,"

which was evidently jeopardized by "voter-registration groups [that] tilt politically to

Republican Gov.

the

left." 56

Owens

Bill

said yesterday, "I

am

extremely con-

cerned about the widespread allegations of serious and sustained criminal activity surrounding voter registration in Colorado." 57

And on October 2

1

,

Moon's

daily reported that

Marc

Racicot,

chairman of the Bush/Cheney campaign, had "called on the

Democrats voters." 58

to put an

end to

Meanwhile, the

efforts to intimidate

party's flacks

spinning the uncomprehending press.

and confuse

were out

The

in force,

Republicans, the

Washington Post reported, planned to keep a close eye on Ohio's

100

FOOLED AGAIN

Democratic neighborhoods. "Those are the places most for the Democrats," said

GOP

Fletcher, "to try to steal the

Weaver,

a diligent

Democrats want them." 60

more

On

Mindy Tucker On November 1, Mark

spokesperson

election." 59

Bush/Cheney

lawyer, said

that day he

and

vividly: "Piles

piles

made

and

on

MSNBC: "The

We're not going

to steal this election.

CNN

likely

the

of

piles

to let

same dramatic point fictitious,

fraudulent

and erroneous voter registration cards! Someone out there

Ohio

trying to steal this feels

strongly that

happen!"

election!

The Ohio

we should not

stand by and let that

61

Subtler propaganda was

also at work.

On

Fraud Threatens Our

Democracy. 62

5,

En-

Elections:

How

September

counter Books came out with John Fund's Stealing Voter

is

Republican Party

Ostensibly an even-

handed survey of the danger posed by voter fraud among both parties, the

Democrats

book

is

in fact a thinly veiled broadside against the

—which should come

as

no

surprise given the record

of both publisher and author. Encounter Books

is

a non-profit

house relying heavily on grants from the Lynde and Harry Bradley

Foundation,

Milwaukee.

63

a

rightist

Encounter's publisher

literary partner to

funding is

institution

Peter Collier, longtime

David Horowitz, whose work

is

in

counter's catalogue along with titles like Vile France: Fear, plicity,

Cowardice and Cheese, The People

Star over Hollywood.

Fund himself

is

in

v.

EnDu-

Harvard Law and Red

an accomplished far-right

propagandist who, having started out as an assistant to Robert

Novak, became an

editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal (he

played a role in that newspaper's lethal smear campaign against

Vince Foster) and also ghost-wrote The Way Things Ought

Rush Limbaugh's

first best-seller. 64

to

Be,

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

Any

101

rational reader unacquainted with these facts, however,

will quickly spot the

propaganda function of Fund's pseudo-

which deals only glancingly with

analysis,

rightist fraud

—

a rarity,

according to the author. Mostly there are only Democratic claims that the Republicans have broken laws

by "the

other words.

left," in

gating the

Myth

"Why

2000. 65

Fund

propa-

asks plaintively

His pretension to the

times hilarious. While Democrats, he writes,

at

is

liberals persist in

of the Stolen Election?"

about Bush/Cheney's "victory" in high ground

do

—mere propaganda

think that "the most important value

is

empowering people

exercise their democratic rights," the other party

to

concerned

is

primarily to do what's right: "Republicans tend to pay

more

at-

tention to the rule of law and the standards and procedures that

govern elections." 66 but then

its

through

its

purpose

is

it

with such outrageous guff,

not to illuminate but obfuscate:

and "both sides" complain about

(The book was

Karl Rove, early in Bush's

worth nothing,

first

it;

that

and, im-

actually

commissioned by

term.)* Certainly Fund's research

as his sources,

by and

large, are other party

*This, at any rate, was Fund's claim, according to his ex-fiancee bury; and he told her also that the

book was

search Council, which would have meant a (a

explicitly,

myth

to seize the issue of electoral fraud for those engaging in

that crime themselves.

is

filled

is

fake balance bolstering the convenient

"both sides" do plicitly,

The book

claim that

Fund

to be published

much

Morgan

in

Pills-

by the Family Re-

higher profile for the project

denies). In early 2002, however, Fund's high

dashed by the scandal following his arrest

op-

New York City on

hopes were

February 23 for

allegedly assaulting Pillsbury. (According to Cynthia Cotts' account in the Village Voice, the police tute, a

that

found Fund hiding

in a

bathroom

at the

Manhattan

Insti-

neoconservative think tank.) In the wake of his arrest, Pillsbury claimed

Fund had been pressuring

Pillsbury to get an abortion and that, a few years

before, he had been romantically involved with Pillsbury's mother. Although

Fund took

a leave

had violated the little

of absence from thejounial after this episode and apparendy

ideal of "family values" that

he had long promoted, there was

mainstream press coverage of the scandal. Fund continued working

as a

FOOLED AGAIN

102

much

eratives

acknowledgments he thanks,

like himself. (In his

along with far-right kingpin Grover Norquist and the

Robert Bartley, longtime overseer of the Wall "John Samples of the Cato

torial page,

the Heritage Foundation,

John Raisian

Institute,

at the

late

Street Journal edi-

Ed Feulner of

Hoover

Institution

and Jim Piereson of the John M. Olin Foundation.")

The

evidence for

suggest that

it

those rightist charges was so thin as to

all

was made up out of nothing,

Cheney's soldiers

a

way

to pique suspicions of the

Far more important, however,

was

true,

is

at least;

"commentator"

be

still

the massive fraud by the Republicans

thousands

Democrats.

that even if this or that charge

Democratic fraud would

able frauds, disabling

Bush/

just to give

trivial

by contrast with

—prodigious and innumer-

Democratic voters by the hundreds of

unprecedented fraud, ongoing even

moving on

for the right,

as the

to Pat Robertson's Christian

casting Network. Cynthia Cotts, "Press Clips:

John Fund,

Come

Broad-

Clean," Vil-

lage Voice, 2/27-3/5/02 (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0209,cotts,32638,6.

html); interview with

Morgan

Pillsbury, 5/20/03.

(In a letter sent to this book's publisher

he had ever beaten Pillsbury or

left

on August

4,

2005,

Fund denied that Rove

the Journal and denied also that Karl

had "anything to do with the book." The police reports of Fund's Pillsbury,

and the restraining orders that she

line at http://apj.us/20020116fundl.jpg,

filed against

assaults

on

him, are available on-

http://apj.us/20020116fund2.jpg,

http://apj.us/20020221nypd072.jpg, http://apj.us/20020223order072.jpg, and http://apj.us/20020225order072.jpg. As of this writing, Fund's in the

Wall Street Journal's automatic employee

This of

all,

story,

and many others

culated by his wife.

its

propagandists.

Matt Drudge,

Fund

are highly pertinent to this analysis. First

liberal

(It

was Fund

who had

devised the slander, cir-

that Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal

had beaten up

such stories further clarify the rightist double standard

media," which has overlooked the sexual excesses of the moraliz-

ing right (while over-focusing on the amours of Democrats) just as fully

unlisted

also charges that Pillsbury "has difficulty in distinguishing fact

fiction.") Secondly,

of "the

it,

is

they further demonstrate the startling projectivity of the theocratic

movement and

from

like

name

directory.)

looked away from the Republicans' electoral misdeeds.

it

has care-

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

Enemy

fraudsters tore into the ers in

Ohio. Certainly that fabrication,

The

nal.

for, say,

point here

crossed the

if it

occurred, was crimi-

is

who

to suggest that the Republican at-

were not intended mainly to expose the

tacks

evils

Demo-

of the

many more, far more enormous sins of Republicans themselves. Under the barrage of Limbaugh s obscure the

crats but to

the

would assume

accusations, the ill-read listener his

having fabricated 18 vot-

not to exculpate those Democrats

is

The point

line.

103

Bush and

that

people were campaigning honestly; the more knowing

tener

—

like the

fiction that

cowed reporter

— would

retreat into the

"both sides" had been playing dirty

tricks,

all

lis-

comfj

and now

"both sides" were "attacking each other." Thus did the Republicans obscure the crucial fact that

playing dirty tricks

they

who were

it

was only the\ w ho had been

immense enough

to tip the election, and only

attacking anyone for playing dirt} tricks; and \ct

the wide dissemination of their propaganda san, irrational or naive to lay the

And its

yet, again, that

made

blame w here

propaganda w

as

not

spreading cause

it

it,

just a tactical device,

"took"

lies

w

ith a delib-

— aroused

and convinced, or cowed, those hearing

was sincere

or Hannity,

The propaganda as well as cynical.

Mark Weaver

or

parti-

belonged.

it

users secretly aware of the truth and venting

erate perverseness.

seem

it

The wrath

Mindy Tucker

of

it

those

— be-

Limbaugh

Fletcher, enabled

each to argue their preposterous case with the ingeniousness

and volubility that only fear and hatred can mainly their

own

"evil" that they feared

call forth;

and

it

was

and hated, having un-

consciously projected

it

tous, election-stealing

Democrats. This was particularlv evident

onto those warped,

in their belligerent delusion that the

Democrats were endlessly

and groundlessly accusing them of fraud. In the Democrats were largely

mute

—

fanatical, duplici-

fact,

a silence as

on

this subject

bewildering as

the indignant fury of Bush/Cheney's troops, since there was

FOOLED AGAIN

104

every evidence of Republican mischief, and yet the Democrats refused to talk about licans

Throughout the

it.*

race, while the

Repub-

were loudly and unanimously bellyaching over the im-

pending Democratic fraud, the Democrats made no responses, either to those charges or,

more

still

perplexing, to the fraudu-

lent

maneuvers by Bush/Cheney's forces

(see

Chapter

comfy

5).

commonplace

journalistic

on both

across the nation

all

In short, despite the right's propaganda, and the

sides," charges

that "charges have been flying

were flying only on one

This imbalance partly

reflects the

extreme

side.

rightist bias of the

U.S. media, there being no liberal or Democratic counterpart to the propaganda juggernaut of Fox/Clear Channel and "the lib-

media," from the

eral

PBS. There simply O'Reilly,

New

York Times and Newsweek to

no

is

nomination underway,

dissident equivalent to Hannity,

wanted

I

Democratic contest for the

him

I

only, but to

American democracy

my chance

to alert

to talk to him,

and run by right-wing (the

number

party's presidential

got myself invited to a fundraiser for John Kerry in

Manhattan. had

to the danger posed

—not

to his chances

— by Diebold and ES&S. When

itself

told

I

interests, that

has gone up), that their

him

that those

they leave no paper

trail.

and then apparently forgot about

they had contracts in some thirty states

programming codes

until

January

11,

Kerry listened with an it,

I fi-

companies are owned

are

deemed

etary information, that their machines are highly insecure and, tant, that

and

Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter ("We have the

*In February of 2003, with the

nally

CBS

as

air

propri-

most impor-

of grave concern,

he did not address the subject publicly

when he made a passing reference to it at a Democratic (Howard Dean had been the first contender to problem, on November 11, 2003, and Dennis Kucinich

2004,

candidates' debate in Iowa.

make mention of

the

issued a strong press release

on November machines

20.)

"We

— "Private Voting Machines; Private Interests"

are going to prechallenge

some of

these automatic

—the Diebold machines—where there have already been problems,"

Kerry vowed. In (For what

it's

fact,

he did no such thing; and the

worth, Teresa Heinz Kerry was,

sionately interested in the Diebold problem.)

rest,

sad to say,

is

history.

at least at that fundraiser, pas-

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

105

media," she said to Hannity on July 26, 2005) and their comrades

throughout the "liberal" and "centrist" press, and Charles Krauthammer

Washington

at the

New

George Will

like

Post,

David Brooks

and John Tierney

at the

MSNBC,

CNN, Robert Novak on PBS, PBS and MSNBC, Kate O'Beirne and on and

Robert Novak

Tucker Carlson on

all

on

York Times, Joe Scarborough

over

on. Blunt and lucid liberals and independents are so few that they

Olbermann on

stand out as bold exceptions: Keith

MSNBC

(Deborah Norville having been replaced by Tucker Carlson), David Brancaccio on PBS, the op-ed Times (Paul Krugman,

Bob Herbert, Frank Rich

forgets Bill Clinton's sex

life,

sway of the

strates the inordinate

Estate.

And

the punditocracy

contrast with the guests

is

a dissentient

far right

on shows

like

she

the struggling

network demon-

throughout the Fourth

model of

a

York

when

and,

Maureen Dowd), and

Air America, whose very novelty as

New

all-stars at the

by

political diversity

Meet the

Press

and Hardball,

or with the experts routinely quoted in the news, such voices

al-

ways representing, or defending, the interests of the White

House and and so any

liberals

it is

is

just not built to

forever claiming to

little

This explanation

is

opportunity to do

them

so;

so.

inadequate, however, for the press's im-

a result

of its systemic rightist

bias.

had been receptive to the Democrats' complaints, the

crats themselves,

do

and Democrats who would decry the fraud by

balance was not only

in

the U.S. press

sides although

the Republicans had

it

Thus

the Pentagon.

accommodate both

Even

Demo-

with very few exceptions, simply didn't have

to address the issue with the

proper

clarity

and

Although they were being robbed, they seemed to be say so, or afraid to face

it;

while the Republicans,

if

it

force.

afraid to

who were

not

being robbed, asserted that they were, and that the Democrats

were making

lots

of groundless charges

— and

that Big Lie,

FOOLED AGAIN

106

which the Republicans repeated and repeated with passionate intensity, certainly

had

less to

do with propaganda training than

On

with paranoid conviction.

the fact of the Republicans' at-

tempts at fraud, there was, of course, a lot of talk

Democratic rank-and-file, and by some

state

and

among

the

city legislators;

but the top Democrats themselves, and most liberal commentators,

were largely

American

Prospect,

silent.

Robert Kuttner, co-founder of the

wrote some honest op-ed pieces for the Boston

on October

Globe ("The Art of Stealing Elections,"

traordinary for

its

bluntness), and Joshuah

19,

was ex-

Bearman of L.A.

Weekly wrote about the contest with refreshing candor. 67

Democrats' few,

official

comments, on the other hand, were very

and not too rousing.

Report,

The

On

October 20, on CNBC's

Capitol

Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National

Committee, had

When [RNC he spent mittee

this to say:

Gillespie's

to hire a

two employees, one

in

company

called Sproul

Nevada and one

were ordered to

rip

on your show, ask him why

of the Republican National

a half a million dollars

money

that they

Ed

chairman]

up voter

in

&

Associates,

Oregon,

Comwhere

specifically said

registration cards for only the

Democrats and not the Republicans. So we are very concerned.

Between that

feeble, over-complicated

one-shot and the punchy

unanimity of Bush/Cheney's propaganda chorus, there was the difference in the world; nor did Kuttner's single piece,

all

how-

ever strong, a winning propaganda campaign make. In order to

accuse the Democrats of running such the right were forced to

On

make

it

those very few occasions

back to the mess

a drive,

the tribunes of

up.

when

a

Democrat would hark

in Florida four years before, the rightists

went

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

bananas.

On July

Sean Hannity reported that Rep. Corrine

16,

Brown (D-FL) had "had "while debating a

bill

107

that

a virtual

meltdown"

House,

in the

would allow international monitoring

November." 68 They showed

of the presidential election in

a clip

of Brown's remarks:

I

come from

Florida,

where you and others participated

the United States

call

coup

d'etat.

We

in

what

need to make sure that

I

it

doesn't happen again.

Over and over tion,

you came back here and

ing to get over

"'Coup disbelief.

when you

again, after the election, said,

And we want

it.

"Get over

verification

d'etat'! 'Stole the election'!"

it."

No, we're not go-

from the world.

sneered Hannity in

Mike Gallagher, introduced

made

the crucial link between the

friend," then

and the Democrats

like

as Sean's

it

— but the

in.

I

mean, I'm

really

real question, Sean,

is:

not sure

Is

if

Demo-

I'm convinced she represents what they're thinking. 69

Brown had spoken what was

the Democrats, they had a funny

abstaining (18 of

a vote

it.

minds of all

Her remarks

of 219 to 187, with 28

them Democrats, including Henry Waxman

and Dick Gephardt). 70

The

restrained language,

ton Post ran "Still

really in the

way of showing

were stricken from the record on

more

if

she just a

loose cannon or does she represent the heart and soul of the cratic Party?

"good

congresswoman

in general:

her medicine didn't kick

they will get over

In fact,

livid

"Will Democrats ever get over the 2000 election?"

Rightist shock jock

It's

stole the elec-

Seeking

debacle in Florida

on September a Fair Florida

27,

came up

when

again, in

the Washing-

Vote," an admonitory

FOOLED AGAIN

108

op-ed by

Jimmy

Carter.

Having co-chaired, with Gerald Ford,

the bipartisan commission that had led to Congress's passage of

Help America Vote Act (HAVA)

the

noted that

in 2002, Carter

"the Act's key provisions have not been implemented" and ex-

pressed his fear that "a repetition of the problems of 2000

seems it.

Governor Jeb Bush had done nothing

likely," as

While

carefully refraining

from

now

to prevent

a categorical indictment,

Carter ended with a bang:

It is

unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral

practices in any nation. It

Americans,

who

among

especially objectionable

is

us

have prided ourselves on setting a global example

for pure democracy.

With reforms

unlikely at this late stage of the

maximum

election, perhaps the only recourse will be to focus

public

scrutiny on the suspicious process in Florida.

Carter's piece

was wholly accurate

in every point

— and the

Republicans did not refute a one of them. Indeed, they

confirmed them

all

tacitly

by pounding on the table in an orgy of suspi-

cious fury, singling Carter out for repetitious personal abuse.

"The former Channel,

"is

president," snarled

now warning U.S.

John Gibson on Fox News

voters that

Team Bush

ing to steal the Florida election this year!"

Why? Well, Jimmy Jimmy Carter's term

71

is

prepar-

That warning was

outrageous!

Carter "was a calamity as presi-

dent,"

"shall live in infamy,"

Carter's "presidency created the worst

and most

my life

I

and the

Democrats

Florida!" Rep. ing!

man

They

lives

of every American

are hysterical!

The

then took his shot

bitter years

etc. "I

of

think the

president won the election in

Mark Foley (R-FL)

can't get over this!

knew,"

Jimmy

said

on

Four years

at that day's

CNN. 72

later!"

"It's

The

amaz-

congress-

major talking point,

al-

DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO UNTO YOU

though the have

effort

Jimmy

seemed

who

Carter,

109

"And now thev

to tax his eloquence:

I'm glad they are reminding us of the

Carter administration's handling of events during the '76

through '80!" (That day,

CNN's Judy Woodruff thus

on the controversy: "Carter

cites

what he

"reported"

highly partisan

calls

election officials and a lack of uniform voting procedures.

spokeswoman

The

responded by say-

for Florida's secretary of state

ing that the agency

is

run

A

in a, quote, 'nonpartisan manner.'")

next day, Jeb Bush himself sashayed into the protest, also

steamed, but with

homincm

"HI

assault

a

whole new talking point

(as yesterday's

445.

Mass disenfranchisement was also eased considerably by the use poll books, which became commonplace from coast to

87.

of computerized

coast after Election Day, 2004. The process of switching to that system

has entailed the "accidental" purging of countless Democratic voters.

See "Vote Suppression

in

2006: Rule Changes Threaten to Disenfran-

Hundreds of Thousands of

chise

Eligible Voters," Pacifica Radio,

De-

mocracy Now!, 10/31/06; http://www.democracynow.org/article.plPsids

06/10/3

1/1

502 IS; and Jason Leopold, "Severe Election Problems Seen

in 10 States,"

truthout.com, 10/26/06; http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/

102606Z.shtml.

The

88.

text

of the Ohio legislation

is

online at http://w ww.legislature.

state.oh.us/BillTextl267126_HB_3_EN_N.html. 89.

The

party wanted to

make such impediments

a

national require-

On

September 20, the House passed HR 4844, the Federal Election Integrity Act, which had been introduced by Henry Hyde in early March. The bill, which passed by a vote ment, and to do so by Election Day 2007.

of 228-196 ("with

The Hill reported

and proof of

a

small

later),

citizenship: a

citizens of color

The

all

—

presumably

impose "a twenty-first century legislation

may

to carry

photo I.D.s

in general, students, the disabled,

Senate never took

immediately sent Majority Leader

fierce response

crossing party lines," as

would-be voters

measure that would disenfranchise countless

and the poor

voters and the elderly. crats

number of lawmakers

required

a

up, because top

Bill Frist a letter

filibuster

poll tax"

it

—

if

the

GOP

on the people.

young

Demo-

threatening a

attempted to

"GOP

voter-ID

be casualty of Dems' takeover," The Hill, 11/15/06;

NOTES TO AFTERWORD

460

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/ 1 1

1506/voterid.html. This clash received

no coverage

in the corporate or

left/liberal press.

Shannon McCaffrey,

90.

"Justice

91.

Dan Eggen,

ington Post,

1

"Civil Rights

1/1 3/05,

Dan Eggen,

92.

Civil

Dept.'s

Retreating from Activist Roots," Knight- Ridder,

1

Rights Division

1/2 1/03.

Focus Shift Roils Staff At Justice," Wash-

Al

Banned

"Staff Opinions

in

Voting Rights Cases,"

Washington Post, 12/10/05, A3. 93.

Adam Nossiter, "U.S. Says New York Times, 10/1 1/06.

Blacks in Mississippi Suppress

White

Votes,"

94. Foxnews.com, 10/29/06, http://www.foxnews.eom/story/0, 293

,226142,00.html. 95.

The

investigation of Sequoia had been sparked by the concerns of

Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who formally requested it in May. However, Sequoia's ownership was only one of that lawmaker's many worries

—and the only one that Bush & Co. bothered to

about electronic voting

address, since only that

one gave them

a political advantage. (See http://mal-

oney.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=267& Itemid=61.) Earlier, another Democrat, Chicago Alderman Edward Burke, had raised the issue of Sequoia's ownership in terms more para-

"We've stumbled across what could be the international United States of America," he said on April 7, some three weeks after Illinois's primary elections the first electronic races in that state, and a major technical disaster. Burke evidently found it easier to blame Chavez for that meltdown than the quartet of Republicans and Democrats who had imposed noid than

civic:

conspiracy

[sic]

to subvert the electoral process in the

—

the bad

new system

in the first place.

"Alderman: Election Day troubles

could be part of 'international conspiracy,'"

WLS-TV,

Chicago, 4/7/06;

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=4065162.

There were two others not included here because I had not yet First, there was the news that countless New York Democrats with second homes in Florida were voting in both places, by sending absentee ballots down South. This claim was based on an expose by Russ Buettner in the New York Daily News nine weeks before the 2004 election, finding that some 46,000 New Yorkers were thus doubly registered, and that 68 percent of them were Democrats. It is unknown how many of them double-voted in 2000, nor did Buettner revisit the issue after the 2004 election, to determine how such double-voting figured in 96.

heard about them.

NOTES TO AFTERWORD Whether or not such

that race.

registration

is

are Democrats),"

voters actually cast two ballots, double

crime. "Exposed: Scandal of Double Voters

itself a

New

461

(68%

York Daily News, 8/21/04.

is no doubt that many Democrats were perpetrators, makes clear that members of both parties were involved, as two out of the three he interviewed were staunch Republicans. The point here, however, is surely not to exculpate all Democrats but to point out how the Bush Republicans reflexively deny their own enormous crimes by over-focusing on the far slighter wrongs of their opponents. Those New York Democrats who cast illegal votes in Florida not only broke the law for which they should be prosecuted but they were also

While there

Buettner's piece

—

—

playing a loser's game, as the Bush machine in Florida routinely interfered with Democratic efforts to vote absentee, and no doubt threw

those ballots out. (Indeed, crats

surprising that so

it is

248-49.) In any case,

many New York Demo-

from Florida: see pp. 236-37, such Democratic crimes appear to have been wholly

were able to receive absentee

independent of the national

party,

ballots

whereas the crimes of the Republicans

were evidently organized and/or subsidized directly by the CiOP.

We

ought to note the clear anti-Semitic subtext of the propaganda on

drive against the double voters, with Buettner's article appearing

such ultra-rightist websites poster noted on the latter

wintering

Free Republic and the neo-Nazi outfit

as

("WHITE PRIDE

Stormfront

in Florida,

I

site,

WORLD "since

WIDE"). "Interesting,'" one these were New York snowbirds

can guess their ethnicity (no they aren't Eski-

mos)," 8/22/04; http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php/

exposed-scandaldouble-voters-florida-1493 75.html?p=l

2

3045

5

post 12 3045 5.

good summary of the Rossi/Gregoire race, see Steve Freeman and Joel Bleifuss, Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?, pp. 75-79. Freeman demonstrates that the 19 DRE machines retired for freezing or vote-flipping favored the Republicans in every case, and by 97.

For

a

more than 50 98. least

percent.

Lehto estimates

that the

emachines grave Rossi an advantage of

at

3,000 votes. E-mail from Paul Lehto, 3/8/07.

99. It

is

also possible that

Maryland was meant

to be a

major

flash-

point of the post-election drive to cast the Democrats as the sole perpetrators of election fraud.

publican Diebold's

named Robert

DRE

There the governor, a stalwart Bush Remade quite a show of his distrust of

Ehrlich,

machines, especially after Maryland's disastrous primary

462

NOTES TO AFTERWORD

election on Sept. 12

— and

Maryland's Democrats reflexively (some

might say stupidly) defended the machines, accusing Ehrlich of trying to suppress the turnout on Election Day, and actually opposing his advice that Marylanders use paper ballots. (Rep. Steny Hoyer, a powerful Democrat and now the House majority whip, was an especially ardent champion of e-voting technology and had been since he helped get HAVA passed in Congress in 2002.) Thus Maryland's Democrats played it seems quite unlikely that the and before Election Day 2006, the

right into their adversaries' hands, as

governor's position was sincere.

Maryland at

GOP

mounted

a large

On

disinformation effort, aimed primarily

Baltimore, on behalf of Michael Steele's campaign for Senator against

Democrat Ben Cardin.

See, for example, "At Steele Rally, All Is

Not Quite What It Appears," Washington Post, 9/24/06, C4; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/ 2006/09/23/AR2006092300889.html; and "Reid: Robo Calls Make Legislative

Hit List," tpmmuckraker.com,

11/16/06, http://www.

tpmmuckraker.com/archives/cats/michael_steele.

For further evidence of plans to charge the Democrats with fraud

Maryland 100.

(as well as

in

Pennslyvania), see p. 382.

"McKay: Hastings'

office called

about probing Gregoire's elec-

tion," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3/6/07.

Cannon, "Indicted GOP Moneyman Tied 'Voting Rights' Group," bradblog.com, 8/15/05; http://www.bradblog.com/Pp-1708. Cannon's blog is a good synthesis of several sources, including the Democratic Party's response 101.

On ACVR,

To ACVR,

the

see Joseph

Phony

to the Center's report:

GOP

"ACVR

Report Riddled with Errors and Partisan

Spin," posted on 8/9/05, at http://www.democrats.Org/a/2005/08/ acvr_report_rid.php. 102. Richard Wolf, "Report refutes fraud at poll sites," USAToday,

10/11/06; http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-10-pollfraud-report_x.htm.

Wayne Journal Gazette editorial quoted on "Masson's Blog: Guide to Indiana," 5/30/06; http://www.masson.us/blog/ ?p=1468. For an authoritative essay on the myth of "voter fraud," see Tova Wang, "Where's the Voter Fraud?" bradblog.com, 12/8/06, 103. Ft.

A

Citizen's

http://www.bradblog.com/Pp-3891. the expurgated 104.

EAC

Wang

co-authored the

initial draft

report.

Ben Goddard, "Bush, post Labor Day," The

Hill,

9/7/06.

of

NOTES TO AFTERWORD 105. Michael Collins,

"Zogby

Poll: Voters

Scoop,

Election,"

Presidential

Questions

463

Outcome of 2004

http://www.scoop.co

9/25/06;

.nz/stories/HL0609/S00346.htm.

Michael Alvarez, Thad E. Hall and Morgan Llewellyn, "Ameri-

106.

A

can Confidence in Electronic Voting and Ballot Counting:

Pre-

Election Update," 11/3/06; http://www.annenberg.edu/files/2006-Voter-

Confidence-Survey.pdf. 107. Interviews with Friedman, Stewart,

whom

Gideon and

Fitrakis, all of

had closely monitored both the 2004 and 2006 elections.

(Fitrakis

team were focused on Ohio, while the others kept track of reports his nine, there were considerably more voter hotlines and nationwide.)

and

his

I

trouble-shooting organizations than there had been on the previous Election Day.

which

I

of data

This range ot services reaped mi

have largel) based is,

my

immense amount of

overview ot the

as ot this writing, still

under review

2006 In

activists

(Once again the Election Incident Reporting System ing, with the toll-tree

number I -866-OUR-VOTE,

functioned temporarily, tailing to record early

a

election.

data,

Ili.u

on

trove

and scholars.

— EIRS — was operatbut this tune

single call for

it

mal-

some three hours

on Election Dav.)

George Merritt and katv Human, "Voting problems overwhelm Post, 1/8/06; Susan Miller Degnan, "Ballot problem de1/07/06. lays voting 90 minutes in Deerfield Beach," Miami Herald, 109. See "Robo-calls in the 2006 campaign," Pew Internet and American Life Project, Washington, DC, 12/20/06; http://www. pewinternet.org/pilfs/PIP_Robocalls06.pdf; "Robo-Calls and Other 2006 Election Irregularities," Center for Media and Democracy, Madison, \VI, 11/21/06; http://www.prwatch.org/node/5494; Paul Rogat Eoeb, "Think Globally, Protect the Vote Locally," Free Press, 12/1/06; 108.

city,"

The Denver

1

1

http://www.treepress.org/departments/display/19/2006/2266.

The

use

of robo-calls and other dirty tricks was so egregious that Sen. Harry Reid promised swift legislative action from the Democrats. '"We need to

make

these criminal penalties,' Reid said, saying that

apparently not enough to deter what happened week's election." robo-calls,

Tim

Grieve,

phone sample

civil liability

was

run-up to

last

in the

"War Room: Reid vows

ballot," Salon,

1

legislation

on

1/16/06; http://www.salon.com/

politics/war_room/2006/ll/16/voting/index.html. 110. Jeff E. Schapiro, "FBI looks into voter intimidation," TimesDispatch.com (website of the Richmond Times-Dispatch), 11/7/06.

NOTES TO AFTERWORD

464

The

on

FBI's investigation in Virginia received widespread press attention

Election Day.

On

111.

coverage

the Busby/Bilbray race in 2006, see Brad Friedman's excellent

in

bradblog.com, especially his update posted on 1/10/07;

http://www.bradblog.com/?cat=2, as well as that

Ken

Simpkins's guest blog on

New CA SoS Against San Diego's County 1/10/07 (ibid). On this subject I also interviewed

"Complaint Filed with

site,

Registrar Mikel Haas,"

Friedman and Paul Lehto.

"Can you imagine what those people look

112.

"Halloween

all

over again!" Ingraham,

who

Thomas

University of Virginia, clerked for Clarence nineties. line,"

like?" she added.

has a law degree from the in the early

"Laura Ingraham Tells Listeners to Jam Voter Protection Hot-

thinkprogress.com, 11/7/06; http://thinkprogress.org/2006/ll/

07/ingraham-voter-line. 113. Caitlin Price, settles,"

Thomas

114.

"New Hampshire

GOP

phone jamming case

The Jurist: Legal News and Research, 12/2/06. B. Edsall,

"GOP

Official Faces Sentence in

Phone-

Jamming," The Washington Post, 5/17/06. 115. "Leahy Calls on Justice Department to Investigate Laura Ingraham's Phone Jamming," ThinkProgress, posted 11/17/06; http:// thinkprogress. org/2006/1 1/1 7/leahy-ingraham-vote. 116. Officials claimed that

all

those under- votes were simply

a result

of

the excessive nastiness of the Buchanan/Jennings race, which, they argued,

moved

those 18,000 citizens to vote for neither candidate.

ocrats alone

were thus affected

is

a question that that

address. In any case, a comprehensive count of 1

3

devastates that talking point.

ter the election, the rate

had been reporting, but

on absentee

"The

3

few days

FL af-

percent, as the media

ballots.

under vote is 2.6 percent for absentee ballots reof the argument that the race was very ugly, turning off a whole bunch of people did not vote in the race. How

fact that the

voters, [so that] it

1

a

over 16 percent, with 2.6 percent of them

—and therefore paper—

veals the fallacy

can

the under-votes in

As John Gideon pointed out

of under-votes was not a little

all

Why the Dem-

argument does not

who voted on who voted on pa-

be that the nasty campaign only affected voters

touch screen voting machines and not their neighbors per? (And

away by any late and particularly vicious were early voting or 'not voting' according to the results for two weeks before the election on the touch screen machines as well.)" John Gideon, "The Sarasota Triangle," VoteTrustUSA, 11/12/06; it

can't be explained

ads, since voters

—

—

NOTES TO AFTERWORD

465

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&

id=2025&Itemid=113. 117. "Paper Ballots

Are Better

(NM

Case Study)," ePluribus Media,

2/26/07; http://scoop.epluribusmedia.Org/story/2007/2/26/205229/794. is a version of her study, "2004 and 2006 Mexico Canvass Data Shows Undervote Rates Plummet in MinorPrecincts When Paper Ballots are Used," which is posted on the

This blog by Ellen Theisen

New ity

website of VotersUnitet.org, at http://www.votersunite.org/info/NM_

UVbyBallotTypeandKthnicity.pdf. Theisen worked on the data with Warren Stewart and Theron Morton. E-mail from Theron Horton, 3/4/07. IIS.

"When

Paul Krugman,

11/24/06; E.J. Dionne,

Jr.,

New

Votes Disappear,"

York

Times-,

"An Electronic Canary," Washington

Post,

11/24/06. 119. Curtis's affidavit

is

online at http://www.bradblog.com/Docs/

ClintCurtis/CC_Affidavit_120604.pdf.

Friedman has covered the good overview ot his reportage, see the update that he posted on his site on Aug. 28, 2006, http://www.bradblog.com/ClintC Airtis.htm. For his refutation of Feeney's 120. Curtis's foremost

story scrupulously

champion

from the

start.

online,

For

a

claims, see http://www.bradblog.com/Ppage_ids3980.

My

account

is

also

based on interviews with Friedman and with Curtis himself. 121. Catherine Dolinski and Christian

M. Wade,

"3

Democrats Con-

Wins by Incumbents," The Tampa Tribune, 1/12/07. 122. Christian Wade, "Russell Contests Brown-Waite's

test

tory,"

John

Tampa

Tribune, 1/5/07.

My account

is

also based

Election Vic-

on interviews with

Russell.

123. Catherine Dolinski and Christian also based

M. Wade,

op.

cit.

on interviews with Frank Gonzalez. Democratic challenger

124. In the state's 4th district,

My

Patti

account

is

Cox con-

tested the re-election of incumbent Jim McCrery, on the grounds that he was not a resident of Louisiana when the race occurred, as required by law.

Formerly ington,

a resident

DC, some

of Shreveport,

McCrery had moved his family to WashDay 2006, and he did not

18 months before Election

maintain a residence in Louisiana. See http://louisianafourth.blogspot.com, for the text

of Cox's lawsuits.

"Rage Against the (Voting) Machine," Red Herring, 11/7/06; http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspxPas 1 96 1 0&hed=Rage+Against+th 125.

e+(Voting)+Machine.

The machine problems

in

Tennessee were,

as ever,

NOTES TO AFTERWORD

466

downplayed by the corporate press. "There were some reports this morning of problems with voting machines, glitches at least, but there were also reports at least some of those problems were fixed," CNN's Joe Johns told Kyra Phillips at 3 p.m. EST. CNN.com, 11/7/06; http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0611/07/cnr.07.html.

North Carolina's 8th district, the very narrow "loss" by Larry incumbent Robin Hayes a margin of 339 votes was identical to Christine Jennings's razor-thin "defeat" by Vern Buchanan in Florida's 13 th district. Michael Collins argued that both contests were decided by extraordinary rates of Democratic under-votes cast on the iVotronic DRE machines provided by ES&S, and also that, as the undervotes in Florida cropped up in largely Democratic Sarasota, those in North Carolina were oddly concentrated in largely Democratic Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, the state's largest city. Michael Collins, "Wrong Winner Chosen Twice by Same Voting Machine," Scoop, 126. In

—

—

Kissell to

1/15/07; http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00173.htm.

However,

Collins's data

was soon rigorously questioned by other rep-

utable students of that race. See

"NC08

—Facts

Dist Election to Florida 13th

'Scoop' Missed," BlackBoxVoting.com, 1/16/07; blackboxvoting.com/s9/

index.phpP/archives/

1

79-NC-08th-Dist-Election-to-Florida-l 3th-Facts

-Scoop-Mssed.html; "Time to Doff the Tin Foil vote in

NC-08," The Southern Dem,

Why NC 08 in

is

not the same as

FL

1

3

— No Suspicious Under-

1/18/07; and Joyce

McCloy, "NC:

even though the iVotronic was used

both races," Oregon Voter Rights Coalition, 1/20/07; http://www.

oregonvrc.org/2007/01/nc_why_nc_08_is_not_the_same_as_fl_13_even_ though_the_ivotronic_was_used_in_both_races. As case for fraud in the Hayes/Kissell contest

McCloy

must be made

notes, the

as carefully as

possible.

The

127.

late

surge that had

Hackett trakis

surge of ballots putting her on top recalled the late

let

her beat the well-liked Democratic challenger Paul

in the district's special election

and Harvey Wasserman, "Did the

on Aug.

GOP

2,

Steal

2005. See

Bob

Fi-

Another Election?"

Free Press, 8/5/05; http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/

2005/1398. 128. ful

We

winners

must therefore look not only "lost,"

but also

at

at

those races where the right-

those races that the rightful winners

won

by fewer ballots than were really cast for them. In Sheridan County, Wyoming, for example, Democratic challenger Gary Trauner unseated

NOTES TO AFTERWORD

467

GOP

incumbent Barbara Cubin by 1,012 votes. As the county uses op-scanners, and Trauner's margin seemed surprisingly low, a trio of local citizens demanded a recount on principle, and as a check on the

ES&S

e-voting system. (Although he recognized the dangers of e-voting runs an Internet Service Provider tives

—Trauner stayed out of

it.)

Such

should always be encouraged. Michael Collins, "Three

Democrats Take

— he

initia-

Wyoming

Stand for Democracy," Scoop Independent News,

a

1/22/07; http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00247.htm. 129. Robert Brandon,

"Re-Cap of Election Day Problems and Solu-

tions for Future Presidential Elections," VoteTrustUSA.org,

11/10/06;

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie&

id=2020&Itemid=26. 130. Michael Shear,

"Webb Has

a

Slim Edge Over Allen, But Recount

Likely," Washington Post, 11/08/06; http://wwu.uashingtonpost.com/

wp-dyn/content/article/2 006/1 1/07/AR20061 10701844.html. 131.

"GOP

KCKA.com,

1

Officials Call to

Impound Voting Machines," KDKA/AP;

1/7/06; http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_31

1

19463 5

.html.

132.

no one

The

party's

else.

KDKA/AP,

See

charge of pro-Casey vote-flipping was reconfirmed by

"GOP

Officials Call to

local_story_311194635.html; nor, as of

come

Impound Voting Machines,"

Pittsburgh, 11/7/06, 8:21 p.m.; http://kdka.com/topstories/

to light.

Not

that the machines

this writing,

have any such claims

worked properly. "Pennsylvania was

another state that saw extremely widespread problems with electronic voting

machines across multiple counties." Jon Stokes, "Electronic voting: the catastrophe," Ars Technica,

post/20061

1

silent

11/14/06; http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/

14-8223.html. Pennsylvania was likewise bedeviled

election: see pp. 175-77.

in

the 2004

—

as in San Diego, 133. A few of those endorsements were lukewarm where the staunchest Christianists were troubled by the fact that Brian Bilbray is pro-choice. A canny operator, he campaigned not as a champion of "moral values" but as a dogged hunter of illegals sneaking in

from Mexico. 134. "As of Friday afternoon, the

prominendy on

a

Web

site

Colorado Republican was featured

representing the Harrison, Ark.-based Knights

Party, described as 'America's Largest, Oldest

Rights Organization

and Most Professional White

—We Love You.'"

"The Knights introduce Musgrave

this

way:

468

NOTES TO AFTERWORD

'"During her eight years in the Colorado Legislature, Musgrave, the mother of four and grandmother of five, co sponsored a successful 2000 bill that defined a marriage as a union between one man and one woman. She has also pressed the legislature to pass laws expanding the right to carry concealed weapons, requiring doctors to provide brochures and a videotape to women seeking abortions, lowering the tax burden for families,

more

stringent immigration laws,

homosexuals

illegal,

opposes slave reparations. She

"They

making adoption of children by

upholding the rights of ranchers and farmers, and she

also reference her

now

work

serves as a U.S. Representative. to pass a constitutional

outlaw same-sex marriage. According to the out that the homosexual

movement

is

Web

now making

site,

amendment

to

'Musgrave points

use of the

many

liberal

judges appointed during the Clinton administration. Homosexuals are

going to unelected judges to get their way rather than going through the legislative process.'"

Mary Ann

Akers,

"What What What?"

Roll Call,

5/22/06. 135.

Mary Jo Melone, "A Switch

is

Thrown, and God Speaks,"

St.

Petersburg Times, 7/13/99, IB. 136.

Ohio Restoration

Project, http://www.ohiorestorationproject

.com/overview.php.

Simon and Bruce O'Dell, "Landslide Denied: Exit Polls Vote Count 2006; Under-sampling of Democrats in the House Exit Poll 137. Jonathan

vs.

and the Corruption of the

Official

Vote Count,"

Election Defense Alliance,

11/16/06; http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/landslide_denied_exit_

polls_vs_vote_count_2006. 138. Jackson Thoreau, "Republican puds of today run dirtiest campaigns in history," dailykos.com, 10/27/06; http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/

10/27/175358/42. 139. Post,

Michael Grunwald, "The Year of Playing Dirtier," The Washington

10/27/06, Al; "Attack ad claims Rep. Miller voted to fund sex research

but not body armor," FactCheck.org (Annenberg Political Fact Check), 9/27/06; http://www.factcheck.org/article442.html.

An

book could be written on that journalistic double stanGerry Studds, Gary dard, which, pre-Foley, always savaged Democrats largely leaving while Clinton, Gary Condit Bill Hart, Barney Frank, coverage of any the compare is instructive to rightist "deviates" alone. It Lukens's Buz silence on Rep. general stories with the press's of the former (R-OH) frolic with a 16-year-old girl in 1989 (a bit of sport for which he'd paid her mother), the Washington Ti?nes's expose of the vast male 140.

entire

— —

NOTES TO AFTERWORD prostitution ring in Bush/Quayle's tragic

mess

at rightist Hillsdale

dent having had herself

a

long

affair

when he decided

to

White House,

College

own

with his

remarry

—

Newt

St?-eet

and the

institution's presi-

daughter-in-law,

who

killed

in 1999, right after the hysterical

brouhaha over Clinton's brief consensual William Bennett, Hall

also in 1989,

— that pious

469

fling with

Monica Lewinksy.

Journal writer John Fund, Henry Hyde,

RNC

chair Ken Mehlman, and Rick Perry, governor of more recent beneficiaries of our media's selective blindBush himself. ness, as has George 141. Years before he went to work as a reporter and then hitched his star to Watergate, Woodward knew the inner workings of the WhiteHouse fairly well. As a liaison officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Adm. Thomas Moorer, Woodward paid weekly visits to the White House

Cingrich,

Texas, have been

W

Basement, where he formally briefed Al Haig, aide to

I

lenn Kissinger (and who moved up

Staff in 1973, facts

to

at that

White

I

once Haldeman and Khrlichman had been

have been

Silent Coup:

who

fully

time was a top louse Chief ot let go).

documented by Len Colodny and Robert

The Ran oval of a President (New York, 1991) and,

These

Gettlin,

in particular,

Adrian Havill, Deep Truth: The Lizes of Boh Wood-card and Carl Bernstein (New York, 1993). While Silent Coup includes some highly controversial

John Dean, the book deals soundly with Bob Woodward's background, as does Havill's book. 142. ABC News, 11/7/06, 1:35 p.m. EST. 143. "First Read: The Day in Politics" msnbc.mcn.com, 11/7/06, 3:09

claims, especially about

p.m. EST; http://firstread.msnbc.msn.eom/archive/2006/l 1/07/12 137.aspx.

On MSNBC, Flection

Day

tom of the

during Tucker Carlson's interview with Rick Santorum on

4 p.m. EST, this caption appeared on the botDemocrat and get nuked?"

a little after

screen: "Vote

144. Cliff Brunt, "2 Ind. Counties have 1

machine woes," Associated

1/7/06; httpy/w^ww.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/l

Warren Stewart. By thus obsessing on the "horse

Press,

595044 l.htm.

145. Interview with 146.

race," moreover, the

TV pundits

indirectly serve the interests of their parent companies; for

media

cartel itself that ultimately gets the billions raised

by

it is

all

the

those

candidates in their respective efforts to improve their "image" and/or "get their message out." "This biannual financial windfall is why the commercial broadcasters steadfastly oppose any viable form of campaign finance reform, or any system that would allocated broadcast time for free to candidates," writes

Robert

W McChesney. "They

claim that

it is

470

NOTES TO AFTERWORD

their First profit."

Amendment

right to

While thus protecting

dia cartel has also served itself

do whatever they want to maximize enormous stream of revenue, the me-

that

by reporting almost nothing of importance

throughout the campaign season. "Broadcasters have

little

incentive to

them to purchase time to publicize their campaigns. And as TV ads become the main form of information, broadcast news has little or no interest in examining the cover candidates, because

it is

in their interest to force

made in these ads, as that might antagonize their wealthy benefacMcChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (Urbana and London: University of Illinois Press, 1999),

claims tors."

263-64.

Index

America Coming Together (ACT),

Abbott, Greg, 141

Abramson, Jill,

66, 68

174,231

Abramoff, Jack, 364

Absentee ballot problems,

.

xv,

Imerican Blackout (Inaba), 357

American Center

375,

461n96, 464nll6 in Florida,

lor Voting Rights

(ACVR), 363-365

212-213,228-229,

American Information Industries, 194-195

230,236-237,238-239, 241-242

America Votes, 161, 163,424n87

in

Ohio, 28, 31,32,36

Andrews, Owen, 183

in

other

Abu

states, 136, 176,

Annenberg Center of Communication, 367

184-185

253,269 Accenture eDemocracy Services, 215-218,253-254 Ghraib,xiii,

Anschutz, Philip, 74, 77

Anthony,

ACLU, 10,209,219,352

ACORN,

Bill,

334, 335, 336,

454n59,454nn60, 61

119, 120, 121, 172,295

Arcuri, Michael, 383

Adams, Doug, 386-387 AFL-CIO, 205-206

Armed Madhouse

Agostini, Joseph, 213

Arnebeck,

Ahmanson, Howard, 74

Arno,

Air America, 105, 318, 356, 374,

Arno

for,

451n33 Allard,

Bill,

Cliff,

306

Political Associates,

164-165

Arnold, Jeffrey, 223

Arnold, Rita, 263-264

Wayne, 350

Ashcroftjohn,

Allen, Mike, 56

At Any

3

blackout

165,425n95

Allen, George, 370, 378, 379

AlterNet,

(Palast),

321-322

Cost:

76, 170, 222, 281

How Al Gore

Steal the Election

1

91-92

Alvarez, Michael, 367

471

Tried

to

(Sammon),

INDEX

472

Backus, Jenny, 292-293

purging

Badnarik, Michael, 10

tactics of, 21, 26,

Bagdikian, Ben, 270

by,

339

Tony, 261

Bai, Matt, 57

Blair,

Baker, James, 90

Blake, Renee, 147

Baker, Russ, 273, 333-337, 457n58,

Blankley, Tony, 75

454n60,455n62

Bleifuss, Joel,

Bandow, Doug, 9 Banse,

27-29, 34, 37,

170,204

320-321

Blinded by the Right (Brock), 66

Adam, 162

Blitzer,

Wolf, 323,348, 355, 387

Barbian, Michael, Jr., 33-34

Blount, Winton, 273

Barkhausen, John, 356

Blumenthal, Sidney, 102n, 262

Barnes, Fred, 111

Bock, Alan

Barnes, Roy, 350

Boehlert, Sherwood, 301

Barr, Bob, 8, 10,

W,

10

Boehner, John, 377

11,69

Bates, Julia, 45

Bohannon, Jim, 318

Bauer, Gary, 68

Bolinger, Neil D., 223

Bearman, Joshuah, 106

Bolton, John, 33

Beck, Glenn, 331

Bond, Julian, 139, 177

Beckerman, Ray, 357

Bonifaz, John, 306

Beckel, Bob, 96

Bonior, David, 193-194

Becker, Jo, 225

Borde, Connie, 243

Behler, Rob, 351,353

Bowen, Debra, 354

Benjamin, Medea, 227 Bennett, William, 90, Berry,

Mary

Bowles, Erskine,

Best, Randy,

1

Bragg, Lisa, 159-160, 161, 162

Brakeyjohn, 132-133

56

Money Can

Buy, The

322

(Palast),

84

446n4

Frances, 271

Beschloss, Michael, 325

Best Democracy

1

Boxer, Barbara, 22, 23, 24, 296,

1 1

Brancaccio, David, 105, 316 Brasch, Walter, 264-265

New

Beverly, Alaina, 186

Brave

Bidenjoe, 296, 389

Brazile,

24, 355,

Bilbray, Brian, 314, 315, 316, 370,

Broad, William, 270

463nl09,467nl33 Bingaman, Jeff, 150

Brock, David, 52, 68, 74

Blackwell,

J.

Kenneth, 295, 308,

311-312, 380, 446n6

Anthony election

454n59 reform amendments by, and, 335, 336,

312,313

316 447nl3

Ballot (Rubin),

Donna,

Brokaw, Tom, 276 Brooks, David, 331

Brown, Corrine, 107 Brown, Floyd, 68 Brown, Gary, 48

Brown- White, Ginny, 375, 380

INDEX

473

Buchanan, Vern, 372, 466nl26

Campaign for America's Future, 76 Campaign Legal Center, 79

Buchanan, Wyatt, 41

Campbell, Robert, 17-18

Buchanan, Pat,

Bufford, Rivers,

11,331

10,

207

III,

Burdish, Dan, 135,419nl

Carlberg, Dick, 225 Carlson, Tucker, 105, 110, 323, 326, 355,469nl43

Burns, Conrad, 378, 379 Burr, Richard, 184

Carr, Chris, 166

Busby, Francine, 314, 370, 372,

Carter,

463nl08 Bush, George H.W. 57-59, 60-61,

Casey, Bob, 379

376,

68

Jimmy, 107-109, 306 362

(-astro, Fidel,

Cates, Sidney,

Bush, George

P.,

Cato

242

Bush, George W., 298, 469nl40 approval ratings

2-3, 261, 262

for,

debate wiring and, 41, 56-57,

270

1

86

7-8

Cavuto,Neil, 323, 348

Center for Inquiry (CFI), 274

Center for Responsive

Politics,

168

democracy and, 390 election fraud and, 293, 294,

303, 305-306,

358-359

international view of, 261,

military service of,

unpopularity

Woodward

of,

271-274

366

criticism of, 385, 386

270-271,385,386 Cerda, Maria, 143-144 Cevallos, Diego,

1

44

Chaddock, Gail

Russell, 78

Chalcedon Foundation, 131

Chambers, Teresa, 271 Chambliss, Saxby, 94-95, 137,

Bush, Jeb, 9-10, 197 elections and, 108, 109, 111,

193,213,223,430n59 list

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),

Chabot, Steve, 377

279-280

felons

Institute,

and, 215, 216,

218-219,220-221 Bush, Laura, 84, 265

350,352 Chastain, Dwight, 199-200

Chavez, Hugo, 362, 363, 460n95 Chelsea Commercial Enterprises, 73

Bush at War (Woodward), 385

Cheney, Dick, 9-10, 84-85,

Buzzflash, 356

110-111,217, 366, 410n8 Chernomyrdin, Viktor, 73

Byrd, Robert, 296

Chinea, Frank, 142

Byrne, John, 292

Choicepoint/DBT, 214-215,

Bush

v.

Gore, 90, 207

"Caging," 28,

221-224

Campaign financing, 469-470nl46^

311, 390,

436nlll Chomsky, Noam, 345, 456n69 Christian Coalition, 68, 93, 94, 132,

155-156,380

474

INDEX

Christian Exodus, 181,

427n24

Christian Reconstructionism/

dominionism, 131-132 Christianists, 367, 380, 386,

6,

389

Citizens for Legitimate

Government, 273 Citizens for Responsibility and

Ethics in Washington, 75-76,

395n2

Common

Cause, 209

Comstock, Barbara, 76 Congressional Black Caucus, 296 Congressional Ethics Coalition, 79

Conspiracy theories, 294, 323, 329,

332,334

78 Clark, Nikki Ann, 220

Clean Elections

Constitution Restoration Act, 93,

275

Clark, Ramsey, 326

Law

(Arizona),

Conyers, John,

xvii,

278, 296, 301,

319,333-334

157 Cleland, Max, 94-95, 137, 296,

Cleveland, Hillary,

Coors, Peter, 74, 173 1

Cleveland, James Colgate, 11 Bill,

See also Preserving Democracy:

What Went Wrong in Ohio

350,352,353 Clem, Kay, 219

Clinton,

Committee for the Study of the American Electorate (CSAE),

2-3,55, 69, 71,79,

Coppersmith, Sam, 155 Corker, Bob, 376

Corn, David, 89, 331,332 Coulter, Ann, 104-105,311,331

130,296 Clinton, Hillary, 295, 296, 389,

Council of Concerned Citizens

446n4 Cobb, David, 306

(CCC), 10 Count Every Vote Act 446n4

Cockburn, Alexander, 332, 333, 454nn55, 56

(2004), 177,

Cox, Cathy, 95-96, 308, 353,

457n75, 458n80

Cohen, Adam, 42, 324 Cohn, James, 209, 211

Cox News

"Coingate" scandal, 37, 405n59

Craft, Paul,

Colbert, Stephen, 324, 326

Crier, Catherine, 316, 324,

Coleman, Norm,

Crowe, William, 12 Cunningham, Randy, 314

93-94, 95,

413n31,420nl8,457n76 College Republicans, 172, 188 Collier, Robert,

252

Collins, Michael, 357, 466nl26

Service, 94, 261

218 326

Curry, Victor T., 356 Curtis, Clint, 373-375, 433n80,

465nl20

Collins, Peter B., 318, 356

Colmes, Alan, 91

Dairy of a

Committee

Damschroder, Matt, 335

for the Scientific

Investigation of Claims of the

Paranormal (CSICOP), 274

Political Tourist (Pelosi), 5

Danforth, John, 64, 65, 66, 70,

407nnl9, 20

INDEX

Danforth,

Sally,

65

collusion by,

Daschle, Tom, 150-151,

152, 193

David, Laurie, 328

voter intimidation and, 109-1

Oliver, 357

DBT/Choicepoint,

2

14-2

1

5,

Diaz-Balart, Lincoln, 375

Dean, Howard, 71, 296, 299-300, 445nl,447nl3 Dean, John, 295, 469n 141 Fouloy, Christian D., 242-243,

440n6

Did George IV Bush Steal America s

2004

Election (Fitrakis,

Wasserman and

Rosenfeld),

319 Diebold, 332,336, 349, 351,

457n76

DeHaven-Smith, Lance, 321 DeLay, Christine, 72

Cleland defeat and, 352

DeLay, Tom, 341,377

connections

attacks by, 70,

74-79, 82, 409n68

ethical problems/investigations

and, 72-73, 79,

power/influence

DRE machines by,

104n

353-354

295, 450n29,

461n99

408n49

of, 69, 70, 7

of, 51, 92,

decertification of, 302,

1

elections and,

xiv,

51, 92, 93, 94,

72, 79-80, 82, 407n43

95-96, 104n, 137, 138,277

redisricting plan of, 361

problems with, 300, 302, 316,

Preserving Democracy and, 24,

projectivity of, 71-72, 74-79,

461n99

DiPietre, Jacob, 198

Diplomats and Military

409n70' Texas gerrymandering by, 69,

72,79,278-279 Delli Carpini,

Michael X., 321

Demarkis, Megan, 190-191 at Risk:

The 2004

Election in Ohio"

(DNC),

297, 298 Democratic National Committee

(DNC),

359,

Dionne, E. J., 373

112, 115-116

"Democracy

1

DeVos, Richard, 74

436nlll

De

1

election fraud and, 103-109,

296,308-309,310,329,348, 361-365, 384

David, Larry, 328

Dawshed,

308-309

cross-over support and,

Darby, Joe, 141

475

297, 298

election fraud and, 299, 348,

355,447nl3 Democratic Underground, 356 Democrats/Democratic Party

Commanders for Change (DMCC), 11-12 Dische, Irene, 263

Disenfranchisement, 308, 358, 366, 389,

459n89

mass, 298, 360, 368, 459n87 tricks for, 317,

342

Dobbs, Lou, 43, 316, 320, 387, 389 Dodd, Christopher, 290, 453n45 Doddridge, Joseph, 127 Doherty, Will, 40 Doolittle, James, 129

Dopp, Kathy, 356

NDEX

476

Republican

Doster, Brett, 221

Dowd, Matthew, Dowd, Maureen,

DRE machines, paper

trails

105

3 12,

as

363,

457n76

with, 315

problems with, 297, 300, 316,

317,335,351,359,368,369, receipts from, 314, 358 of,

minute

activities,

Republican "miracle," 1-7,

395n2

19,

in South, states'

177-178

overview, 135-142

Election Assistance

Commission

(EAC), 256-257, 365

372,379,386 shortage

last

172-174

142

Election.com, 216, 217 Election Defense Alliance (EDA),

339

Drudge, Matt/Drudge Report,

381,382 Election fraud, 295-296, 307, 316,

102n, 109, 174

Dugger, Ronnie, 331, 351,

453n52

384 addressing, 290, 303, 340,

456n69

Durante, Laurie, 175-176

blacks and, 362

Durbin, Dick, 296

charges

Dvorin, Seth, 265

conspiracy theories and, 323, 329

of,

358-359

Dyer, Stephen, 44

Democratic Party and, 296, 329

Dyke, Jim, 364

evidence

of,

293, 294, 295, 297,

300, 303

Eagle Forum, 77

e-voting machines and, 333

Earle, Ronnie, 71

focus on, 356

Earnhardt, David, 357

left

Eaton, Sherole, 33-34, 122,

media and, 316, 329, 331,355,

337-338, 402n33

Edwards, John, 50, Electile Dysfunction

by,

357

296 (Take Back the

Media), 357

Eisenhower,

D wight,

129

Eisenhower, John, 8 Election (2002), voting

machine/manufacturers and,

92,93,94,95-96, 196-197 in, xiii-xv,

81-86, 169-170

racism and, 139-142, 149-152,

178,203

minimizing, 334, 345 variations in,

345-346

Election Incident Reporting

System (EIRS), 182,223, 229-237 Election reform, 290, 292, 293, 390 Florida and, 193-194, 195,

214-215 need

for, xii, xvi-xvii,

357,

311-312,

359,446n4

"Elections: Electronic Voting

Election (2004) fraud

456n69

356

Ecological Options Network,

documentary

and, 330-331, 355,

Systems Are Under Way, but

Key Activities Need to Be Completed" (GAO), 300

INDEX

Elliott, Ellis,

Fadiman, Dorothy, 357

Jon, 356

John, 87

Fahrenheit 9/11, 23, 253, 263

Eisner, Alan, 139

Family Research Council,

Emanuel, Rahm, 296, 389 Erickson, Stephanie, 163-164

Faraj, Alia,

ES&S,xiv, 51,92,94, 138, 183,

Karris,

op-scanners

by,

I

instigation

(FWAB),250

368-369

Feeney,Tom,201,222,223, ()

Feinstein, Dianne, 296

sophistries against, 355

Fell, Travis,

132

Ferro, Dani Delay, 72

E-voting, 308, 359, 385, $86 316, 384, 460n95,

466nl28

Feulner,

Edward j., 259-260

Finnell, Val. 130

E-voting machines, 300, 304, 317,

First

L31

Amendment, 51-52,

86, 343,

388,463nl07

360, 366

conspiracy theories and, 332 election fraud and, 314, 333

monitoring, 382, 383

1

list

Amendment Foundation, 219

Fitrakis, RobertJ., 301, 333, 337,

problems with, 295, 322,332,

349,363,378,379,381,383 4-6, 18, 28-29, 43-44,

339,

463nl07

blackout

books

by,

320 319-320

for,

disenfranchisement and, 368

336, 370

problems with, 320-321, 346

election reform and,

weighted, 381-382

on Hertsgaard, 338

Expatriate America voting,

legal struggle by,

absentee ballots and, 241-242,

244-247, 254, 257

12

306

Fleischer, Ari, 194

Fletcher,

243-251,

256-257 numbers of, 240, 440nnl,

3

Flanders, Laura, 318, 356

240-241,257-258

difficulties with,

386

federal Write-in absentee Ballot

mounting, 295, 296, 297, 300,

Exit polls,

t

Program, 244-24-. 254, 257

357

347

of,

(

Federal Bureau

Evidence, 293, 303, 384

dangers

Don, 248-24 ;, 250

Federal Voting Assistance

Evans, Don, 364

refusal of,

205

(FBI), 303, 339, 370,

igilance (Earnhardt),

lack of,

64,

Michael, 133

Farthing,

466nl28

Estrada, Oscar R., 253 I

5,

68, 75, 90

194-198,300,351,373 DRE machines by, 372, 466nl26

Eternal

477

7

Mindy Tucker,

100, 103,

221,223,234 Florida 2000 election Fox calling, 87, 226, 411nl3

NDEX

478

Fox News, 87, 88-89, 92, 108, 153,226,362 on Dean/voter suppression, 299-300 Kennedy and, 323, 348 Francis, Mike, 269 Frank, Barney, 296, 468nl40

Florida 2000 election (continued) irregularities in, 69, 87,

106-107, 187,241-242,

411nl3,430n59 recount riot and, 32-33, 69 Florida 2004 election

absentee ballot problems and,

212-213,228,230,236-237

Frank, Lani, 263

Franken, Al, 318, 451n33

accounts of problems with,

229-237, 43 ln68

Franklin, Benjamin, 343

Freeman, Charles, 12

early voting inequalities and,

224-227

Freeman, Steve, 320-321, 452n34, 457n70, 458n81

election irregularities overview

and, 187, 191-206,221-224,

434n89

228, 237-239,

195,214-215 felons' lists and,

336-337

DRE machines, 461n97

Gumbel

on, 353

Friedman, Brad, 355, 450n29,

463nl07,465nl20 on Busby/Bilbray race, 463nl09 Curtis and, 374

214-215,

218-224, 254, 437nl28 in,

142-143,

144-145, 187

Hood's

criticism of,

on

election reform and, 193-194,

Hispanic vote

152,

tactics, 198,

disenfranchisement and, 368

201-203,

sleepovers and, 316

205,206-212,218-219, 220-221

FrontPageMag.com, 77 Fukuyama, Francis, 9-10 Fund, John, 100-102, 101-102n,

paperless voting

125, 364, 469nl40 FVAP, 244-247, 254, 257

machines/recounts and,

206-213 provisional vote restrictions/tossing and,

Gallagher, Mike, 107

203-206

Gallup

polls, 2,3,239 Gannon, Jeffrey, 151, 384, 453n52

Floyd, Chris, 275, 357 Foley,

Gans, Curtis, 6-7

Mark, 108-109,377,

384-385

Garofalo, Janeane, 318, 356

Ford, Gerald, 108,240

Gephardt, Richard, 107, 193

Ford, Harold, 376, 383

Foreign journalists, suppression

29,263,268 Foreign monitors, 29, 122-123 Foster, Vince, 100

Gerlach, Jim, 377 of,

Gibson, John, 108

Gideon, John, 355-356, 368, 463nl07, 464nll6 Gillespie, Ed, 106,

110,378

INDEX

479

Gilmore, Terry, 252

Hagel, Chuck, 194, 195, 431n62

Ginsberg, Ben, 365

Haggard, Ted, 386

Gonzales, Alberto, 38

HalabyTed, 110

Gonzalez, Antonio, 148

Hall,

Gonzalez, Frank, 375

Hanlon, Mary Jo and Chuck, 48

Goodfriend, David, 319

Goodman, Amy, 20-21,

Fawn, 135

Hannity, Sean, 88, 91, 92, 96, 103, 291, 294,

104-105, 107, 110-111,311 Palast and, 322,331

356

GOP Women for Kerry Steering Committee,

Hansen, Shaun: phone jamming and, 371

1

Harkin, Tom, 296

Gore,Al, 296, 305,324

2000 election and, 22,50, 125,417n97

Harris, Bev, 355

54,

Harris, Katherine, 200-201, 372,

433n81

"stealing election" and, 87-92,

125

tactics of, 27, 92, 196,

Hart InterCivic, 351

Options Network), 357

Government Accountability

(GAO)

198-199,

199-200,214,215,241

Got Democracy? (Ecological

Office

report, 300, 301,302,

Hartmann, Thorn, 318, 356, 361, 374 Hasten, Dennis, 23, 314, 315, 370

359

Graham, Aaron, 173

Hastings, Doc, 363

Greenberg, Stanley, 262

Hatch, Orrin, 63, 64

Greenfeld,

Jeff,

Hatch

387

Act, 150

Gregoire, Christine, 363

Hayes, Robin, 380, 466nl26

Tim, 221 Grisaru, Liz, 226-227

Hearne,

Griffin,

Mark

F.

"Thor,"

II,

Gross, Terry, 318, 321, 451-52n34

Hebert,J. Gerald, 171

Guantanamo Bay

Hedgecock, Roger: on vote

detainees,

Guerriero, Patrick,

364,

365

xiii,

16

1

Gumbel, Andrew, 332, 352-353, 354,458n81 "GWB: Faith in the White House" (DVD), 275

counting, 314 Heflin, Howell, 63 Heller, Meria, 356

Help America Vote Act (HAVA) (2002), 27-28, 37, 108,

170-171,204-205,244, Haas, Mikel, 370, 372, 450n29

Hacking Democracy (Katz), 330, 357

Haddock,

Vicki,

41^2

Hagan, Robert: vote-flipping and,

294

249-250,256,277,301,308,

462n99 Help America Vote on Paper (Ecological Options

Network), 357

480

INDEX

Henderson, Abdul, 253

Iacocca, Lee, 14

Herbert, Bob, 105, 324, 325, 326

If Its Not Close, They Can't Cheat:

Heritage Foundation, 259-260

Crushing the Democrats

Hertsgaard, Mark, 337, 347

Election

criticism of, 338-339, 340

in

Depends on

It

(Hewitt), 125

debate with, 291

Imus, Don, 325-326

election fraud and, 340

Inaba, Ian, 357

Rosenfeld and, 338

Incapacitated Person's Legal

scandals and, 339

Protection Act, 89

Hewitt, Hugh, 125

Independent Media Center, 268

Hill, Anita, 61, 62, 66,

Hill, Hill,

67-69, 79

John C, 200 The, 366, 459n89

Ingraham, Laura, 331, 371,

464nll2 Innis, Niger, 9 1,41 2n21

Hinkle, Robert L., 205

Inter-American Press Association,

Hispanic vote, 142-149

268

Hodes, Paul, 372

Hofmann,

Interior Department, culture of

Yuri, 314, 315

fear

at,

27

Hofstadter, Richard, 354

Invisible Ballots (Katz),

Hogue, Jim, 356 Holmes, H. Allen,

Invisible

Iraq war, 143-144, 268-269

WMD and, 84-85, 411 n8

Holt, Terry, 348

Holton, A. Linwood, 12

Hood, Chris, 349, 350-351 Hood, Glenda, 198, 201-203, 206-212,218-219,220

It

GOP Stole America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008 the

Wasserman and

Rosenfeld), 320

"How They Could Election This

Can't Happen Here (Lewis), 342

iVotronic,

205,

Horowitz, David, 77, 100

(Fitrakis,

357

Coup (Murray), 357

Ipsos-Public Affairs, 261, 262

12

Holt, Rush, 296, 315

How

Every

and Why Your Life

DRE machines by,

Jackson, Jesse, 318, 356 Jackson, Santita, 356 Jacksonville,

Oregon, 267, 281-288

Jacoby, Mark, 164

James, Aaron ("AJ."), 157

Steal the

James, Deborah, 227

Time"

Janklow,

(Dugger), 331

Hoyer, Steny, 308, 462n99

372,

466nl26

136, 419n4 Thomas, 52, 343,

Bill,

Jefferson,

388,

390

Huizenga, H. Wayne, 216

Jeffords, Jim, 92

Hunt, Caroline Rose, 195, 431n61

Jennings, Christine, 372, 373,

Hurtt, Robert, 74

Johnson, Lyndon, 3,81

466nl26

INDEX

Johnson-Hall, Aaron and

Kind, Ron, 383 King, Larry, 198-199

Christine, 158

Jones, Jim, 327

King, Peter,

Jones, Alike, 386

Kingston, Jack, 118-1

Jordan, David, 151

Kinsley, Michael,

Juarez, Santiago, 147 Judicial

481

5

19, 120, 121

354

Kinsolving, Les, 325

Watch, 79

Kirkland, Susan, 209

Justice Department, 360-361, 362,

372

Kitzman, Oliver, 140-141

Knapp, George,

15

(

>

Knights Party, 380, 467-468nl34

364

Kabila, Joseph,

Koch, Ed,

14,

399n44

Karlin, Pamela, 171

Koehler, Bob, 357,450n28

Katz, Earl, 357, 374

Kogman, Jeffrey, 252

Kennedy, John R, 128,332 Kennedy, Robert F, Jr., 331, 446n blackout

of,

1

348, 349, 355

criticism of, 323-324, 326,

327-328, 347-348 overview

Kohn, Richard, 12 Koonce, Barbara, 45 krasm, Michael, 32

*

Krenke, Ellen, 245 Krieble, Robert, 74

by, 323, 324, 325,

347-348, 354, 355, 454n60

Kennedy, Ted, 296, 327

Kristol, William,

Krugman,

76

Paul, 105, 165,

Kerr, Patrick, 253

Kuttner, Robert, 106

Kerry, John

Kyi, Jon, 155

concession by,

xii,

372-373

Kucinich, Dennis, 296, 326, 445nl

50, 51, 53, 54,

347,349 conversation with, 289, 290-291,

304,311

LaHaye, Tim, 133 Lamont, Ned, 296 Lampley, Jim, 18

criticism of, 306-307, 332

Landa, Clay, 386

denial by, 292-293, 304

Latinobarometro, 144

election fraud and, 289, 291, 292,

Lautenberg, Frank, 296

297-298,304-305,309,331 election reform and, 292, 293,

Law, Steven, 64

Layman, Heather, 166

446n4 vote-flipping and, 294 Kerry, Teresa Heinz, 43,

Law, Elizabeth, 64, 70

Leader, Susan, 245

404n54

Leahy, Frank, 296, 372

Keyes, Alan, 96

Lee, Barbara, 296

Khan, Omar, 227

Lehrer, Brian, 325, 348

Kiffmeyer, Mary, 138-139

Lehto, Paul, 363, 452-453n 29,

Kilroy,

Mary Jo, 376-377, 45 ln32

459n86, 461n98

482

INDEX

Leibovich, Mark, 326, 327, 328,

Marriage Protection Amendment,

329,453n45 Lemann, Nicholas, 354

Martinez, Mel, 235, 439nl58

Leone, William, 86

Matalin, Mary, 89

LePore, Theresa, 201, 227, 308,

Matlock, Jack, Jr., 12

433n78,439nl52 Lessner, Richard, 76-77, 89-90

93

Matthews, Chris, 323, 388, 447nl6

Lewis, Sinclair, 342

May, Melanie G., 209 Mayer, Jane, 66, 68

Lieberman, Ilene, 205

McAuliffe, Terry, 97, 106

Lieberman, Joseph, 296, 381

McBride,

Limbaugh, Rush, 96-98, 100, 103, 104, 151,209,311, 314,331 Linke, Janet and Jan Peter, 273

McCain, John, 389 McCarthy, Joe, 384 McCarthy, Mike, 195 McCarthy Group, 195

Lockhart, Joe, 117

McCaskill, Claire, 378

Long, Jeff, 218

McClellan, Scott, 85-86

Loo, Dennis, 357

LoParo, Carlo, 24, 25, 44, 446n6

McConnell, Mitch, 64 McConnell, Scott, 10

Lott, Trent, 95, 194

McCormick, William, 192

Bill,

197

Lowry, Rich, 111

McElyea, Candice Brown, 200-201

Lunde, Brian, 364

McGee,

Lynde and Harry Bradley

McKay, John, 363 McKinney, Cynthia, 296 McPeak, Merrill "Tony," 9 McPherson, Bruce, 302, 353-354, 458-459n84 Mebane, Walter, Jr., 299 Medved, Michael, 318, 331 Mehlman, Ken, 299, 371, 468nl40

Foundation, 100 Lytel, David, 41

Madden, Tim, 246 Madison, James, 343, 388 Madrid,

Patricia,

377

Mainstream 2004,

12

Charles, 371

Malkin, Michelle, 331

Merton, Robert,

Malloy, Mike, 356

Miami Herald,

Maloney, Carolyn, 246, 254, 256,

369

Mi

296, 460n95

1

24, 145, 213, 268,

Familia Vota, 145

Manjoo, Farhad, 161, 165, 192, 198, 342,455n68 Bush re-election and, 340, 341

Migil, Scott, 379

Kennedy and, 329, Maron, Marc, 318

Military dissenters, 252-253,

330, 348

Military Commissions Act (2006),

352

441n22

INDEX

483

xMoveOn.org, 78, 109, 119

Military vote

absentee ballots and, 253-256

Democratic voting

by,

251-252

faxing of ballots, 256

Florida 2000 election and, 241 government bias in helping, 250-251

46Sn 139

Miller, Brad, 383, Miller, Karen,

207

76, 78,

87-88

Murphy, Keith, 356

Murphy, Ken, 319 Murphy, Lois, 377 Murray, Terry, 357 Mursuli, Jorge, 145

356

Miller, Stephanie,

Muench, Elisa, 133 Murdoch, Rupert, 75,

Murthajohn,

296, 376

Musgrave, Marilyn, 377, 380,

Miller, Tiffiney, 183

467-468nl34

Miller, Zell, 14

Milwaukee Black Voters League

Mushkin, Michael, 158

141-142, 188

flier,

Mincberg,

219

Elliot,

Mitchell, Greg, 261

Nader, Ralph: Republicans and,

7,

11,31, 157, 163, 187,202

Mitofsky, Warren, 336, 458n81

Nadlerjerrold, 72, 296, 310, 347

Monaghan, Tom, 74

Nagel, Chuck, 321

Mondale, Walter, 93, 296, 420nl8,

NARAL (National Abortion

457n76 Moon, Sun Myung, 74, 99, 276, 444n42 Moore, Michael, 113, 121-122,253,

Rights Action League), 153, 155, 188

Nash, Jenny, 209, 218-219 Nation, The, 347,

453n52

Behlerand, 351

326, 345

Morgan, Jeannie, 159 Morton, Ballard, 8-9

election fraud and, 331, 332

Morton, Rogers, 8 Morton, Thruston,

Gumbel 8,

396-397n24

on e-voting machines, 332 and, 353

risk aversion by,

344

sleepovers and, 315

xMosiman, Mary, 187

National Association of

Mother Jones, 291, 339, 347 on Fitrakis, 320

National Public Radio (NPR), 318,

Hertsgaard review

in,

in,

337-338 344

sleepovers and, 315

Motor Voter Law, 427n22

323,325,451n31 Native Americans, 126-128,

340

risk aversion by,

Evangelicals, 386

180, 182,

149-152 Neas, Ralph, 326

Nelson, Ben, 195,431n62 Nelson, Jim, 156

INDEX

484

New

recounts and, 29-30, 33-36, 37,

York Times, 299, 330

on on conspiracy

122,417n95

blacks/election, 355 theories,

294

election fraud and, 373, 451n31

Kennedy

301

and, 324, 326, 329, 348

Palast and, 322

NewsMax.com,

anomalies

in,

30-31

stolen computers/information in, 44-45, 49, 405n59 Ohio Restoration Project (ORP),

Freeman and, 321

GAO report and,

statistical

75, 76, 77, 78, 92,

99,257

380

Olbermann, Keith, 20, 24, 294 Olszewski, Konrad, 123

105,

Niederer, Sue, 265

Omega

9/11 Commission, 271 Nischal, Simi, 267

On Bended Knee (Hertsgaard), 337 Open Society Institute, 77, 78

Nixon, Richard M., 379

Op-scans, using, 358, 457n76

No

Umbrella: Election C/'ty

Day

in the

Technologies, 255

O'Reilly,

Bill,

78, 90, 104,311,

331

(Paglin), 357

Noble, Larry, 168

Orengia, Lynne, 154

Noonan, Peggy,

Organisation for Security and

84, 88

Norquist, Grover, 55, 274

122-123

North, Oliver, 61 Norville, Deborah, 105

No Taxpayer Money for Politicians (NTMP),

157

Novak, Robert,

Cooperation in Europe, 29,

78, 88, 90, 96,

OsanLtd., 217, 254 Overseas Voting Foundation, 247,

249,257 Owens, Bill, 99

100 Paccione, Angie, 377

Obama, Barack,

96, 296, 389

O'Dell, Bruce, 321,381,382,

Pacifica Radio, 318, 356

Paglin, Laura, 357

343, 390

457n76

Paine,

Thomas, 280,

O'Dell, Wally, 51

Palast,

Greg, 139, 140, 146, 147,

Ohio 2004

absentee ballots

in,

foreign monitors

fraud

214,221,222,331

election

in, 28,

28, 31, 32, 36

in,

29, 122-123

46-49

Pariser, Eli,

machine irregularities 438nl42 misinformation

in,

in, 31,

32

provisional ballots and, 27, 28,

47-48

blackout for, 321-322, 323 Pappageorge, John, 133-134

119

Parry, Robert, 276, 304,

Patriot Act, 10,453n52

Patterson,

Thomas, 40

Paulos, John Allen, 321

Peckarsky, Peter, 306

448n21

INDEX

media and, 298

Pelosi, Alexandra, 51 Pelosi,

Nancy, 296

overview

Perkins, Tony, 5

19-25, 26-32,

Republican talking points on, 112-118, 122, 123-124

Peroutka, Michael Anthony, 10 Perry, Rick, 140

Pryce, Deborah, 376-377, 380,

451n32

Perzel, John, 134

Petersen, Barbara, 219

Press, Bill,

Peterson, Scott, 321

Principle

Phone jamming, 371-372

90

Approach International,

89 Project for the

I.D.s, xvii, 278, 359, 360,

New American

Century (PXAC), 9-10,

361, 365

397n29

problems with, 378 requiring,

of,

33-36

Perdue, Sonny, 350

Photo

485

369-370

IYo\ ance, Samuel, 253

Plotner, Robert, 148-149,

Provisional ballots

184-186

Florida restrictions/tossing,

203-206, 229

Poe, Richard, 77

New Mexico

Poll books, computerized, 366,

459n87 Poll workers, 359, 376, 378,

improprieties by, 314,

3

450n29

and, 14", 148

Ohio/Blackwell and, 27, 28, 47-4S, 170.204 precinct location and, 205,

1

Polling places, misinformation

435n91

about, 32, 135-136, 153-154,

PEER,

271, 275

188,230-231 Quayle, Dan, 242

Polls

Bush and, 2-3,261,262 issues of concern, 5-6, 143-144,

on newly registered Poole, Poole,

voters,

262

McKinley and Blosser, 216 Van and Donna, 216

Pre-emptive

strikes,

83-86, 111,

99-100

1

0, 3

1

9,

333,337,341 "debate "/Republican projection on, 111-124

hearings and, 22-23, 33

Rank, Nicole and Jeff, 264 Rapp, Brett

A.,

35-36

Rather, Dan, 58, 274

What Went

in Ohio] 294, 3

11

Ramsey, Meka, 180-181, 182

Raspberry, William, 42

125-126, 126-129 Preserving Democracy:

Wrong

Racicot, Marc,

Raimondo, Justin,

396nnl5, 16

Reagan, Ronald, 2-3,

14, 244,

261

Recounts cost of,

3

60

Florida (2000) and, 32-33, 69,

430n59 Florida (2004) and, 206-213

INDEX

486

Robb, Matt, 136

Recounts {continued)

Ohio (2004) 37,

and, 29-30, 33-36,

Roberts, Clay, 2

1

Roberts, John, 279

122,417n95

Reed, Ralph, 68, 94, 137

Roberts, Paul Craig, 10, 357

Rehm, Diane, 318

Robertson, Pat,

Reno, Janet, 197, 432n70

Robo-calls/misinformation,

153-154, 370, 463nl09

Renzi, Rick, 380

Reporters Committee lor Freedom

Republican National Committee

the Vote, 262

Rogers, Dick, 41 Rogers, Kathy, 365

(RNC), 364, 371 Kerry Europe,

242-243

Rokita,Todd, 365, 387 Rolling Stone,

Republicans/Republican Party accusations by, 87-92, 96-103,

109-111, 118-119, 120, 125 disaffection with

Bush/Cheney,

extremist control of, 7-9, 12

133-134 74

54-58

muting/ridiculing by,

Nader campaign and, 202,434n85

7,

November

174

ploy

of,

157, 163,

tolerance/other view points and,

349, 354

Rose, Charlie, 323, 326, 355

Rossi, Dino, 363,

as victims, 85,

Rove, Karl, 2,3,69, 82,94, 101,

272,361,377 Rubin, Avi, 316

246 Ruppert, Jeff,

105-106

Russell, Larry, 136

Ken, 173

Salazar,

Rhodes, Randi, 318, 356

Sali, Bill,

Rice, Condoleezza,

84

Rich, Frank, 105,275 Bill,

Riggio, Jeffrey, 2 to

1 1

Russell, Eric, 158, 159

Reynolds, Gerald, 271

Right

461n98

Tom, 215

Russell, John, 375

81-83

Richardson,

323,

Rumsfeld, Donald, 9-10, 156,

384-385

sex scandal for,

in,

Romney, Mitt, 389

Rossin,

financial supporters of,

3

Kennedy

324,325,326,327,329,348,

Rosenfeld, Steve, 319-320, 338

7-14, 242-243

fears of,

Rock

Rodriquez, Ann, 153

of the Press, 265

Republicans for

132

2,

142-143 1

Count, The (Van Slyke),

357 Roads, Chris, 152, 153

380

Salon, 57, 139, 158, 161, 165, 192,

198,250,263,268 consensus by, 347

Manjooand, 329-330, 342, 348 risk aversion by,

344

sleepovers and, 315

341,

INDEX

Sammon,

91-92

Bill,

487

Simpson, Alan, 67

Sancho, Ion, 219

Simpson, Dan,

Sanders, Bernie, 296, 381

"Slash and Burn Politics" (Finnell),

130-131

Sanders, Roger, 45

Santorum, Rick, 379, 469nl42

Sleepovers, 314, 315-316,370,

184

Sarinelli, Lisa,

1

450n29

Savage, Michael, 104, 331

Slotkin, Richard, 127

Sayfie, Justin, 2 16

Smartmatic, 362

Scaife,

Richard Mellon, 74

Scalia,

Antonin, 336

Smith, Bev, 356 Smith, Charles, 254

Scanlon, Mike, ~2

Smith, Nick, 88-89, 411 nl6

Schakowsky, Jan, 296

Snipes, Brenda,

Schlafly, Phyllis, 77

Snow. Tony, $25

Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr., 12

Soaries,

_

>~

De Forest

B., Jr.,

256-257

Schmidt, Jean, $76, *80,451n32 Schmitt, Tracy, 327-328

Soendergaard, Soeren, 29

Schneider,

Sottredine, Ralph, 264

Bill,

387

Schneider, Jan, 200, 201

Si in

Schumer, Chuck, 296, 389 Secure Electronic Registration and

Voting Experiment, 253-254 Seder, Sam, 318, 356

277, 351, 362, 363,

460n95 Shahood, George

Shamos, Michael

A., I.,

209

Stealing America: Vote by Vote

Stealnig Elections: Hove

Our

I

bter

Fraud

De?nocracy

(Fund), 100-102, 125,364

463nl07

Shelley, Kevin, 302, 353

46-49

Stiglitz,

Joseph, 14

Stolen elections, 292, 293, 331,

175

Signorile, Michelangelo,

(Woodward), 385

Stewart, Warren, 356, 368, 387,

Sheldon, Lou, 68, 77

Shull, Denise,

154—155,

56-57

Stanzel, Scott,

Threat ens

Shaw, Clay, 202

Silver,

Associates, 106,

(Fadiman), 357

39-40

Sharpe, William, 13

Bill,

&

157-166, 167-168, 169

Suite of Denial

Shaheen, Jeanne, 350, 371

Shuster,

Network, 182 Sproul, Nathan, 155-157, 169

Sproul

Sensenbrenner, James, 301 xiv,

leurge, 74-79, 276,

409n68 South Carolina Progressive

Scroggins, Brian, 166

Sequoia,

is. (

319

Ron, 14

Simon, Jonathan, 381, 382

334,341,355,363 Stork, Jim, 202

Strand, Kathleen, 173

488

INDEX

Strickland,

Tom,

93, 296,

350

Sununu,John, 350, 371 "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,"

Tobin, James, 371

Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, 143 TomPaine.com, 315, 333, 334, 347

119,271-272

Traditional Values Coalition, 68, 77

Swinton, David, 178

Triad Taft,

Take Back the Media, documentary by,

GDI,

xiv,

33-36, 122

Treasury Department, Sequoia

Bob, 27

and, 362

Tribune Media Services, 357

357

Talent, Jim, 378, 379 Taliaferro, Ray,

Truitt, Susan,

306

Truscott, John, 154

356

Taylor, Stacy, 356

Truthout, 356

Teixeira, Ruy, 262

Tubbs-Jones, Stephanie, 22, 24,

296

Tejeda, Natalie, 152-153

Terrorism/war on terrorism,

5,

Turnout, 367-368, 385-386

9-10, 14, 17,69-70,94, 143,

democracy and, 383

198,350

depressing, 371, 376, 383

turnout and, 366, 367 Tester, John,

terrorism and, 366, 367

378

"Texas Strike Force," 32, 37, 132,

Undervotes, 372, 457n76,

464nll6,466nl26

233

Thalheimer, David, 12

Unfit for Coimnand, 20

Theisen, Ellen, 372, 465nll7

Urosevich, Todd and Bob, 349,

350-351, 431n64

Theocratic movement, 89, 131-132, 181,427n24

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,

Constitution Restoration Act

report by, 2 7

and, 93,275

Kiffmeyer and, 138-139

Van

Sproul and, 154, 155

Vega, Felipe, 252

Slyke, Richard, 357

Theodoracopulos, Taki, 10

Vinovich, Paul, 315

Thomas, Clarence,

Vote-flipping, 294, 347, 369, 379,

hearings

for,

90,

464nl 12

61-69, 70, 79, 80

Thomas, Ginni, 64-65, 79, 410n71 Thompson, Tommy, 150

383

problems with, 300, 301, 304, 339,

461n97

Thoreau, Jackson, 383

Vote suppression, 299-300, 316,

"Those Pesky Voters" (Herbert), 324 Thunejohn, 151,419n7

VoteTrustUSA, 356, 378, 387

Thurmond, Strom, 62

369-370, 446n 11

Voter registration, 317, 346, 360, 386

NDEX Voter

purging, 317, 339, 365

rolls,

Frauds and the Official Count (freeman and Bleifuss), 320 Washington Post, 299

Votergate (Votergate Project), 357

Votergate Project, documentary by,

357

on Civil Rights Division purge,

Voters' Outreach of America

(VOA),

361

on conspiracy theories, 294

157, 161

Voters Unite. com, 356 \'