8.31.2004
10,000 Dem Lawyers
Hugh Hewitt, one of the best center-right bloggers in America today, conducted an interview with Karl Rove, W's old friend and chief Presidential Aide. Rove has been the subject of many attacks over the years; he has been called, among other things, "Bush's brain". Not without reason. He is one sharp strategist. One topic in this concerns what we might expect on election day. Here is the question and the initial answer:
HEWITT: Yesterday, John Fund gave a little talk where I was at and he noted that the Democrats have already lined up with a division of about 10,000 lawyers – sort of a strike force and that the country should be prepared for not one but many Floridas. Do you agree with that assessment, that warning?
ROVE: I think Democrats have decided that they are going to try and effect in court the election. Yes, they’ve already begun filing lawsuits trying to knock down either Federal or state provisionsthat do things such as for example, provisional voting. This is where if a voter is challenged, they are as to whether they are able to vote, they can vote, but the vote is set aside so that it can be researched and a decision made as to whether or not that vote was cast by a person who was both capable of voting and was that person. They are trying to knock that out in states. In other states for example, in Missouri they are trying to get rid of the requirement that there be positive identification at the polls. You remember last time in Missouri Democrats went to a pet judge and got that judge to literally to allow polling places in certain parts in St. Louis City to be kept open after the time that state law requires polls to be closed. We had to go find a judge to enforce the law that said that all polls must close at a fixed time and the people that are standing in line at that point would be allowed to vote. It is clear that that Democrats have got an organized and deliberate effort to let’s say to extend and distort election laws in ways that would benefit them.
I hope this does not come to pass. We all remember well those awful days and weeks which followed Nov2000...near anarchy (it SEEMED), court shopping, and uncertainty about the future. Hewitt's recent book title says it the best: "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat". Let's hope for a landslide of 1972 or 1984 proportions (but 1992 will do)...
HEWITT: Yesterday, John Fund gave a little talk where I was at and he noted that the Democrats have already lined up with a division of about 10,000 lawyers – sort of a strike force and that the country should be prepared for not one but many Floridas. Do you agree with that assessment, that warning?
ROVE: I think Democrats have decided that they are going to try and effect in court the election. Yes, they’ve already begun filing lawsuits trying to knock down either Federal or state provisionsthat do things such as for example, provisional voting. This is where if a voter is challenged, they are as to whether they are able to vote, they can vote, but the vote is set aside so that it can be researched and a decision made as to whether or not that vote was cast by a person who was both capable of voting and was that person. They are trying to knock that out in states. In other states for example, in Missouri they are trying to get rid of the requirement that there be positive identification at the polls. You remember last time in Missouri Democrats went to a pet judge and got that judge to literally to allow polling places in certain parts in St. Louis City to be kept open after the time that state law requires polls to be closed. We had to go find a judge to enforce the law that said that all polls must close at a fixed time and the people that are standing in line at that point would be allowed to vote. It is clear that that Democrats have got an organized and deliberate effort to let’s say to extend and distort election laws in ways that would benefit them.
I hope this does not come to pass. We all remember well those awful days and weeks which followed Nov2000...near anarchy (it SEEMED), court shopping, and uncertainty about the future. Hewitt's recent book title says it the best: "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat". Let's hope for a landslide of 1972 or 1984 proportions (but 1992 will do)...
// posted by HunterByrd @ 4:00 PM 
