How Much Fraud Does the GOP Need?

Give the Republicans their due. If they ever let all the African-Americans, university students, and other heavily Democratic constituencies vote without restraint, and counted all those ballots, George W. Bush would never be president. Nor would GOP fat cats get the lion's share of government give-aways. And, Lord help us, we would all go to hell without the "moral values" that right wing Christians want to shove down our throats, onto our genitals, and into women's wombs. Whether for ego, greed, or God - or an intoxicating brew of the three - winning is all that counts, winning by any means necessary. "We are the champions. No time for losers." For decades, big-city Democrats ruled by manipulating the vote. They even helped John F. Kennedy win the presidency in 1960, when Chicago's mayor Richard J. Daley organized votes from the dead. That was Democratic politics in the Windy City: Vote early and often. And if you happen to die, don't worry, the Daley Machine will pay someone to vote in your name. Think of it as a form of immortality. Now the Republicans are taking their turn, and they make old Mayor Daley and New York City's Tammany Hall gang look like mischievous kids. Under Mr. Bush's political guru Karl Rove, the GOP campaigners have perfected nothing less than a nationwide effort to subvert the ideal of one person, one vote. How far did they go?  We don't know. Despite an army of investigating Internauts, no one has yet proved overt fraud, the kind that puts people in jail, or should. [more]