Category: Elections

McConnell Holds Out For All or Nothing FEC Vote

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This is interesting. McConnell is still wants the FEC nominations voted on all at once, as opposed to individually, which effectively kills the new nominations by Bush.

Anyone have a clue as to what the heck is going on here? Why is Mitch McConnell dissing the White House and putting McCain in a bind over this?

As long as there are no new nominees, then David Mason stays head of the FEC, and he has been harshing on McCain something fierce, so there are two reasons that I he’s doing this, he hates McCain, or that van Spakovsky has some sort of hold on him.

Deal Between Bush and Senate May Be Close on FEC

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It’s being presented as a grand compromise, with separate votes allowed so that Hans von Spakovsky would be voted but, as Josh Marshall so ably notes, it’s really another f&%# you from Bush and His Evil Minions™ to the Senate.

The problem right now is that the FEC does not have a quorum, so it can make rulings, which means, among other things, McCain’s bungee jumping into and out of the public financing system cannot be approved by the board.

Additionally, one of the remaining members of the board, FEC chairman David Mason has been very vocal about McCain’s law breaking on the matter, which is an embarrassment.

Bush has renominated von Spakovsky, but is now saying that they can take a separate vote on the nominees, which Spakovsky, would lose, but he is now also submitting a replacement for Mason too, with the idea that once he is removed, McCain gets what he wants on a party line vote.

Bolivian Autonomy Vote Predicted to Pass

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There has been some disorder, but voting proceeded relatively smoothly.

Of course, there is the whole matter of the vote being delayed by the Bolivian electoral commission, so we will see what that means.

While some of the portions of the referendum seem to be fairly standard, at least bu US standards, others, such as the right to control federal land and to sign treaties seem to me to be more of an attempt to dismantle the Bolivian state for the benefit of Exxon-Mobil than anything else.

Most of the rest of Latin America is observing this with undisguised horror, because if this sticks, it lays the groundwork for the dissolution of the existing states.

But American bankers should get some good deals out of all this chaos.

Zimbabwe: Opposition May Participate in Runoff

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At least they have not ruled it out, though they are calling for a foreign verification of the vote first.

Additionally, MDC is suggesting that some sort of power sharing may be possible witn ZANU-PF, but not with Robert Mugabe.

This is a sensible position. Mugabe appears to be viewed as a lame duck by even his allies, and this might be a way to ease him out.

The core of the matter is that considering the dire straights the country is in, whoever is president will have very limited options in policy, and the same applies to whoever leads the parliament, so “anyone but Mugabe” is not an unreasonable position.

Labour Gets Pummeled in Local Elections in the UK

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Brown and Labor actually got fewer votes than the Lib-Dems.

The aftermath of Tony Blair, selfish triangulating politics, which will have a similar effect on Labor that Bill Clinton did on the Dems 1n 1994.

I’d like to see the Lib Dems hold their 2nd place position, or even hit 1st place for the parliamentary elections, but I put their chances at slim and none, as they have been unable to capitalize on the fact that they are the only major party to call for an immediate pullout from Iraq.

They are the sad sacks of UK politics.

Zimbabwe, the Votes are Finally Officially Counted

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And to no one’s surprise, they are saying that there has to be a runoff between Tsvangirai and Mugabe.

No surprise here. The amount of vote fraud for Mugabe to win was simply not possible, but the amount to take it to a runoff, not so much a problem. 47.9% Tsvangirai, 43.2% Mugabe.

The opposition is saying, with decent justification, that they won outright, and are threatening not to participate in the runoff, which would give Mugabe exactly what he wants.

I would note that while Mugabe is promising to respect the results of a runoff, the fact is that a fair election and a fair campaign are simply not possible while Mugabe and ZANU-PF continue their campaign of terror and intimidation against the MDC.

UN voices reluctance to act on Zimbabwe – International Herald Tribune

And in the same old, same old category, South Africa is the major stumbling block to the security council doing anything.

I expect this to continue until Thabo Mbeki leaves office. He’s a bigger cheerleader for Mugabe than GW Bush was for the Yale Baseball team.

Zimbabwe Update

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To my mind, the best development this far is the fact that the UN Security council is to be briefed by MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti. Thabo Mbeki has been doing his level best to keep this off the security council agenda, and for that matter for anywhere where meaningful action might useful, for reasons that continue to escape me.

Interestingly enough the UN did a bit of good here, with somewhere in excess of 200 detained MDC supporters were released once the meeting was on the agenda.

The election in parliament was not close enough to be stolen, MDC has the majority, and the two branches of MDC have, at least for now, decided to reunite.

Mugabe’s security forces appear to escalating attacks on members of the opposition, indicating that this will be a long road to hoe.

The US has come down firmly in favor of an MDC led government, but given the credibility of the US State Department, the obvious response is , “With what army?”

The recount of the votes in the presidential election has been delayed again.

In related news, the head of the electoral commission has renamed himself Godot. (Humor. If you don’t get it, read a bloody book)

Bush Court Confirms: Voting While Black is a Offense

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They voted 6-3 to uphold Indiana’s voter discrimination identification law.

It was actually 3 opinions each supported by 3 justices, and some legal analysts claim that there is hope, since one of the concurring opinions asked for evidence of voter disenfranchisement, but I see that as a vain hope.

While I see Stephens ruling against the law if there is evidence, it is telling that there is no evidence of the sort of vote fraud that the law was intended to prevent having ever occurred in Indiana, and I see Roberts and Kennedy simply moving a bit to the right each time that such a challenge occurs.

Zimbabwe

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Well, it looks like things are going to get worse, Zimbabwe police raided MDC, and the independent electoral observer, offices in Harrare, looking for evidence of an “attempt to overthrow the country”.

This does not look like it will end well.

Hopefully the talk of immunity for Mugabe in exchange for stepping down, talk in which Mugabe has taken no part, will amount to something.

This has been on a gentle slope down for weeks, but I think that there is a cliff up ahead.

Things Looking Good for Zack Space

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He won election in Ohio’s 18th district after Bob Ney withdrew following corruption allegations, and now CQ has upgraded the district from “Leans Democratic” to “Democrat Favored”.

Space has $1 million in the bank, as versus $36k for his Republican opponent.

I’m really beginning to think that 2008 will be worse than 2006 for the ‘Fants.

A lot of this is because the people who vote for power will now vote Democratic.

Then again, we know how my predictive powers work.

Your Semi-Regular Dose Zimbabwe Elections

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Well, it looks like China has backed down, and the An Yue Jiang will be heading back without having offloaded its weapons shipment to Mugabe and his goons.

The article also notes that Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs is saying that Tsvangirai was the “clear victor” in the race, but given the credibility of the US foreign policy apparatus, this means next to nothing for the principals or the surrounding government.

The recount continues apace with ZANU-PF being awarded one MCD seat so far. If they flip 9, and I think that the electoral commission is doing their level best to make that happen, then the MDC loses its parliamentary majority.

We are starting to see proposals for a unity government being floated, but I see that foundering on the shoals of control of the state security apparatus, which Mugabe will not give up.

Jacob Zuma is one of the people floating this, but he is also ratcheting up the rhetoric with regards to Mugabe and the ZANU-PF too.

I’m not sure how much of this is internal ANC politics, truth be told.

Over the past month, I appear to have gotten about 10 visits from South Africa and Zimbabwe, so if someone has a local perspective, I would appreciate it.

Hillary is Raising Good Money, Will She Throw It After Bad Money

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First, we have Clinton raising $10 million in the day after the Pennsylvania, and from a few days before, we have reports of significant indebtedness to her coterie of advisors.

This picture is just the amount owed to Penn’s firm, which is money that has been supremely poorly spent.

I think that it is highly unlikely that Clinton will outraise Obama through the rest of the primaries, and so this sh$# needs to stop for her to be viable.

Truth to be told this this sh$# needs to stop for all Democrats.

There is a professional parasite class inside the beltway, and it is paid on commission, so we get too much advertising, not enough ground game, and no interest in being more efficient, since increases in efficiency reduce their paycheck.

Their names are Penn, Shrum, Brazile, Begala, Grunwald, Trippi, etc.

They go on press shows where they puff themselves, and their overpriced consultancies, up and do little for candidates.

They don’t have faces for TV. Mark Penn looks like a bloody poster child for sex without partners.

If there is one good thing about Karl Rove, it’s that when he worked for Bush and His Evil Minions™, he stayed in the background.

These people are part of the corrupt, venal, self serving, elitist, and incompetent DC beltway community, and the elected leaders Democratic party need to put a leash on these idiots.

The Republicans have done so for some time, starting well before Ed Rendell got purged for his walking around money comments.

It’s time for Democrats to start winning because of their senior campaign staff, not in spite of their senior campaign staff.