Shocked, shocked to find there is gambling going on in this establishment!

This is the side of our current political environment that is also intruding into the work that all of us do, the "gotcha" mindset. Mike is completely right to point out Melman's many misrepresentations, and it is an unfortunate frustration that we will only relieve through vigilant education.

That, and understanding that engaging people like O'Reilly, Melman, and Hannity should happen on neutral ground, where they do not get to control the ground rules.

_____________________________
Ronald Keith Gaddie
Professor of Political Science
The University of Oklahoma
455 West Lindsey Street, Room 222
Norman, OK  73019-2001
Phone 405-325-4989
Fax 405-325-0718
E-mail: rkgaddie@ou.edu
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/G/Ronald.K.Gaddie-1

----- Original Message -----
From: Michael McDonald <mmcdon@gmu.edu>
Date: Saturday, June 10, 2006 1:52 am
Subject: Mehlman pushes storyline that Democrats commit vote fraud

I thought this would be of interest:

In the wake of the Busby defeat in California's 50th district, 
Republicanchair Ken Mehlman pushed the storyline on Hardball that 
Busby encouraged
illegal immigrants to vote in the special election, and tied the 
claim to
Democrat Gregoire's victory in the Washington recount case.

For a transcript see: http://mediamatters.org/items/200606090002 
(for the
conservatives on the list, my apologies for linking to a left-
leaning web
site.)

A few points here:

1. A fair reading of Busby's controversial comment that "you don't 
needpapers to vote" is that she mispoke and corrected herself in 
the next
sentence to say that you don't have to be a citizen to volunteer 
for a
campaign.  From my vantage of teaching a campaigns class in 
Washington DC at
a school with many foreign nationals, I have known non-citizen 
students who
worked on Democratic and Republican campaigns.  I'll be curious to 
hear the
opinion of those on the list if the campaign activity represents an 
illegalpolitical donation from a foreign national.  Was Busby 
promoting illegal
activity?

2. To my knowledge, there is no evidence that any fradulent votes 
were cast
in the California special election.  There is, to my knowledge, no
investigation underway to determine if Busby's campaign 
orchestrated the
casting of fradulent votes.  Perhaps someone knows something 
different?
3. With regards to the Washinton recount case, there were 
inleigible felons
and a husband of a deceased women who testified that their illegal 
voteswent to Rossi, the Republican candidate.  There is no evidence 
thatGregoire's campaign knowlingly solicited illegal votes.

I'm sure we can all see where this is leading: we need photo 
identificationat the polls to prevent Democrats from stealing 
elections using illegal
immigrants.  I'm sure that we're going to hear more of this as the 
electionapproaches.  Chris Matthews can be expected to promote this 
kind of
rhetoric, but I am disappointed that Charile Cook (the third guest 
on the
show, and typical of the cable talk shows, he was apparently there to
provide "balance" to Mehlman) didn't interject a more reasoned 
response.
------------
Dr. Michael P. McDonald 
Assistant Professor, George Mason University 
Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution

                         Mailing address: 
(o) 703-993-4191          George Mason University 
(f) 703-993-1399          Dept. of Public and International Affairs
mmcdon@gmu.edu            4400 University Drive - 3F4 
http://elections.gmu.edu  Fairfax, VA 22030-4444