Posted on 01/11/2005 4:02:08 PM PST by nyg4168
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Democrat Christine Gregoire was certified as the governor of Washington state on Tuesday, while outside the Capitol her supporters traded jeers with protesters across a line of state troopers.
Inside the Capitol, Republicans' attempt to delay the election certification failed after an hour of almost surreally polite debate.
Gregoire lost the first two counts in the amazingly close election, but won by just 129 votes after a hand recount of 2.9 million ballots. Next comes Gregoire's inauguration, planned for Wednesday - and then it's on to the courts. The first hearing in Republican Dino Rossi's election challenge is scheduled for Friday.
"No do-over, no delay," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. "Let's move on with the business of the Legislature."
Republicans pleaded in vain for a waiting period.
A two-week delay is a small price to pay to restore confidence in this election," said Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee. "This is a historic time and we cannot afford to rush this process."
During the counting and recounting of the governor's election, many questions and discrepancies have surfaced. The main argument in the Republican's lawsuit is that King County, a Democratic stronghold and the state's largest county, cannot match more than a thousand votes to actual voter names. That discrepancy, Rossi argues, makes the election invalid on its face.
Democrats disagree, saying the state constitution sets a very high bar for throwing out the results of an election. They say the revote that Rossi wants would be unconstitutional.
While the debate in the state House and Senate's joint session was oh-so-civilized, supporters of Rossi and Gregoire screamed their frustrations at one another at dueling rallies on the Capitol lawn.
More than 1,000 Rossi supporters were there demanding a revote, and about 200 Gregoire supporters held a counter-demonstration. Chants of "revote!" overpowered the cries of "Go home Rossi!"
Norman Le, 70, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Vietnam, wore a sticker proclaiming "Dino Rossi is my governor."
"Three times they counted and they come up with three different results - it makes no sense at all," Le said. "They should fix it. It's not too late. ... If we have a governor who is elected in a flawed election, that governor does not have the respect of the people to govern. The whole state will suffer."
Pro-Rossi demonstrators held signs saying "Heal Washington: Revote," "Gregoire: Stealing Democracy," and "Re-Elect Rossi 2005."
Across the street, and separated by state troopers, Gregoire supporter Rhenda Strub held a homemade sign saying "Dino, your horse is dead."
"It's time for him to end his temper tantrum and move on," said Strub, 49, of Olympia.
No arrests were reported from the dueling rallies, which dissipated in the early afternoon.
A court hearing for Rossi's election challenge is set for Friday in Chelan County Superior Court in Wenatchee. The case will most likely end up in the state Supreme Court.
Well, glad to know that more than 1000 people showed up to protest, but I'm wondering why 25,000 weren't engaged in "civil" disobedience ("I'm Republican, of course I'm civil").
You're obviously not from Washington state, considering every point you made was flat out wrong!
If there was ever a legitimate scenario to demand a revote, this is it.
Some people who don't live here in Washington know what's going on, but I've seen a lot of ill-informed posts from out-of-state people on this topic. We need better national press, I guess. A re-vote is the ONLY way to clean this up once and for all - because even if Dino were to lose, at least we could a) put the Dems on notice that we won't stand for election fraud, and b) know the true will of the people.
I don't know why it wasn't 25k either, but some politician remarked that he's never seen so many people come to Olympia on an issue EVER. So we did okay.
With your attitude we would still be bowing to the English Crown. Read John Funds article and have faith...and email, phone and fax!
Don't Count Rossi Out
A stolen election in Washington state?
Not if bloggers can help it.
Monday, January 10, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
Don't Count Rossi Out
A stolen election in Washington state?
Not if bloggers can help it.
by John Fund
Monday, January 10, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
Now there's the attitude, the fighting spirit. Have a talk with nyg4168 will ya? (post 1 comments). He's a little down.
You're right and unfortunately there are some people who live here who have know idea what is going on.
Very important point! There does not need to be fraud evident or proven for the election to be overturned or a new vote ordered by the courts. It only need be shown that there are enough illegal votes and/or other irregularities that the "actual result of the voting cannot be ascertained' [Foulkes v Hayes].
This is up to the GOP in Washington state to pursue. How hard they do will be directly proportional to the amount of support they see at revote rallys like the one that took place today and from other quarters (including you emailing).
From SoundPolitics.com
Associated Press reporter Rebecca Cook e-mails about the crowd count at a revote ralley (email to SoundPolitics.com editor):
The original crowd estimates in the AP story was obviously wrong, as you noted. I estimated 200 in the Democrats' crowd, and the editor heard '500' -- probably the result of speaking into a cell phone while 1,800 people chant "revote!" at the top of their lungs. The original estimate of 1,000 in the revote crowd came from the State Patrol, and they later upped it to 2,000 (including the Dems), so I went with 1,800 in the story.
I try not to get too defensive about this stuff, but I cringed when I saw the 500 estimate on the wire. So in the interest of MSM transparency. I just wanted to let you know how it happened and was corrected. Keep up the good work!
By the time this is over, Washington will be a Republican state for the next 50 years.
The latest and most egregious example of how Democrats could care less about how much damage they do to our institutions in their pursuit of power.
My prayers are with Washington state FReepers and Republicans, and with with the real Governor-elect, Dino Rossi.
BTTT!!!!!!
Yeah, sure, been there, done that. Only if they don't get away with this one will they not get away with it in the future. If they do, forget about it. Nothing will change, they'll only be emboldened. How many times do Republicans have to bend over for the old "thank you sir may I have another?" Doesn't it get tiring and hurt after awhile to the point of wanting to fight back?
He can, but he;d lose. Cantwell is too firmly entrenched, and is a much more appealing candidate to the WA 'Rats than Gregoire. Those who hesitated to vote for Gregoire will have no problems pulling the lever for Cantdowell.
Rossi has said he doesn't want to run for the Senate. He knows this was his shot. He has resigned his seat in the state Senate to run for governor. He has no where to go, and nothing to lose by fighting this fraud. He's doing the right thing.
If they stay, one thing they can do is shut down the legislature (or at least try) and deny Fraudoire any shed of legitimacy. I would not even address Gregoire as "Governor". Attach amendments to bills, make every vote a recorded vote, make the 'Rats take responsibility, alone, for anything they do. Republicans are minorities in both houses of the state legislature, so they'll probably get rolled by the 'Rats on every vote, but make the 'Rats go it alone. No cooperation on anything.
Likewise, this message should go forth to the Republicans in DC, who I've heard are in charge of things there but sometimes have my doubts. When the WA State 'Rats come to them hat in hand for any handouts, tell them to stick it in their wazoos and next time send a legitimately-elected Governor to do their pleading. That may seem petty and spiteful, because there is probably a distinct minority of good conservatives in WA state who may suffer, but the 'Rats only understand power, and they need to learn there are consequences to election fraud. It's clear they won't suffer any sanctions in their own 'Rat empire because they run the courts and legislature, but at least the feds have a chance to squeeze them.
Not if you pick your battles wisely. Florida in 2000 is an example of that. James Baker and Racicot were ferocious bulldogs in that battle -- they didn't give an inch.
In contrast, Thune in SD chose to concede to Johnson in 2002 even though there was lots of evidence of fraud, esp. on India reservations. Thune bowed out gracefully, lived to fight another day, and dethroned Daschle.
F#*&ing democrats!
I don't think so. People become inured to the fraud, and so they accept it. That's the real danger in not finally standing up, once and for all, and fighting back. The electorate will come to accept dishonest and fraudulent elections as the norm, and just say, "get over it".
You see evidence of it everywhere, even right here on FR. How many times on these threads have we seen people (who should know better), say about this election, forget about it, move on, let Rossi run for the Senate, blah blah blah? Or, the statement about how a Republican has to have at least a 5-point margin in real votes to beat a 'Rat because of the fraud? Trouble is, if you let that go on, then the 5-point margin becomes 10 points, then 15, and so on, until no margin of victory is sufficient to let an opponent of the 'Rats win. Then the 'rats become Rulers For Life, and we've lost any pretense of being a Constitutional Republic.
The latest and most egregious example of how Democrats could care less about how much damage they do to our institutions in their pursuit of power.
It is that and more, which is why this one should be finally, finally, the one where Republicans draw the line in the sand. I've seen conservatives lose too many elections and play the "gracious loser" and spout the "we'll get them next time" line. But, if you don't finally stand up to the cheating, you eventually don't get a "next time".
But if he had stood his ground and made his case, might he not have taken his rightful seat against Johnson? Then we would have had another Republican for two years to help our cause, especially on some of these judicial nominations. Then when the Daschle contest came up, we might have been able to run an equally strong candidate and still beaten Daschle in '04 (I think people were fed up with his obstructionist record, so he was ripe to fall), and have 56 seats in our control in this session.
My point is that forgoing too many challenges in the hopes of winning "another time" can actually cost you ground in the long term.
I've seen this Thune analogy posted often on these threads and I will say again for those who are tempted to draw the comparison between John Thune and Dino Rossi, there is none. Thune was running for the same post he wanted in '02 against Johnson. For him it was a true re-match for the same prize. Thune wanted to be in the Senate, Rossi does not.
Rossi ran for Governor to change things in his state. The Governor's position is the best one to do that from. He has indicated in no uncertain terms that he isn't interested in the US Senate. He probably could not win that contest anyway against Cantwell, who is a much more attractive candidate statewide than Gregoire. Rossi knows that even if he somehow managed to win the consolation prize of a Senate seat, there'd be little he could do to help turn around his state after 20 years of ruinous 'Rat control. Being one vote out of a hundred, dealing with arcane and far-removed national issues, a junior Senator from a state without much political influence in DC, would be like being buried for 6 years on the sidelines. My impression of Dino Rossi is that he's a doer, and wants to get his hands dirty making things happen. The US Senate tends to be a place for glory hounds and Presidential wannabees. I doubt if Rossi would want to be a part of that.
I certainly would not counsel anything except fighting tooth and nail for this election, to the fullest extent possible.
If I left you that impression, I'm sorry for that. But I think you were reading something into my words that wasn't there.
Washington Democrats, "Move along, nothing to see here"
They give Officer Bar Brady a run for his job.
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