FOOLED AGAIN

I worked for Kerry in 2004. I think the Bush/Cheney administration verges on being the worst in history, and is certainly the most dangerous for the long-term health of the nation's democracy. I think the Republicans are poisoning the political discourse of the country. Still, though, after the 2004 election I tended to dismiss the claims that the Bush/Cheney team "stole" the election, especially in Ohio, as half-baked conspiracy theorizing. Although I admired John Conyers for commissioning and distributing his "What Went Wrong in Ohio" report on election shenanigans (download it here), I thought it was overkill, a misrepresentative and out-of-context focus on the kinds of election problems that probably happen all the time.

No more. Last week I read Mark Crispin Miller's FOOLED AGAIN: HOW THE RIGHT STOLE THE 2004 ELECTION AND WHY THEY'LL STEAL THE NEXT ONE TOO (UNLESS WE STOP THEM), and I think I'm persuaded. Miller's book is well-documented and thorough, and although he does on occasion draw too-sweeping conclusions from some evidence, and isn't as careful as he should be to entertain and debunk alternate explanations for some incidents, this is a slight weakness in what is otherwise a very powerful argument that the Republicans have decided that cheating in elections must be done, and will be conducted at every level from precinct and county to the White House (as in the New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal). I'm afraid that the book, maybe just because of its vehement title, will get thrown in the Michael Moore/Al Franken/Sean Hannity/Anne Coulter bin, but it shares very little with those screeds. Miller is also not a great TV presence, unfortunately; he's got the angry unshaven rumpled professor thing down and I'm not sure that persona's going to change any minds.

He's also got a blog that's worth reading.