Gov. Crist says if the Democrats pony up the $4 million or so that it would cost to do a revote, the state will oversee the election. Well, that’s mighty nice of him … I’m sure he’d love to have the Division of Elections, part of the Department of State, led by noted wingnut Kurt Browning, supervise the do-over.
But leave it to House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-ude) to sum things up from the Fascist perspective:
Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio of West Miami said he doesn’t like Crist’s plan because “our elections supervisors are already over-burdened.”
“We already had an election. A record number of Democrats voted. Why can’t they just … respect those votes and move on? I don’t understand why Howard Dean is so obsessed with punishing Florida’s Democrats.”
Shorter Rubio: “Why can’t the dirty Democrats just bend over and take what we in the Legislature forced on them in the first place?”
But hold on — it gets better:
Florida House rules chairman David Rivera, a Republican, said he likes the idea of a mail election if the Democrats pay for it. Meantime, he has asked the House elections committee to research a bill that would ban the Democratic nominee from the Florida ballot in November if the national party refuses to seat the state’s delegates. It’s Senate Republican leader Dan Webster’s idea, but he’s not wedded to it.
Sen. Nan Rich, a Democratic supporter of Clinton, said the idea would hurt the nominee and again disenfranchise voters.
House leader Rubio, agreed, saying the idea “would make us as bad as Howard Dean.”
Holy. Crap. Let me break this down so you don’t miss the carnage of democracy’s demise: a legislator from one party is looking into whether the state legally can keep the other party’s candidate off the ballot completely. “Hurt the nominee?” How about “bury American government once and for all?”
I don’t know whether we should have a new election or not, but what I do know is Rubio calling Howard Dean “bad” is the very worst kind of irony. And Webster’s idea is the very worst kind of petty, undemocratic bullshit.
(cross-posted at Blast Off!)
OMG, I laughed until I totally fell off my chair.
Can Michigan do this too?
I think we should try, does anyone have lawyers?