Sanity

Via Buzzflash, we hear that Keith Olberman at MSNBC is saying that it seems "all but certain" that

House Democrats had secured the support of up to half a dozen Senators to formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio, when the votes are opened before a joint session of Congress tomorrow. ...

As it is, a written challenge would require the joint session to suspend for several hours, during which the Senate and the House would meet separately and debate the merits of the objection.

It's extremely unlikely that this would derail the certification of the Ohio electors and thus Shrub's re-election, but still it's refreshing, even encouraging, to see some Democrats, even if it's just a handful of usual suspects, show some backbone and a willingness to fight.

This news comes in the immediate wake of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff report published as a result of John Conyers' (D-MI, 14) hearings about Ohio. The report is blistering in it's criticism of Ohio officials and in particular this year's winner of the Katherine Harris "Conflict of Interest? What's That?" Award, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.

The report cites examples from before, on, and after election day and concludes that there is sufficient evidence to challenge the Ohio electors and begin a full Congressional investigation.

Okay, let's be blunt here. Is this going to succeed in stopping the certification of Bush as winning the election? No. Would an investigation by the Republican-controlled Congress really change anything, in fact would it even be a real investigation? No. So is making a flaming stink about it worth the effort? Yes.

I've said a couple of times, most recently on December 26, that my own conviction is that they didn't steal the election, that the level of fraud was not great enough to account for Bush's margin - but they were willing to, they were prepared to, steal the election. If focusing attention on the transparent, even clumsy, steps Blackwell and crew took in that direction demonstrates that willingness, it will do much to undermine Bush's legitimacy in the eyes of those still capable of seeing and to, perhaps more importantly, make it harder to get away with such anti-freedom, anti-democratic, anti-justice crap in the future.

Winning, at least in the short term, is not everything. Being willing to put up a fight is.

Footnote: Buzzflash has the executive summary of the report at the above link and also provided this link to the full report, in .pdf format.