Musings & Sardonic Commentary on Politics, Religion, Culture & Native American Issues. Bringing you the finest in radioactive screeds since 2002! "The Local Crank" newspaper column is distributed by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.
Just a simple Cherokee trial lawyer, Barkman has been forcing his opinions on others in print since, for reasons that passeth understanding, he was an unsuccessful candidate for state representative in 2002. His philosophy: "If people had wanted me to be nice, they should've voted for me."
Two recent polls show the generic ballot tightening, maybe dashing hopes of a Democratic Senate, or maybe even a Democratic House (though that is less likely). If these are accurate and not merely outliers, it will reinforce the pre-election RW spin: Democrats have no mandate. That, and the neo-cons bashing Bush for not being "neo-con" enough.
UPDATE: FOX News (!) gives the Democrats a 13 point lead.
posted by The Local Crank | 7:46 PM
4 Comments:
Article 1, Section 4 states:
"The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."
This by itself should give Congress the power to mandate how district lines are drawn and what sort of ballots are used. And, hopefully, if the House insists on nonpartisan redistricting, once-per-decade redistricting and verifiable ballots, State Legislatures will be pressured to do likewise.
I don't think it even has to be a uniform standard, frankly. No, I'm not sure when (or even if) this clause has ever been used. I'd have to do some research on it.
On the subject of tomorrow's election, my gut feeling is a smaller-than-expected triumph for the Dems. I think they MIGHT win the House by a slim margin, but that they won't win the Senate. I also wouldn't be surprised if there were one or two ugly recount battles out there as well. Losers in very close elections have nothing to lose and everything to gain from playing on that paranoia, so why not? Not that there AREN'T some crooked things going on out there. I'm just saying.
Unless they're doing a masterful job of selective leaking (which is always possible) Republican sources seem to be preparing for the worst. I believe the term they used is "blood bath." Plus, the RW Noise Machine is already spinning the election by saying that anything less than a 70 vote pickup in the House is a failure by the Dems. I'm going to stick with winning the House by less than 30 seats and +5 seats in the Senate.
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