The first I ever heard of Matt Taibbi was when he appeared on The Daily Show. (Watch the clip here.) He was promoting his new book, Spanking the Donkey, in which he tells of his experiences as an irreverent reporter on the 2004 campaign trail. Why NOT cover the campaign trail in a gorilla suit? There just isn’t a good answer to that question.
It was an interesting inteview–I liked the part where he tells of Kerry’s reaction to the gorilla suit. Kerry asked, “Okay, what’s with the costume?” and, without missing a beat, Taibbi had responded, “What costume?” Kerry responded, “Riiiiight”, which Taibbi thought was an uncharacteristically cool response “as much of a doofus as he is.” Anyway, I meant to take a look at his book eventually, but forgot about him until the following showed up in my inbox via Ken Blackwell keyword news:
HIGHLY IRREGULAR
The Ohio election story is going to come back.
Taibbi, who came across in the Daily Show interview as knowledgeable about how the political game works, but not having any particular agenda that I could discern at the time, starts this article by saying that he agreed to take part in a panel discussion in the basement of the Capitol building last week. He agreed before finding out what the topic was, and cringed to find out that it was about “What went wrong in Ohio?”
Oh, Christ, not that, I thought. Like a lot of people in this country (and like most all of my colleagues in the journalism world), my instinctual reaction to the Ohio electoral-mess story has always been one of revulsion and irritation. Almost on principle I had refused even to look at any of the news stories surrounding the Ohio vote; there is a part of me that did not want to be associated with any sore-loser hysteria of the political margins, and in particular with this story, the great conspiratorial Snuffleupagus of the defeated left.
Back at the time of the Ohio recount and electoral challenge, I was following this story pretty closely, and I know that this “revulsion and irritation” was common. I suppose that is the sort of feeling that led Kos be annoyed with and dismissive of “fraudsters”. Just to clarify, for people who don’t recall my diary posts at the time, I was never expecting Bush’s victory to be overturned, but I did want to see a light shone on any wrongdoings that took place. Two reasons…first, we needed to find out what went wrong so that we could draft our election reform legislation accordingly, and second, I wanted Ken Blackwell’s wrongdoing to be a matter of public record. That man must not become governor of my state.
Anyway, since Taibbi started off so dismissive of the whole thing, and attended a panel that has caused him to rethink that position, his thoughts on the matter seemed worth sharing:
Even when they had a completely plausible excuse to at least investigate the Ohio charges on their own–after Michigan congressman John Conyers issued a lengthy report detailing the Ohio indiscretions–the big dailies still blew off the case. The New York Times mentioned the Conyers report only in the context of a 381-word page A16 item in January about John Kerry endorsing the election results (“Election Results to Be Certified, With Little Fuss From Kerry,” 1/16/05). That piece ended with a quote by Dennis Hastert, who dismissed the Conyers report as the work of the “loony left.”
I can only speak for myself, but I think that as a result of all of this, I was inclined to dismiss as a waste of time any discussion of what happened in Ohio. The story wasn’t going anywhere. Even if there was evidence of wrongdoing, how could it possibly be more incontrovertible than the evidence in Florida? And given that nothing happened when Bush stole the election in front of the entire world in Florida, why bother making a fuss now in Ohio–especially since John Kerry was clearly many millions of votes less of a victim than Al Gore?
Well, I don’t think that way anymore. After attending this panel, and speaking to the congressmen involved in the preparation of the Conyers report (in particular Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a former Ohio secretary of state) I’m convinced that Ohio was a far more brazen and frightening subversion of democracy than Florida.
Here’s the thing about Ohio. Until you really look at it, you won’t understand its significance, which is this: the techniques used in this particular theft have the capacity to alter elections not by dozens or hundreds or even thousands of votes, but by tens of thousands.
Read the whole article here:
http://www.nypress.com/18/30/news&columns/taibbi.cfm
Wow, Renee. That piece should be required reading by every Democrat. Go, Matt!!
I hope you’ll bring us his follow-ups, too.
Thank you for this, Renee. It’s a good article and I hope it gets some more exposure. I’m one of those people who felt somewhat like Taibbi, not exactly repulsed and irritated but that the story wasn’t going anywhere and that it was a waste of energy to dwell on it “given that nothing happened when Bush stole the election in front of the entire world in Florida.” It was a kind of post-election despair.
Now it looks like more and more people are waking up to the massive voter fraud perpetrated by Republicans, maybe there is some hope. Taibbi promises “More facts next week… and a guide to what to do next.”
I think more and more people are waking up to the possibility to voter fraud in Ohio because they are coming to believe that this administration has been lying to them from day one. Allthe stories that weren’t paid any attention to two, three years ago are now coming to light. If the press catches wind MAYBE and that’s a big maybe more light will be shed on this too. I will never forgive Kerry for throwing in the towel so fast. I understand why he did it but what was the big rush? There is also a big brouhaha about Diebold machines not working in California and still being used anyway.
states as well. In Germany, votes are hand counted and it is a two week process to count them all. They always know the winner immediately because they determine the winner by exit polls and they have always matched the votes. I also found it amazing that in some counties in Ohio, the number of people who voted for Kerry and Edwards in the primary in March 2004 was almost the same number of votes the Kerry/Edwards ticket rec’d in November 2004. In one case, Monroe County, the number of people who voted in the democratic primary EXCEEDED the number of votes Kerry rec’d in the general election.
You have demonstrated incredible perseverance in following this story. The implications are forward reaching, and I personally think after the theft in 2000, those bastards figured they’d get away with it again. And they will keep getting away with it without people like you who make it important.
As a former Ohioan, I’m with you and as an American, my hat’s off to you!
From the Election Law site @ Moritz:
7/28/05 – The case claims that improper election administration in the state violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Help America Vote Act.
Funny thing happened today…I wanted to find a picture I’d seen of Ken Blackwell that made me smile, so that I could post the link to it in the comments of this diary. I remembered that I had seen it in the Free Press, so I started looking through that site. But what I found first on the Free Press events calendar was this:
I love that kind of thing, and this was the very first I’d heard of it. If I hadn’t been looking for that image right then, I never would have found out about the forum. I found that just shortly before 6:30 p.m., so I was able to attend. Quite interesting, and I’ll be sharing what I learned at a later date.
Anyway I came home, got back online, and found what I was looking for.
http://www.freepress.org/journal.php?strFunc=display&strJournal=32
Amazing…the serendipity of it all. It’s as if Someone was signaling approval of that pic I wanted to find. 😉
I received this article in an email last night but I didn’t know who Matt Taibbi was. I was going to google him this morning but came across your diary first. I hope more reporters take a look at the Ohio election and other states as well.
head up his ass about the Ohio election problems I have a familiar bitterness welling up. I am not a troll or a tin-foil hat conspiracy buff and I thought it was reasonable to check it out. But no, all these guys just didn’t want to associate themselves with “losers”.
That was my initial reaction as well but I am also pleased when somebody comes around. I just wish they came around in November so we can start repairing and cleaning the mess Bush & Co. have made over the last 4 years. The reason I am pleased that people are coming around (even though it’s too late) is because we need to put pressure on election reform for the 2006 and 2008 elections. We are going to have a close election next week in OH-02 but I wouldn’t be surprised if that one got “fixed” as well since the republicans can get away with it since the polls are so close.
I can’t emphasize enough that the first battle is the registration process. Many people are unaware that their vote was not counted because they are not even registered. I volunteer to help people living overseas to vote and when enquiring over 12 voters in Hamilton County if they rec’d their ballots, I found out only 4 of those voters actually voted in the November election! That’s only 33 percent!!!! Anybody can found out if their vote counted by calling their local election official.
Thank you so much for this diary. I’m one of those people who’ve simply stopped talking about it, at least in anything but a short aside about assuring fair elections, to avoid the dreaded eye roll. And smirk. And head shake..nice to know I’m not alone.
NONE DARE CALL IT STOLEN
Ohio, the Election and America’s Servile Press.
This article details the flaws in the Ohio election and wonders (as many of us did) why the glitches always
favoured GWB.