Sadly, I was not invited to listen in on Senator Thad Cochran’s awesome teleconference today. I assume his staff has learned their lesson about not having a mute button.
True the Vote, an organization founded to disenfranchise racial minorities, is filing suit against the election results. However, it appears that Mississippi’s government has never bothered to create a law to deal with recounts. I guess a judge could conceivably make up rules for that on the fly, but perhaps not.
Assuming the election isn’t overturned somehow, it will be interesting to see how responsive Cochran will be to the requests of the Congressional Black Caucus. Charles Pierce called me silly to expect anything from Cochran, but I still hold out hope.
Unless the TeaParty wing of the MS GOP has effectively infiltrated the MS judiciary and has a substantial presence, this isn’t going anywhere. Team Bush knew better than to screw around with FL state courts in 2000 which is why they immediately filed suit in federal court and got them to act quickly enough that they could appeal it up to the Supreme Court within three weeks.
No harm in the CBC asking. And doubt they have any unrealistic expectations.
I am delighted beyond delight that True The Vote is filing legal challenge here. This is EXACTLY where they belong. Please proceed, you horrible people.
I’m also delighted by that Roll Call story BooMan links here. That is some delightfully snarky reporting of the facts- so glad she stayed on the line to listen to the clown car.
Charles Pierce called me silly to expect anything from Cochran, but I still hold out hope.
Sorry Boo, I’m with Pierce on this one.
I believe Boo was called silly in his own comment section. But Pierce is admittedly more fun!
hey, Pierce calls him really smart!
How is this a federal matter? Is True the Vote’s “right” to access MS election records a federal claim? Do they even have standing to bring such a claim in state or federal court? Why would allegations of criminal double voting (that haven’t been reviewed by a state court) be actionable by a 3d party (who wasn’t injured) in a federal civil suit?
This is just more of the radical RW’s relentless grifting/fund-raising/attack on sanity campaign.
They filed the suit in MS state court not federal. Not that there isn’t some wild claim that could be made in federal court. Still recall how perplexed Democrats/liberals were in 2000 when team Bush quickly rushed to a federal court. We were like wtf — this is a state matter. Team Gore then plodded its way through what seemed like the correct course through the FL state courts while team Bush was losing its suits in federal courts. Than wham! SCOTUS accepted the appeal.
No. It’s a federal suit.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/232166906/True-the-Vote-v-Mississippi-Complaint
Thank you. You are absolutely correct. I should have more carefully noted that the Roll Call report didn’t identify what court the suit had been filed in. As election procedures and laws are primarily the province of states and as such, a suit in state court would be standard. Omitting that it was filed in federal court will make me more cautious in the future in taking anything from Roll Call.
So, I guess they are taking a page out of team Bush’s 2000 recount playbook. Still shouldn’t go anywhere, but I said that about Bush v. Gore; so don’t take anything from me on this one.
I’m sure there are all sorts of equal protection arguments an attorney can make, and just as with class lawsuits, all you really need is one plaintiff who can point to injury.
It doesn’t mean the suit will get anywhere. Many, many suits get thrown out after a few back-and-forth motions show that there really isn’t an issue to be ruled on.
I haven’t lived in Mississippi for a while, but I have a feeling that the political establishment there will figure out a way to end this mess soon. The state has invested some effort to reverse its “Mississippi Burning” image and Cochran is the preferred candidate. Your hope is not totally in vain. By the way, Mississippians think Alabama is weirder and crazier.
It is.
Sorry, Boo, Pierce is right.
The only difference between Chochran and McDaniels is age. Cochran was raised with manners … McDaniels has none.
Boo, I appreciate your glass-half-full optimism. But it just ain’t happening, my friend.
I’m just enjoying watching Republicans bring out the long knives for other Republicans.
May they stab it with their steely knives.
Yes, 55-gallon drums of popcorn are in order.
The problem that the Mississippi and national GOP Establishments have here is that even if they can work within State government structures (electoral, legal, legislative) to conclude the official dispute, they have enabled the racist conspiracy-mongering of their base so deeply and for so long that it appears that if the Elections officials, state Judiciary, and other leaders fail to take away Cochran’s victory Because Black Voters, the bonfire of hatred will be built even higher and made hotter among many of their activists.
And in this particular case, many of those activists have long personal histories with bonfires, on lawns and elsewhere.
That’s not snark, by the way.
I picked that metaphorical adjective with intent.
If this keeps up, I would be unsurprised if a few African-Americans in Mississippi get killed. Stoking hatred, year after year and false charge after charge, is likely to bring consequences.
Political expediency- it’s a helluva drug.
This will be Cochran’s last term.
you are silly to think that Cochran will remotely do anything resembling the right thing.
Blacks in Mississippi understand that 45% of the state’s budget comes from the federal government.
Where do you think a nice percentage of well-educated Blacks in Mississippi work?
In public sector jobs.
You wrote a few weeks ago about a National Review Writer that attacked, I think Jamelle Bouie about Black people voting their interests.
I have long believed it’s why conservatives despise Black people.
It’s because the hardest part when it comes to Black people IS getting them to the ballot box. Once they get there, they vote their economic self-interest.
They are NOT working class White folks, who have for generations, fell for all sorts of bullshyt that the GOP has thrown their way to vote AGAINST their economic self-interest.
Cochran brought the bacon home.
His opponent said he didn’t fucking know if he would have voted for Aid following Katrina’s destruction of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. That’s about as clear as it gets.
I have found black working people much more politically intelligent than we white working people. Whites engage in a lot of discussion of political theory, while blacks are much more practical. White workingmen get so far out in their theories that they often lose sight of their enemies. The black workingmen I know never lose sight of who is their enemy, although they are often more charitable to their enemies than I would be. Still, they never mistake them for friends like the Tea Party nuts.
How is it that you don’t end up wanting to throttle people all day, every day? It must be beyond tiring.
Yes, let TrueTheVoteTM go and fix things down in Mississippi.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.