The Intimidation Gambit

New York Post:

DEMS CRY THEFT ALREADY

October 16, 2004 -- Democrats, it seems, are preparing to take tough measures in response to any voter-intimidation tactics that Republicans may employ in the November election.
And, apparently, it won't even matter if those tactics are actually employed or not.

Hey, the Dems figure, it can't hurt to make the claims anyway.

That's the message in a 66-page Election Day manual put together by the Kerry-Edwards campaign and the Democratic National Committee for use by supporters in dozens of states.

The manual instructs staffers to "launch a 'pre-emptive strike' " in case "no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged."

One page from that manual, specifically intended for Colorado Democrats, surfaced on the Internet; the DNC confirmed its authenticity.

What, specifically, would the Democrats do?

Start a media blitz — featuring minority-community leaders — "denouncing tactics that discourage people from voting."

The manual, by the way, also suggests that Democrats should "warn newspapers not to accept advertising" that doesn't meet with the Kerry campaign's approval.

With suggestions like that, you've got to wonder just who exactly is preparing to engage in intimidation.

Republicans?

Or Democrats?

(Hint: Threatening newspapers usually counts as intimidation.)

Central to the Dems' conspiracy-theory claims is that Republicans plan to "steal the election." You know, just like they did four years ago.

This, of course, is purportedly based on a deeply flawed report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights — headed by the deeply flawed, and blatantly partisan, Mary Frances Berry.

The report charges that minority voters in Florida were disenfranchised in the 2000 election.

But just how seriously should that report be taken?

For one thing, consider that the statistical evidence was compiled by a consultant to Al Gore's campaign. And that the consultant concluded — even before beginning his research — that the Voting Rights Act had been violated.

In other words, the report used highly suspect — OK, let's be blunt: junk — science to identify tactics that simply did not exist (notwithstanding what Michael Moore may want Americans to think).

Not to mention an ugly bid to play the race card.

Already, it seems, Democrats have put their cynical plan into motion.

As the Rocky Mountain News reports, on Wednesday — after Colorado's governor and secretary of state, both Republicans, warned that any case of voter-registration fraud would be prosecuted — state Democrats immediately put out a release denouncing the threat as "voter intimidation."

And — wouldn't you know? — the press release just happened to quote two minority elected officials.

As it happens, massive fraud in registering Democratic voters has been documented this year — and constitutes a genuine attempt to manipulate the election.

But Dems aren't interested in that kind of fraud.

Democratic leaders and many in their rank-and-file are simply not prepared ever to accept that voters just might prefer a Republican candidate.

Any GOP victory has to be tainted, the result of a "steal."

Which is why they're fully prepared to manufacture evidence — even when none exists.

It's simply disgusting.