Blue Crab Boulevard

Full Employment Plan

A glimpse of what awaits all of us on Tuesday and the days, weeks or months that follow. Swarms of lawyers screaming charge and countercharge at each other and the world in general. Confrontations in the polling places and in courtrooms around the country. The Hotline's quip may come true sooner rather than later: "We’re waiting for the day that pols can cut out the middleman and settle all elections in court.”

Several days from what Republican and Democratic campaign strategists expect to be a close election, the legal machinery of a messy fight is shifting into high gear.

Democrats say they are most concerned that voters will be prevented from voting by long lines or poll workers’ demanding unnecessary forms of identification.

Republicans say they are guarding against ineligible people trying to vote.

The parties are sending their largest concentrations of lawyers to states with the tightest races like Maryland, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee. Most of them are unpaid volunteers, though many from large firms are working pro bono to meet their firms’ expectation for hours of public service.

On Saturday and Sunday, hundreds of the 7,000 lawyers who are working on the election for the Democratic National Committee will board planes for Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio and 13 other states.

Their task is to reinforce local teams where party officials say they there is the greatest potential for long lines, voter intimidation or confusion at the polls and where they may need to file court petitions to keep polls open late.

“We’re not going to make the mistake we did last time, which was to wait until after the election for litigation,” said Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party.

That party has spent $250,000 in legal fees on suits over new electronic voting machines and a voter identification law. The Republican National Committee is shipping out 150 lawyers on Monday to help hundreds of local lawyers in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee and other states answering phones and working at polling stations policing against voter fraud.

“What is unfortunate is that it appears Democrats are following their playbook from 2004 and alleging voter suppression where it does not exist, in an effort to launch a pre-emptive strike,” said Tracey Schmitt, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

I can't see this boding well for the future. At all. A full employment plan for lawyers is not what Americans expect elections to be. Even the NYT recognizes that this trend started with Al Gore and the 2000 election, incidentally.

Politics | Gaius November 4, 2006

By Fersboo, November 4, 2006 @ 8:34 am

I don’t know why they are bothing to come to Maryland, Erlich and Steele are going to win by 5 points or more.
By jpe, November 4, 2006 @ 12:41 pm

Actually, Bush was the first to strike with the lawyers, suing to block manual recounts.
By triticale, November 5, 2006 @ 2:53 pm

Actually, jpe, Bush’s suit in Florida was to require that any further recounts be done in accordance with existing state law. You got a problem with that?
By Sherlock, November 5, 2006 @ 7:47 pm

jpe, fact is Bush’s “suit” was an APPEAL of a Florida State Supreme Court ruling in favor of Gore. I seriously doubt that Gore got that ruling without filing suit, using lawyers. Just another Dem myth accusing Republicans of sinning by having the gall to do what Dems do.
By ytba, November 6, 2006 @ 7:41 pm

YOU AINT SEEN NOTHIN, YET!

If you think the 2000, and 2004 elections were below the belt and cut-throat, wait till 2008 (if we survive the Dems that long, that is). They are determined to win, no matter what it takes, so they will pull out all the stops. What they dan’t win honestly, they will try to snatch by any seamingly legal means, …or not, if necessary)

“WASHINGTON – Last Thursday a federal grand jury in Kansas City indicted four persons working for the group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, accusing them of submitting more than 15,000 voter registration forms with fictitious names, phony signatures and bogus addresses.

They number has been upped to under 40,000″
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2006/11/i_see_dead_peop.html

ACORN is just one of their many and ever proliferating vote stealing operations. And there are many other “tools” they have to manipulate public opinion (like the ever willing MSM) and of course the lawyers and the activist judges appointed by previous leftist administrations.

If we loose anything to the Dems this time round, we will regret it big-time, and soon.