(Whole thing at Ohio Election Fraud).
We do not have to suffer another four years of an illegitimate presidency since the Constitution provides us with two ways of successfully challenging Bush’s reinauguration. First, there almost surely will be a Constitutional challenge to the legitimacy of the electors from Florida, Ohio and potentially other states as well. I was involved in the drafting of the written challenge available to Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings and the other brave Members of Congress who challenged Florida’s electoral votes in 2000, when there was no one alive who had ever experienced a Constitutional challenge of electoral votes. Now, however, I can say I have a pretty good idea how to succeed this time. Kerry must be told that he is not authorized to “accept” a fraudulent election on our behalf, and I suspect that once the dimensions of the conspiracy to steal the election in 2000 become known Al Gore will regret having done so four years ago.
This time we can and will have widely recognized public advocates, a great legal team and leaders in both the House and Senate who are widely respected by their peers and the public.
When the Congress meets in joint session on 1/6 there will be a written challenge duly signed by at least one member of each house and they will return to their respective chambers to conduct a time limited debate. Can we actually win a challenge against the electors of Ohio, Florida and other states? Yes. If we have about 80 House co-sponsors by January 3rd or so then the House Democratic Caucus will stand united and we will have Nancy Pelosi as our leader. The historic decision on the continuation or termination of the Bush presidency will then rest with the most lonely and abused faction in the House – moderate Republicans. Look to Sherry Bohelert and Chris Shays and people like that to see what they will do. Not all Republicans back Bush or the brutal tactics he and his cronies are prepared to use to remain in power. With a dozen or so Republicans joining House Democrats the Bush presidency would be over and democracy restored. A similar dynamic will play out in the Senate if we have five or so co-sponsors before the session begins.
And if that doesn’t work there is another way. Article 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment sets out penalties for massive vote suppression, since that is one of the problems the union faced after the Civil War. Northerners feared precisely what ended up happening – that the white elites in the South would take advantage of the increased number of citizens they now had once slavery was over but that they would not permit the freed slaves access to the ballot so they could successfully secure representatives they could trust. It says that if the right to vote in an election for president is “in any way abridged” then the representatives of that state will be reduced in proportion to the scale of the vote suppression. While this applies to representation in Congress, it also applies to the office of Elector, even though people only hold that office for a single day to do just one thing – vote for president. A Federal lawsuit backed by 550,000 affidavits from a state would be sufficient to reduce the number of electors from that state and as a consequence the number of electoral votes it has to cast on January 6th. Happily, the Internet makes it possible to put up a form necessary to produce a legal affidavit on Monday and have well over 550,000 of them from multiple states on the next day. Bold and messy, but plausible.
The treasonous conspirators behind the unlawful theft of the presidency must stand trial if the nation is to heal and usher in a new era of democratic revival. Our deepest commitment is to democracy and to the rule of law, which must be able to produce a just outcome if our political system is not to bleed to death from the loss of legitimacy. While the commercial news media is now reporting that something happened, the giant institutions protected by the First Amendment must now dust it off and take it out for a ride speaking truth to power once again. Just as the story of the fires in Charles County were not reported as an unexplained personal tragedy, the damage to our democracy is being done by arsonists. Worse, they appear to work for the fire department, and we need the news media to do its job and secure the truth for us so we may act widely as citizens.
