----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Henwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Nathan Newman wrote:
>When folks spend more time criticizing the Dems than talking about the
>outrages of the GOP, you are choosing sides and the wrong one.
-I'll be very interested to see how much an issue of this the Dems
-make going forward, in future elections. Gore sent Jesse Jackson home
-from Florida, didn't he?
I don't necessarily agree with the strategy, but the idea was that while the
GOP were running blackshirts in the streets trying to disrupt legal
recounts, the idea was to avoid giving the GOP excuse to justify themselves
by pointing to Jackson and other protesters. But the public hearings,
denouncing of the racial attacks on voters, and filings with the Justice
Department continued.
But that is strategy- the Clinton Justice Department has begun
investigations of the abuses in Miami. The unfortunate reality is that the
Voting Rights Act gives no ability to contest the results of elections, only
the ability to get injunctive relief for future elections. So prioritizing
immediate goal of getting black and latino votes counted in Broward and
Miami-Dade on the "chad" issue is quite compatible with pursuing the
longer-term Voting Rights Act violations and felony disqualification
problems.
But again, your first jump is to mention a strategic disagreement with
Jackson and Gore, rather than talk about Tom Delay paying to send aides down
to disrupt and shutdown the recount of votes in Miami-Dade. You and others
seem incapable of talking about those GOP outrages except as a phrase long
"of course I don't like it" aside to your continual denunciation of Gore and
left Dems.
-- Nathan Newman
