Category: Politics & Elections

The Quiet Man

U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman was re-elected to his fifth term yesterday, winning 70 percent of the vote and taking all 33 New Mexico counties.

Now seriously, how many of you outside of New Mexico could even have named our junior senator? (Yeah junior; the senior senator, Pete Domenici, has been in the Senate since 1973, Bingaman only since 1983.)

Our governor, Bill Richardson, was re-elected with 68% of the vote. He may have lost one county. The joke was Bill Richardson was the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate was someone “who isn’t Bill Richardson.”

The local house district is too close to call and a recount is inevitable — and after all that negative advertising.

Best line of the morning, so far

The Democrats have a victorious night and Michael Bérubé sums it up:

And all it took was the Abramoff scandal, the Foley scandal, the Haggard scandal, the suspension of habeas corpus, the creation of the Cheney Archipelago of secret torture sites, a criminally incompetent response to one of the worst natural disasters in US history, and a hopeless war that has killed thousands of US troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and may well go down as the single worst foreign policy blunder in the history of the republic.

Significant milestone

It appears that Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi will become the next Speaker of the House, the first woman in that job.

As such, she will be second in the line of succession to the presidency (after the vice president).

Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi was born in Baltimore in 1940. She has represented her San Francisco district in Congress since 1987.

I Voted

I Voted

Took about 20 minutes including the commute to and from the nearby school. This morning it was all backed up, so I’m glad I waited as there was no line at all.

We voted with paper this year — too much like taking the SAT if you ask me. Fill in the ovals. Once done, the ballot is scanned into a shredder vote counting machine while we watch.

I was asked to show ID and when I balked (because my preferred M.O. is ass), I was only asked to provide the last four digits of my SSN. (I did show my ID, I simply questioned why.) Anyone know what the law requires in New Mexico?

Poll worker charged with assaulting voter

A poll worker at the United Auto Workers hall on Fern Valley Road was arrested after he was accused of assaulting a voter, said Lt. Col. Carl Yates, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriffs’ Office.

The worker, whose name has not been released, has been charged with interfering with an election and fourth-degree assault, said Yates, who had not other details.

Paula McCraney, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Clerk, said the poll worker was accused of choking and pushing the voter out of the door. Election officials called the police and when an officer arrived, the voter wanted to file charges, McCraney said.

“That about tops off the day,” McCraney said.

— Louisville Courier-Journal.

As this is in the Louisville, Kentucky, area I’m glad to know Functional Ambivalent voted earlier.

Death penalty

NewMexiKen generally opposes the death penalty, but here’s another crime I’d compromise for:

Anyone convicted of discouraging a citizen from voting, or of misdirecting them to the wrong polls, or otherwise tampering with the voting process, I say off with their heads.

A more suitable punishment perhaps: Anyone convicted of tampering with the voting process forfeits their right to vote — permanently.

Another point of view

I’m happy that lots of people vote. The system would break down otherwise, and short of me being the dictator, I can’t think of a better system than imaginary democracy masking the naked ambitions of greedy capitalists. It sounds bad when you say it, but frankly I don’t have a better idea. I’m just happy I have a chance to be one of those greedy capitalists myself.

Now go vote me some tax breaks.

— Scott Adams: The Dilbert Blog

Limiting the Damage

Times Select is free this week, so you can follow the link and read Krugman’s whole column, but here’s a key part:

President Bush isn’t on the ballot tomorrow. But this election is, nonetheless, all about him. The question is whether voters will pry his fingers loose from at least some of the levers of power, thereby limiting the damage he can inflict in his two remaining years in office.

…

At this point, nobody should have any illusions about Mr. Bush’s character. To put it bluntly, he’s an insecure bully who believes that owning up to a mistake, any mistake, would undermine his manhood — and who therefore lives in a dream world in which all of his policies are succeeding and all of his officials are doing a heckuva job. Just last week he declared himself “pleased with the progress we’re making” in Iraq.

In other words, he’s the sort of man who should never have been put in a position of authority, let alone been given the kind of unquestioned power, free from normal checks and balances, that he was granted after 9/11. But he was, alas, given that power, as well as a prolonged free ride from much of the news media.

Straight talk express

Jill, official older daughter of NewMexiKen, just got a call from John McCain: Her report:

I just got a call from esteemed senator John McCain. Wow!

He informed me that I needed to get out on Tuesday and vote for George Allen, because “we don’t want a left-wing, liberal democrat in Washington raising taxes and increasing government spending…”

At that point I tried to interrupt, “Actually, senator, I prefer that to a group of so-called fiscal conservatives who lower taxes, particularly for those in the highest tax brackets, and then still wildly increase government spending. See, I have three children and I worry that this kind of fiscal irresponsibility…”

But then I just gave up. See, he was having none of it. In fact, he just kept talking right through what I had to say. I don’t think he even listened to me. Typical politician.

Little Rascals and Big

Dad, official dad of NewMexiKen, is skeptical about the election. He says it seems as if we will just replace one group of rascals with another. I’ve argued that having convicted felons in congress is not the norm and there is a difference, but I doubt I’ve been convincing.

Perhaps you’d like to try to convince Dad that there is a distinction. Or that he’s right. Or that the incumbents are in fact best.

(NewMexiKen is always embarrassed when I solicit comments and none appears. Help me out here.)