and it's voting irregularities. Nothing else--Ashcroft's resignation, the challenge to Specter, wingnut seccession hopes--comes close to this issue in significance.
Admittedly, the odds that anything can be done to alter the result of this election are roughly akin to those of winning the lottery at this point. We can, however, still undo the Myth of the Mandate. If sufficient doubt is raised about the legitimacy of this year's election, there is at least a chance that the Dems, led by Party Chair Howard Dean (or maybe John Edwards) will get up on their hind legs and be a true opposition. If no such doubt is raised, we might as well kiss Social Security, the Wagner Act, the progressive income tax, and any other worthwhile New Deal innovation goodbye.
Fortified by a flood of supportive e-mails, Keith Olbermann isn't letting this story go. We need to get the likes of Aaron Brown to jump on this story as well. I'm e-mailing Bob Herbert (bobherb@nytimes.com) and asking him to get involved. If this story is going to get any legs, we're going to have to provide them.
It still astounds me that, on election night, the networks saw nothing unusual in the fact that there were still lines at minority polling places in OH at 11 p.m. Had there been lines in Shaker Heights at that hour, there would've been hell to pay. We have the ability to keep this story alive, and we need to do all that we can to do so.